NEW YORK

E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY

681 FIFTH AVENUE

1917

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY
THE WESTMINSTER PRESS
411A HARROW ROAD
LONDON W

To the Italian Military Authorities
in recognition of the courtesy and many kindnesses
extended to me during my six months’ work with the
glorious Army of Italy.

NOTE

I am indebted to the Directors of the Illustrated London News for their kind permission to reproduce in this book the sketches and drawings I made for them whilst on the Italian Front, a great many of which have already been published.

PREFACE

As the reader will discover for himself, I have no pretensions to pose as a Military Expert. This book is the result of a few hasty impressions gathered over a period which, with all its minor inconveniences and little daily worries, I look back upon as among the happiest and best filled of a somewhat varied career. I have not yielded to the temptation to be interesting at the expense of veracity; to that fact the indulgent reader will, I trust, attribute many of the dull pages. If in the latter half of the book I have laid particular stress on the operations leading up to and culminating in the capture of Gorizia, I hope I may be forgiven, as I had the good luck to be the only foreign correspondent on the spot at these scenes of History-making. In my dedication I have paid a humble tribute to the many kindnesses I received at the hands of the Military Authorities, from His Excellency General Cadorna downwards. I can only repeat it here.