With the Machine Gun Corps from Grantham to Cologne [1923, British Army]

15–23 June 1918

Second Battle of the Piave River

GRANTHAM TO COLOGNE. 167

During the third week of January, 1918, the 5th Division at last received orders to proceed to the Piave front. The 18th Machine Gun Company moved away from the village of Facka on January 21st, and after a two days’ march we atrived at a small town called Montebelluna, situated some five miles from the right bank of the River Piave, close to the Montello Hills. . 3

CHAPTER XXV.

line was full of Italian troops and transports. Each | evening long strings of pack mules left for the trenches on the banks of the River Piave laden with bags of bread, large chest-like cases in which hot food was conveyed to the men, and large quantities of wine. The day that we arrived here all the surrounding country was shrouded from view by a heavy mist which did not clear until the following morning, leaving the atmosphere very clear and bright. Our range of view was now excellent, and we were all very much surprised to see that the rugged and imposing heights of a long range of mountains stretched from the left of this town on the far side of the River Piave as far as the eye could gee. | Very little activity appeared to be taking place in the line, and the only. signs of hostilities was a little bombing — at night time; a deal of erratic Archie fire by both sides at venturesome airmen during the day,. whilst artillery fire was practically nil. . On the evening of the 24th January, the 5th Division commenced to take over a section of the Piave front on the right of Nervesa. My Company left the large billet we had been occupying early in the evening and proceeded down a -roadway leading from Montebelluna, through a large village called Salvo, to another smaller village called Arcada. This road was choked with troops and transport waggons from one end to the other, and it took us two or more hours to cover

GRANTHAM TO COLOGNE. 169

On the night of the 1st February the whole of the 13th Infantry Brigade was relieved and went back into rest billets in the numerous villages in the rear for a period of twelve days. In the afternoon of Iebruary 18th the Brigade took over the extreme right sector of that part of the line held by British troops which was a mile or two to the right of where we had spent our first eight days on the Piave front. On going into the trenches this time I had to take over the work of Company runner, and therefore I remained at Company Headquarters, which was in a house about half-a-mile from the river. The four guns of my Section were again dis- tributed along the river embankment, the right hand gun being just inside the trench where the Italian soldiers linked up with us. Two days after taking over this sector we removed our Headquarters into another house, situated about two hundred and fifty yards beyond the village of Spresiano, on the main road which led to the damaged bridge over the river. The first afternoon we spent here the road from our Headquarters to the church at the edge of the village was very heavily shelled by the Austriars. Our house wag in a direct line with the enemy’s fire, and many shells which fell short dropped just behind the building, whilst others just cleared the roof and burst not more than ten yards in front of the doorway. Having no other place of refuge the C.O. and the half-a-dozen men stationed here collected round the door and watched the effect of the bursting fusilade of ex- plosives. Every afternoon after this bombardment the enemy would hurl a number of shells between our Headquarters and the village. This road was also frequently shelled in the early mornings, and on one occasion a small shell struck the base of the wall at the back of our home, but happily resulted in nothing worse than a number of bricks being blown into the kitchen, and rather a sudden awakening for the officers’ cook who was sleeping on a table in the kitchen.

GRANTHAM TO COLOGNE. 171

During the second week in March news came to hand that the Fifth Division was soon to be relieved by the Jtalians. It was in the afternoon of March 15th that the Italian troops commenced to come into the line. The twelve machine gun posts which we were holding were all taken over by Italian gunners, but none of our men left the trenches until the following afternoon. Our Italian ally manned the trenches with considerably more men than is the custom with the British, and during the last twenty-four hours that we were in the line it was almost impossible to walk down the trenches. The first night that they were in the line along with our men one was killled and several wounded. ‘To dispense with the heavy labour entailed in removing all our reserve ammunition, this, to the extent of several thousand rounds which was kept at each gun posi- tion, was fired into the enemy’s lines. This heavy firing from our machine guns greatly perturbed the Italian troops, as also had our artillery which from the date that we first came to the Piave battle front had been bombarding the Austrian defences incessantly. By the evening of the 16th the whole of the Fifth Division was out of the line and resting in billets in Povegliano and neighbouring villages prior to marching away to billets further in the rear. _