and as it is only in extraordinarily exceptional circumstances
that every single thing in the army needs moving at once, they are able
to effect considerable economies over the British method, which
constantly keeps large numbers of lorries and tractors and cars,
together with their drivers and mechanics, idle, since the units to
which they are attached are not at the moment in need of transport.

[Sidenote: Doubtful if all the British guns can be moved.]

By the time it was dark on Saturday evening the likelihood of all the
British guns getting away seemed doubtful, and the Italian artillery
colonel who supervised their employment as corps artillery came to our
group headquarters to say that preparations must be made for blowing the
last of them up, and that in any case each tractor must tow more than
one gun and come back for others directly it had got its first tows
behind the Isonzo.

[Sidenote: Enormous conflagration of military stores.]

And now the darkening landscape suddenly began to spring out into
brilliant points of light, as everywhere behind the Italian front,
supply-depots, military stores, and vast collections of wooden sheds
were set in a blaze. Gorizia was the site of a special conflagration,
and the enemy gun-fire was steadily increasing, till sometimes the
barrage rose to a single prolonged roar, and you could not have got a
knife edge between the bursts.

By 7.30 p.m. six of our guns were across the river and the rest were now
firing like field artillery, with no other batteries between them and
the enemy. They kept up this protection of the retreat of the infantry
so long, in fact, that the last round of all, at about 10 p.m., was
fired just before the gun was hitched to the tractor, and there was yet
another gun that had its breech mechanism smashed for fear it might have
to be left behind.

[Sidenote: Abandoned ammunition is exploded.]

[Sidenote: Like a volcanic eruption.]

The bright moon hung in a pale-green sky, looking down on a dozen roads
each crawling like a black snake with the close press of retreating
troops. As I was making my way back to Gradisca the whole firmament
leaped into sudden brilliance and every feature in every face among the
throngs around me on the road stood out for several seconds under a
ghastly light. Then followed from behind Monte Michele, a deep, rolling
roar. It was the first of the explosions of the great abandoned stores
of gun-ammunition behind the f