PRELUDE

      A word about the Italian campaign, known to many Italians at the time as the Fourth War of Independence. The campaign was essentially conducted in or along the foothills of mountains lining the eastern end of the Lombardy Plain in Northern Italy. That area, referred to here as the Venetian Plain, is laced with rivers, torrente (embanked flood relief channels), streams and irrigation and drainage ditches, good farmland but a poor battlefield. In fact the campaign was dominated by two rivers, the Isonzo and Piave, the first only crossed the Plain for few miles before entering the Adriatic, and two years saw more fighting than probably any other river in Europe. The Piave also crossed the Plain but for nearly forty miles, and for a year was the No Man’s Land of the eastern sector of the Frontline in Italy. 

The Isonzo

Between May 1915, when Italy joined the Allies and attacked Austro-Hungary along the Isonzo. This was a hugely symbolic offensive to the Italians due to their long held grievances over Italia Irredenta, Austrian-occupied territory with an Italian-speaking population. It was also important to some of the Allies as the first incursion into enemy territory in Western Europe (Gallipoli was not really regarded as such).  For the Austrians it was also symbolic; the opening of a third front when the Austro-Hungarian was already stretched on the Eastern Front against Russia, and in the Balkans.

During the next two and a quarter years, until October 1917, for the Italians the main battleground was at the far eastern end of the plain, in the hills lining the river Isonzo. Here took place the Twelve Battles of the Isonzo, as ferocious and bloody as anything on the Western or Eastern Fronts, as the Italians, latterly with some modest help from British and French artillery units, attempted to breach the Austro-Hungarian defences. (The stories of the various crossings of the Isonzo during those struggles fall outwith this guide, although they cry out for Battleground Europe treatment.)

British presence

Throughout the war the only British presence on or near the Isonzo Front was the British Military Mission to the Italian government and its Army Headquarters if the field, the Commando Supremo.  In addition there were war correspondents and artists sponsored by the War Office, a British Red Cross contingent, and a soldier’s canteen, staffed and funded by some spirited English ladies. They were joined in April 1917 by a contingent of Royal Garrison Artillery batteries, referred to in its War Diaries and other documents as ‘British Artillery Italy’ (BAI). It had been sent in response to requests from the Italians for heavy artillery support, something in which they felt deficient. The BAI was commanded by Brigadier PD Hamilton and initially consisted of two Heavy Artillery Groups, the XCIV and XCV. These numbers were later re-configured to 94^th and 95^th to avoid confusion with the Roman numerals allocated to Italian Army Corps with the same numbers. Later still they were re-titled and became Groups B1 and B2. Each Group had five batteries each equipped with four 6-inch howitzers. The BAI also had a small complement of supporting services including an Army Postal Section. The BAI was attached to the Italian 2^nd Heavy Artillery Aggrupamenta (Grouping of Groups), supporting XI Corps, Third Army, in the extreme south of the Isonzo Front. In July 1917 B1 and B2 were joined by another group, the 101^st (later B3) with three batteries.

The following month the BAI was further reinforced by a solitary experimental Vickers 9.2 inch BL (Breech Loading) howitzer which formed X Battery, 94^th Group.