Part 11

“Austria-Hungary has at present concentrated on our front 73 divisions equal to 960 battalions. These forces are supported by about 7500 guns. Fifty-four divisions equal to 774 battalions are now massed near the firing line and await only the order to ‘march’ to hurl themselves into the greatest battle in history. Six thousand cannon of every caliber are placed in batteries ready for action and to support with their terrible fire the advance of the infantry. Other masses are ready to exert further pressure between the Astico and Val Lagarina should the attack between the Piave and the Grappa prove successful. The Austrians have been preparing for the offensive for a long time and every detail has been cared for. The troops have been exercised and drilled in the new German tactics of attack. Light machine-guns and flammenwerfer continually supplemented by successive waves of men and new methods of destruction are expected to effect the success of the first attack. Not only is a great deal of bridge-building material hidden behind the dikes of the Piave, but in several points there have been collected many light pontoons which will be of great help to little isolated detachments, whose task is to try to cross the river and to attempt a dangerous infiltration movement, and so facilitate the task of the bulk of the troops which would follow at once across the bridge. Great use will be made of lachrymose and asphyxiating gases. The preliminary bombardment will not be very long but will be intensive and at the end a rapid fire of smoky projectiles will cover the Piave with fog so as to hinder our soldiers from seeing where they are constructing passageways. In the region of the Montello bridges will be constructed near Casa Serena and in a place called Casa de Favari along the lower Piave near Fagari and Musile. The offensive will begin on the fifteenth and will be preceded on the thirteenth by a serious action towards the Tonale. On the day of the attack an intensive, convincing bombardment will be launched towards Val D’Arsa and Val Lagarina. Three armies will be operating at the same time, the eleventh, commanded by General Scheuchenstuel, will operate towards Alti Piani; the sixth, led by Archduke Joseph will undertake the greatest and chief task of breaking through; the fifth commanded by General von Vurm will attack violently towards the sea. The attack of the infantry is scheduled to take place between seven and eight o’clock on the morning of the fifteenth. The special task entrusted to the Austrian troops operating between the Plateau of Asiago and the valley of the Brenta is that of opening the road towards the plain, first with ten divisions operating in Val D’Arsa, which have the task of forcing Valle Frenzela and then with six other divisions which must descend from the Astico valley through the valley of Canaglia and occupy the western slope of the Grappa. Two other divisions will be in reserve so that eighteen divisions, equal to 228 battalions, and 1500 cannon will be in action on the Plateau of Asiago. In the region of the Grappa between the Brenta and the Piave the intention of the Austrian command is to open the attack at first with great violence, to descend to the plain and by surrounding the Grappa to effect the downfall of the entire Italian defensive system. The first attack is to be made with troops especially trained for mountain warfare between the Brenta and Mount Pertica. Four divisions are to attack the salient of Solarolo with the objective of encircling the line Monte Tomba and Monte Fenera; of securing for itself an opening to the Piave in the vicinity of Pederobba and there getting in contact with the sixth army which has the task of forcing the Montello. From the Montello to the lower Piave the Austrian strategical plan has divided its forces into three principal columns of attack. Two columns, having broken through between the Montello and San Dona di Piave are designated to advance between Treviso and Castelfranco and on the Mestre-Treviso railroad they are to make several thrusts in all the region about Treviso and, by isolating Venice, compel this city to surrender. The three columns in close alliance with the two preceding, after crossing the Piave at the Grave di Pappadopoli, will march directly from Maserada on Treviso. The forces on the two wings are composed on the north by six divisions of the sixth army (Archduke Joseph) which will attack the Montello, and on the south by eight divisions of the fifth army, the army of the Isonzo (von Vurm) which will operate from Ponte di Piave to the sea. The center will be composed of two army corps, the 16th and 4th of the army of the Isonzo, equal to four divisions and a half.”

My informer, Mr. Brunora, looked about again with suspicion and said, “These reports seem to me of prime importance; it is up to you now to find a means of despatching them at once to our command. I am well pleased to be able to risk my life with the certainty that what I have referred to you can be of inestimable value to our people.... However, I must be cautious because under this terrible régime, if they were to discover me, the least which could happen to me would be to be shot, but at times they use the gallows and I really should not care to meet with the fate of poor Battisti.” He looked me steadily in the eyes, for I had been greatly shocked by the news he had given me. I did not believe that anywhere, in any other circumstances, any man had ever been able to know so precisely, so minutely, every particular, every secret of the enemy as this man knew. This Brunora really seemed to know a little too much. A terrible doubt suddenly crossed my mind. Might he not be an emissary of the enemy sent by the Austrians, who had possibly learnt of my presence. Was it his purpose to deceive me and to make me believe false reports the better to hide their plans?

“But are you really certain you are not mistaken?”

“I am absolutely certain,” he answered, “and I would not have spoken had I not been able to account for what I have told you. The same captain who gave me this information used to prophesy even during the desperate German attacks against our position on the Grappa in last December. Everything he told me then has since come to pass.”

His answer was not sufficient to remove my doubts. But if, on reconsidering everything I had learnt from other sources, and comparing it with the information the secretary had just given me, I were to find that everything tallied and there was not a single contradiction, I must believe him. If all this corresponded, even in the smallest detail, it was not possible that he was trying to deceive me, or that he was trying to cheat me, and all he told me must be true.

He continued, “As a further proof that the offensive is about to begin I can add this, and I can personally guarantee it for I myself read it from an Austrian order; in fact, I can show it to you for I have it in my pocket.... ‘The Command at Tappa di Vittorio has been enlarged to cover all the region between the Ponte della Priula and Vidor and the aforementioned city is now considered as a _retrovia_ in case of a possible early action.’ Therefore, not only will there be an offensive but the Austrians feel confident they will break through because they are considering as back lines the zones between the Piave and Vittorio, whereas up to now this region has been considered as a front line.”

This document finally convinced me, it dispelled all my doubts, and forsaking the reserved attitude I had adopted up to then, I cordially took him by the arm and said, “Our people will have to erect a monument in your honor if all you have told me comes to pass, for on these reports the fate of our army may depend. You understand....” Again I gazed steadily into his eyes. At last a faint smile illumined his wan, unexpressive face imparting to it for a moment a new look, an expression strange to him, almost a look of beauty.

“I am certain they will not pass,” he added. “The Piave is our old friend and it certainly will not tolerate their building bridges over its old faithful waters; you will see that at the propitious moment it will shrug its shoulders and all their machinations will disappear into thin air as though by magic.”

“I, too, feel certain that the Piave is our great helper, but when it comes to preventing the Austrians from building bridges, our artillery will see to that.”

“Are their masks good?” asked Brunora on whose face a new look of pain was depicted.

“Yes, our masks are good.”

“For,” he continued, “at the station of Corta the aerial cable railways have done nothing in the past few days except transport projectiles of asphyxiating gases.”

This too is a bit of news which tallies perfectly with what the brunette in the woods told me and I am grateful to him for having given me another proof of the veracity of his communications.

“Thank you, thank you once again for what you are doing for Italy, for the Italians; pardon me if I said ‘the Italians,’ I meant to say for us, because we too are still Italians even though apparently separated from the other side. But as I see you are so well informed, that you can find out the minutest details of the secrets of the great enemy machine, I cannot consider your task completed with these precious reports you have given me to-day. Every Italian has certain obligations towards his country and you who cannot be a soldier in this moment must continue to help me as heroically as you have begun. By means of the refugee whom you know well and in whom we can trust absolutely, I wish you to send me daily reports on what you hear and on the day preceding the battle keep me well-informed on what is about to happen. Besides the signals, which you know of, that we are in the habit of placing in a certain spot, we can communicate with our lines by means of carrier pigeons and the more detailed and precise the information which you give me, the greater will be the help which we can render to our army. Do not think anything useless; a report which you might judge devoid of any value may have a great deal of significance on the other side, but we must be careful to report everything with great accuracy, exactly as we have heard it, without amplifications or embellishments, for an extra word in these circumstances may mean losing or winning a battle. Don’t you by chance know some Austrian soldier at Vittorio who could give you detailed information on the location of the Austrian forces which are about to operate against us, because although the news you gave me to-day is definite, there is not the name of a single division or regiment, and you certainly know better than I how important it is to know the location of the enemy forces.”

Brunora who really did not seem to have realized the importance of my request answered me at once without any show of interest, “Yes, I know a soldier from Trieste who is in the field post-office of Vittorio and he certainly will be able to give me details on the exact number of the divisions to which he daily sends mail.”

“And you did not tell me this at once!” (I should have liked to jump on his neck and kiss him, so great was the joy this last announcement gave me.) “Try to keep on good terms with this soldier; try to monopolize him and promise him that within a short time, if he succeeds in giving us the information we want, he will also be helping himself for our soldiers will then come and liberate Trieste.”

“Why, do you still believe we shall one day arrive at Trieste?”

I looked wrathfully at my questioner. “I ask how you can doubt it! If our soldiers succeed in resisting this offensive, the entire situation which is now in favor of the enemy will change completely in our favor. Soon the balance in France will again become even by the intervention of the first American units, and the Germans, who will not have been able to accomplish at once a decisive move, will find themselves in a precarious position. On our front I assure you, if the Austrians hit a snag in this offensive, that no one will be able to hold us back from dealing the final blow which will send the Austrians and Germans flying forever. But meanwhile we must see that the doors to our house are securely fastened so that thieves cannot enter.”

Bottecchia was on watch outside to see that no suspicious person approached. If he imitated the cackling of a hen it would indicate that some danger threatened us.

“Excuse my indiscretion, pardon me if I detain you awhile longer, but I would rather clear up everything at once than have to send for you some other time. During these first days I intend to stay in this wood, especially since on the day of the offensive it will be necessary for someone to be here always, to gather the information which might come from various sources, so as to co-ordinate it and communicate it at once to the other side. However, later, I intend to wander about, I intend to find out with my own eyes what is happening. You who have so much to do with the headquarters at Tappa di Vittorio, where I know they issue papers authorizing one to remain in this territory and legitimization papers, ought to try to get for us some document which would enable us to move about with greater ease. I do not mean to say that these documents can be of great importance; rather, if they were demanded and examined by someone truly competent, they might be serious evidence against us, but instead, they can be used to show to the soldiers or to fool some stupid Croatian gendarme who is easily satisfied so long as he sees the seal with the bicipital eagle, and would never suspect any fraud in it. For bureaucracy, as you well know, itself supplies the weapons which may prove fatal to it. We, who could not wander about without papers, will find in our spurious papers a safe protection against the stupid; we will make the papers which ought to denounce us, our accomplices. I want to tell you a plan I have in mind and which we may be able to use with the help of a legitimization paper. A servant of mine, classified as not fit for military service, who is a little older than myself and whom I can readily resemble in my present outfit, escaped to the other side before the retreat. I should want to take his name and say that at the time of Caporetto I was far from the villa of my master, where I had left my classification papers, and when I returned to the villa I found everything upside down and could not find the precious documents, so that the Austrian authorities, who knew this, gave me a legitimization paper. Now, you ought to get me this paper so that I can become Mr. Antonio Pandin in flesh and bones.... I suppose you are mentally hurling all sorts of epithets at me and think I am too exigent, that even in enemy territory I am trying to militarize everything. If those are your thoughts, you have guessed correctly for this is my intention. In warfare, as in all other undertakings in life, one of the most valuable attributes is order; therefore I urge you to keep me regularly informed; I shall expect your report every night. The refugee will have charge of consigning it to me. If anything abnormal happens I beg you to inform me at once so that I may communicate it without delay to our command by means of my signals. During the days of the offensive I shall be especially interested in the movement of the troops. Of course I mean the big movements because at present we cannot be bothered with the little ones. For the present I hope you will believe that I am truly appreciative of all you have done and that the whole nation will appreciate your conduct when it learns of what you have done for us. Who knows how many lives we may be able to save through these reports! Who knows how much suffering we can prevent! We must leave nothing undone which will help our soldiers do their best, which will help them find themselves, and which will finally help them to victory.”

XIII

On June 13 there was a continual round of visitors and the relatives who had come to see Bottecchia had all brought something for us to eat. Some brought a piece of cheese, some a peasant bread baked under hot ashes, others a stoup of wine preserved by who knows how many sacrifices from the avid throats of our adversaries. I was not present at the meeting between Bottecchia and his parents, for at the time I was walking about in the wood, and when I returned I found my soldier seated on the trunk of a tree between a little old woman and an old man and I understood from their voices and the sweetness of their expressions that they must have been his parents. The father, a lean little old man almost eighty years old, still works unloading material and pushing hand cars on the new railroad the Austrians are constructing in the vicinity of Sarmede. I kept away from them so as not to interrupt their talk, but after they had left I saw on the face of Giovannino such satisfaction, I read such great joy in his eyes, that I envied him—I who no longer have the fortune of ever being able to see my mother again.

The nights were now dark, even when it did not rain, for there was no moon, and we should have to wait awhile before we were due to receive any pigeons. Every morning I took a long walk in the wood to see if any basket had fallen during the night; I examined carefully the branches of the trees to see if a parachute had perhaps been caught in the foliage, but found nothing. Through the refugee and the other peasants who had placed their services at my disposal, I told everyone whom I could trust, that in case they found little baskets with pigeons on their fields they were to gather them for they were meant for me. I designated certain vicarages as places to which they should be delivered, for the priests offered to pass them on to me as soon as they received them.

My soldier’s sister, to give me an idea of how certain the Austrians were of the success of the first blows of the offensive, told me the following anecdote. A Hungarian officer was bargaining with her for the purchase of a linen sheet which the officers were accustomed to use for making white uniforms for wear in the summertime. The amount asked for the sheet seemed too high and the officer walked away saying, “It really would be a pity to pay so high a price for my uniform when the offensive is scheduled to commence shortly. On the first day we will be in Treviso, on the second in Venice, and there I shall find enough white linen to clothe my entire company in white.” I hoped that soon this ugly creature, who was relishing in advance the joys of pillage and plunder, would find in the whirlpools of the Piave a uniform to suit him!

Another frequent visitor was Rosa, a young woman whose husband was on the other side and who now made a livelihood serving as cook for some Hungarian officers. She listened to all their conversations and every now and then tried to fathom some secret which she referred at once to us. The table at which she served belonged to a group of field artillery officers and she told me that they had a long discussion in which some of them held that a supply of 5000 shots for every gun would be enough in the first battle, whereas others held that, given the enormous waste of munition in modern methods of warfare, this number would not guarantee a sufficient reserve. On the whole, from the reports received I inferred that the Austrians were short of ammunition and had placed their hope in a quick success of the offensive, for otherwise they would find themselves in a very bad position because there were very few projectiles in the internal depots in Austria to replace those spent at the front. Rosa also told me of the abundant fare the enemy officers allot themselves, for they were not ashamed to give free rein to their gluttonous desires even though their soldiers were kept on truly pitiful rations. Poor Rosa also brought us whatever she could take away from the table and one day she came with a large package of cigarettes which she held out to us saying, “I hope you will not smoke them all in one day; I hope you will appreciate them because I had to pay for these cigarettes with kisses.”

I tried to show I appreciated them so as not to displease her, but in truth I preferred never to smoke again in my life rather than force such bargaining on her, but alas, she had often to resort to such methods if she wished to feed her youngsters who otherwise would die of hunger. Sometimes Rosa, weeping, told us of the compromises she had had to make to appease the hunger of her youngsters.

“Necessity makes me do it,” she would say, “but you should see the disdain with which the gay Viennese women, who have followed the officers thus far, treat me. Many of them go about dressed in clothes stolen from our houses and the other day, in the house of one of these street-walkers I recognized a whole silver coffee set which belonged to a count who ran away during the first days of the retreat.”

From Vittorio I received regularly the messages of Brunora and from his notes I gathered much useful information, especially in regard to the movements of the troops of the sixth army. It seemed that special divisions of swimmers had been trained to cross the river in a surprise attack and that they were to clamber up on the side of the Montello which slopes vertically to the river, by means of hooks and ropes and so surprise our men from behind. On June 13th the regiment stationed at San Martino left unexpectedly for the front and the 31st division which was near Miane left unexpectedly for a destination unknown to us together with the 11th division of cavalry on foot. At the headquarters of Tappa di Vittorio a notice had been posted saying, “Any civilian found damaging the telephone lines will be at once taken before a firing squad.” All these indications made me feel certain that on the fifteenth we should visualize the greatest battle in history and I believed I was one of the few privileged characters who would be able to participate in it from the enemy’s side.

By now I had exact knowledge of the habits of the gendarmes and I was convinced that even though I had much to fear from them if they should succeed in laying hands on me, still with a little wit and intelligence I could succeed in avoiding them. The gendarmes who most frequented our region were those from Mezza Villa and therefore I entrusted the owner of the house in which they live, who knew all their habits, to warn me if he should notice anything unusual in their plans. In this way I eliminated the danger of being surprised. I knew they usually went out at eight in the morning; that they made brief rounds on the road between Mezza Villa and Fregona and that they returned for mess at eleven and rested until four, so that during those hours there was little fear of meeting them. Frankly, if one wished to wander there was really no need of promenading on the main highways and it seemed that the gendarmes did not deviate much from the main roads since the day in which they lost all track of one of their comrades who penetrated a little more deeply into the wood. As for the soldiers who roamed about the country, they did not bother about stopping the peasants; they thought only of trying to steal whatever they could lay their hands on without attracting the attention of the owner, so if the wanderer could make believe he was an owner, he was certain never to be molested.