[Sidenote: General Cadorna praises the British batteries.]
I myself set foot in Udine for the first time on October 20. I was going
back to the Macedonian front, where for two years I had been the
official correspondent of the British Army, and I had asked the War
Office to authorize me to visit on the way the British batteries which
since April had been cooperating with the Italian Army on the Isonzo.
General Cadorna had given them high praise in a message to the British
Government after the fighting in which they had taken part in May, and I
thought it would be interesting to see British and Italian troops side
by side in the field for the first time.
[Sidenote: Visits to the Italian front yield important information.]
Visitors to the Italian front used to find most convenient arrangements
made to give them a rapid idea of conditions there. Lying almost
entirely among mountains, the line presented unusual opportunities for
survey from dominating heights, and there were many places where, at
leisure and in virtual safety, one could watch the Austrian
intrenchments from close range. Fast cars took you up to these
vantage-points, and a number of staff-officers, speaking perfect English
and knowing every detail of the front and its history, raised these
visits from the level of sight-seeing excursions to opportunities for
learning a great deal that was important and technical.
[Sidenote: The Austro-German offensive begins.]
The very last of these journeys, which had been made by visitors of
every country, took place on October 24, the day that the great
Austro-German offensive began, and I remember how, as we drove along in
the rain, all our talk was of the bad news of that morning--that the
enemy, reinforced by a huge number of divisions brought secretly from
the Russian front, and profiting by a night of rain and fog, had thrust
down into the valley of the Isonzo between Plezzo and Tolmino, carried,
apparently by surprise, two Italian lines across the ravine after a
short and very violent bombardment, and then, pushing on, had captured
Caporetto, thus cutting off the Italian troops on Monte Nero and the
other mountains beyond the Isonzo, and opening a most serious gap in the
very center of the Italian line.
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