heBranch’s +irst battle+ield tourwasten years ago and a decade on itundertook its most ambitious

expeditiontodate:entitledBritishForcesinItaly1917-1918.

OnthisoccasionthetourpartywasledbyDale Hjort, whom many will know is anauthorityonBritishoperations innorthernItalyduring the +inal twoyears of thewar.The length of the tour was +ive days,comprisingthreenightsatahotelinAsiagoandoneinMontebelluna,andincludedtwofull days on the Asiago Plateau and themountains to the north, and one down onthe Venetian Plain by the River Piave:transport was by a locally hired bus. Thetransfers from and to Venice Marco PoloAirport also afforded opportunity to visitsitesassociatedwiththebattleareas.

Our party of ten gathered at Arrivals atVeniceAirportandwesetoffforthetownofAsiago. Dale handed out a comprehensivefolder of maps and photographs and foreach of the eight CWGC cemeteries visitedwe were supplied with a list of the moreinteresting headstones to seek out. Whilstwe travelled in the bus Dale took time togiveusaninsightintothebackgroundoftheBritish involvement in northern Italy andhowthelongstandingrivalrybetweenItalyandAustria-Hungary,overthepossessionoftwo former Italian provinces ceded to thelatter in Napoleonic times, had persuadedItaly to switch from its alliance withGermanyandAustria-HungarytotheAlliedside in April 1915; British promises andinducementsalsoplayingasigni+icantpart.

Our +irst stop after the airport was atMontecchioPrecalcinoCommunalCemeteryExtension,wherewepaid special attentionto the graves of Private George Griffett of1/5UV Gloucesters (who joined up at thesame time asBobBrunsdon’s grandfather)andLieutenantRobertFowlerTaylor,ofthesamebattalionandJoeDevereux(Snr)toldus something of their background. GrahamSackerplacedapoppycrossonthegraveofPrivate Hezekiah Page, 48UV BattalionMachineGunCorps,onbehalfofa relative,for whom he had undertaken some

research.Ateachcemetery,wherean individualwasespecially remembered, Dave Gargett gave TheExhortation.

After leaving the cemetery we headed into themountains up a steep road with many twists andturns and it becameobviouswhyDalewas insistentthatour+lightsarrivedinsuf+icienttimetomakethejourney before nightfall. We made a brief stop atCampiello Junction, a former railway station, whichaffordedexcellentviews,beforearrivingat theHotelParadisoinAsiagoatabout7pm.

After settling into our rooms, we gatheredfor the traditional group dinner and Daleasked us to remember, as ‘absent friends’, three

TBritish Forces in Italy 1917-1918

Branch Battlefield Tour : 12 to 16 September GrahamAdams

GrahamSackeratthegraveofPrivateHezekiahPage

people who should have been with theparty but had been prevented by familyi l l n e s s a n d i n o n e i n s t a n c e apremature death. Rather ominously, Dalepredicted that ‘there would not be muchtime for relaxation’ on the tour – he wasright!

Nextmorningwewereall readytogoat9amforour+irstfulldayonthebattle+ields,having been introduced to our new busdriver, Vincenzo. The bus climbed upanothertortuousroadcalledtheVald’AssaandintoformerAustro-Hungarianterritory:it was a long drive but with somespectacularscenery.EventuallywereachedtheWerkGschwent or FortBelvedere, oneo f t he l a rges t f o r t s bu i l t by theAustro-Hungarian Army, which overlookstheValdasticoValleyand isoneof a seriessituatedonthepre-GreatWarfrontier.Thefort is now partly restored and owned bythelocalauthority,andsigni+icantpartsareopentothepublicasamuseumdevotedtothe battles of the area. Dale had arrangedfor us to have an English speaking guide,Karl, to takeus on a ninetyminute tour ofboth the external defences and internalrooms and passageways. Surrounding thefort were some spectacular views of themountains.

The visit to the fort took up all themorning and in the early afternoon wedescended themountain road and stoppedto view the Zita Chapel, situated on ap l a t e a u o n c e t h e s i t e o f a nA u s t r o - H u n g a r i a n A r m y c o r p sheadquarters.ZitaofBourbonwasthewifeof Emperor Karl I, who succeeded FranzJoseph andwas regarded as a ‘holy +igure’bythetroops.Continuing,wetookapackedlunchstopattheOsteriaall’AnticoTermine,whichwastheformerfrontierpostbetweenAustriaandItalyandaftermovingonwereabletoviewtheCimbrianBridge,ontheoldroad,whichtheItaliansblewupon22May1916, to try to halt an Austrian advancetowardstheAsiagoPlateau.

ArrivingbackonthePlateauwestoppedto view the British June 1918 positions onSanSistoRidgeandMountLemelefromtheEdelweiss Spur and former railway track,before heading for Granezza BritishCemetery,whereinliesthegraveofCaptainEdwardBrittainof11UVSherwoodForesters.

Before we left for Granezza andoverlooking San Sisto Ridge, Helen Earlerelated the story of Captain Brittain’s fatalaction there on 15 June 1918. He was the

muchlovedbrotheroftheauthor,VeraBrittain(andgreatuncleofShirleyWilliams,theformerEducationMinister)whowrotemovinglyofher+irstvisittohisgrave in 1921 in her book Testament of Youth.GrahamAdamsreadanextract fromthebookat thegravesideand,justasVeradescribedonhervisit,the

ViewfromFortBelvedere

EntrancetoFortBelvedere

HelenlaysapoppycrossatCaptainBrittain'sgraveinGranezzaBritishCemetery

afternoonsunshonedirectlyonthegraves.Helen followed this with a rendition ofVera’s poemToMyBrother. Alsoburied inthe cemetery is Lieutenant Colonel JamesKnox DSO, who was the CO of the1/7UV Battalion, Royal WarwickshireRegiment, killedby shell +ire in his dugouton23September1918andjustuptheroadwe discovered a memorial to him and allthoseofthe143jkInfantryBrigadewhofellinactionontheAsiagoPlateauin1918.

After a short visit to a WW2 partisanmemorial and to Barenthal MilitaryCemetery we followed a rough track ontoSan Sisto Ridge. Hidden amongst the treeswe found evidence of the Bri t ish23jk Division lines, where Edward Brittainwas in act ion and where h is CO,Lieutenant Colonel Charles Hudson wasawardedaVC. BobBrunsdonevenfoundarustingbullybeeftinasevidenceofBritishoccupation!

Itwas thenback to thehotel for6.15pm,after a very full and absorbing day, whenthe forecast thunder storms had notmaterialized.

Onthefollowingday, itwasanother9amstart(afterBrianWardhadchangedoutofhis slippers!) and we were to concentrateon actions during the Battle of the Asiagoon15-16June1918,involvingthe143jkand145UV Brigades of 48UV Division, the latterBrigade being home to the 1/5UV Glosters.We headed for south west of Asiago,particularly the areas of Ghelpac Ravine,PergheleandCesuna.

At a picnic area at Ghelpac Fork wespreadoutmapsandusingacontemporaryBritishmapplannedawalkupawoodlandtrack to try to identify the location of twodefensive machine gun positions shownthereon. After walking under a formerrailway bridge we scrambled up slopes,throughtreesandrockyoutcropsandweresuccessful inidentifyingbothofthem,withtheirsupportingentrenchments.Thiswasaspecial moment for Helen Earle whosegrandfather was in action here with theMachine Gun Corps. Itwas then on up thetrack to Pelly Cross, where the 4UV Ox &BucksLightInfantryand1/5UVGlostersheldoffanAustro-Hungarianadvancesupportedby+lamethrowersandwecontinuedupthePrincesRoad,wherewediscoveredanotherpost in what had been the 4UV Ox & BucksLight Infantry positions. At one point we

thoughtwemight loseBobBrunsdondowna ratherlarge bunker but thankfully we didn’t! The trackcontinued up to Boscon British Cemetery, where aCWGC gardener (and his dog!) was hard at workmaintainingthecemeteryinpristinecondition.Here,at the grave of former King’s School, Gloucesterscholar Captain Basil Bruton (of 1/5UV Glosters), Bobtoldussomethingofhislifeandhowhewasmortallywounded on 15 June 1918. Joe Devereux (Snr) thenspoke about three 1/5UV Glosters men, all killed on15 June1918;SerjeantAlbertCoopey(Tewkesbury),Private George Wake+ield (Berkeley) and PrivateGeorge Organ (The Reddings, Cheltenham). GrahamSacker followed thiswith comments on some of thefourteenMachineGunCorpsmenburiedhereandtherole played by the Machine Gun Corps servingalongsidetheinfantry.

Afterwalking back to the picnic area, we rejoinedthe bus and drove along the Ghelpac Road to C delGuendiano, where, after a lunch break, we walkeddownaformerrailwaybedandupatracktoanareawherethe1/5UVGlostershadacommandpostinJune1918 overlooking a track called Pine Avenue.

ExaminingmapsatGhelpacFork

LookingovertheAsiagoPlateau

Once again, we discovered evidence oftrenchworks.The bus then took us to Cesuna civil

cemetery, where we obtained good viewsacross ‘happy valley’ and the battle+ield ofJune 1918, and in particular the groundwhere the Glosters and Ox & Bucks LightInfantrystoppedtheenemyadvance.ItwasthenontoMagnaboschi,wherethe

Italians had halted an Austro-HungarianadvanceintheSpringof1916andvisitstoaMemorial Chapel (with a plaque to theStaffordshire Regiment therein), a RomanColumn and a former Italian Cemetery,where the buried remains had beenremovedduringMussolini’stime;nowbeenrestored as a ‘symbolic internationalcemetery’.ThenearbyMagnaboschiBritishCemeteryoverlooksit.A grave which caught the eye in the

cemetery was that of Private Shrapnell, oftheRoyalWarwicksandJoeDevereux(Snr)toldthestoriesoftwoGlostersburiedhere– Lieutenant Mervyn Wilkins, 1/6UVBattalion and Private Charles Arthur Colesof1/5UV. Dalealsotoldthestoryofanotherburial, CaptainHowardListerDSOMCand2Bars,of21mUFieldAmbulance,RAMCkilledbyamortarbombon9August1918whenattendingtothewoundedofaraid.BrianWard’scoffeecravingwassatis+ied

when Dale took us to a café/restaurantperchedhighonMonteZovetto.Theviewsfrom here were across the whole of thebeautiful AsiagoPlateau andwewere ableto pick out places visited and featurespreviously described. For many thispanoramic view enabled all the varioustroop and advances and retreats to beplaced in context of the overall landscape.After leavingherewestopped toexploreaformer Italian observation post, expandedbytheBritishin1918.We then travelled to Cesuna, where, on

the former Austro-Hungarian line, Daledescribed raids made by 7UV Division inAugust 1918, to assert dominance over noman’s land. On the way back to the hotel,we stopped at the former Asiago railwaystation to view a memorial to the peopleexpelledfromtheareatothesouthofItalyfollowing theAustro-Hungarianoccupationofthetown.Next morning, our last full day ‘in the

+ield’, we left Asiago but not untilarrangementsweremade for JoeDevereux(Jnr) to see a doctor about an insect bite

whichhadbecomeinfected.Vincenzo,ourbusdriver,proved a gem in this situation, as he +ixed up anappointment, wentwith Joe to act as an interpreterandJoereceivedaprescriptionforanti-histamineandantibiotics.Thisdelayedourdeparturebutduringthetime it took to get Joe seen the rest of the partywalked up to the imposing Sacrario Militaremausoleumwhichdominatesthetown.Once on our way we headed down the mountain

roadtoBassano,crossingtheRiverBrentaandontothe Venetian Plain – almost following the December1917 front line and on for a refreshment stop atMontello,ashelteredsupportareafortheBritish.One of the +inal actions of the war on the Italian

frontwastheBattleofVittorioVenetoinlateOctober.AkeytothemainItalianadvancewasthecaptureofPapadopoli Island located in the mile wide RiverPiave.ThecapturewasassignedtotheBritish7UVand23jkDivisions,whowerethentoprovidea+lankguardto themain Italian attack upstream. The islandwascapturedonthenightof23/24Octoberbymeansofasmall boat operation and the holdwas consolidatedby the building of two trestle bridges over the

ThemagniFicentviewpointatMonteZovetto

AsiagofromtheSacrarioMilitare

westernchannelduring thenightof26/27October. Acrossingontothefarbankwasmade the followingday and as the Italianshadbeenpreventedfromcrossingtheriverupstreambyrisingwater levels theBritishfound themselves spearheading theadvance , which eventua l ly l ed toAustria-Hungary seeking an Armistice on4November.We took lunch at the 7UV Division

Memorial,adjacenttothePiaveatSalettuoland overlooking Papadopoli Island, whereD a v e G a r g e t t t o l d u s a b ou t t h e528UV (Durham) Company, Royal Engineers(ofwhomhisgreatgrandfatherhadbeenamember) involvedwiththeconstructionofthe bridges. The usual group photo wastakenatthememorial.After crossing the modern road bridge

which now spans both the Piave andPapadopoli Island we travelled to theMontecanoRiverbridgeatVazzola-Soffratawhich was the maximum point of thesubsequent Brit ish advance up to28 October. There was +ighting on thebridgeandactionbytheNorthamptonshireYeomanrypreventeditbeingblownup.Wethen retraced our steps to visit TezzeBritish Cemetery, opened on 27 October1918. We +inally reached our overnightstop, theHotelSanMarco,Montebellunaatabout6pm.It was now our +inal day but before

heading for Venice Airport we visitedGiavera British Cemetery andMemorial tothe Missing of the Italian Campaign. HereHelenEarlelaidapoppytribute,whichshehadmade,onbehalfoftheBranchandBobBrunsdonrecitedTheExhortation.

Dale pointed out the grave of Second LieutenantJohn Scott Youll VC, 11UV Northumberland Fusiliers,andJoeDevereux(Snr)relatedthestoryoftwo1/5UVGlosters’ names on the nearby Memorial to theMissing of the Italian Campaign. Following this westopped at a memorial to the celebrated Italianairman Francesco Barraca: co-incidentally, whilstthere, a Tiger Moth bi-plane carrying RAF insignia+lew over. Our +inal stops were at the Ossario delMontelloaNervesa,whereaclimbtothetopaffordedmagni+icentviewsover to themountains to thenorthandsouthtotheRiverPiaveandVeniceinthedistance,andtheossuarySacrarioMilitarediFagare,wheretherewasanexampleofoneoftheboatsusedtocrossthePiave.Our thanks were expressed to Dale for leading a

fascinating tour to an area about whichmost of theparty knew very little. His knowledge of thebattle+ields built up over many years is trulyexceptional.We also thanked our helpful bus driver,Vincenzo, who drove us smoothly and safely alongsomechallengingroads.Wewereblessedwithalmostperfectweather and probably saw the pretty AsiagoPlateauandthemajesticmountainsintheirfullglory.Therewasonlyonecomplaint,attimesitwasjusttoohot,evenonthehigherground!

Tourpartyat7thDivisionMemorialnearPapadopoliIsland

RiverPiavefromtheOssariodelMontelloaNervesa

PoppytributelaidatGiaveraBritishCemetery