August 7, 2025 • 23 mins
11 - Book 3, Chapter 27. A Farewell to Arms.
Ernest Hemingway's novel A Farewell to Arms is often referred to as a war novel, which is true enough. There is certainly blood and gore, along with a measure of dark humor, but the novel is more a love story than an account of battles between soldiers. Hemingway introduces us to Frederic Henry, an American volunteer serving in the sanitary services of the Italian Army in the north of Italy during World War One. He is a Lieutenant supervising ambulance drivers and is often near the front lines. Badly wounded by a shell, Henry passes through a number of surgeries and, while convalescing, meets Catherine Barkley with whom he begins an affair. Their story follows them from Gorizia, to Milan, to Stresa, and, finally, and ironically, to Switzerland, a neutral nation.
Ernest Hemingway's novel A Farewell to Arms is often referred to as a war novel, which is true enough. There is certainly blood and gore, along with a measure of dark humor, but the novel is more a love story than an account of battles between soldiers. Hemingway introduces us to Frederic Henry, an American volunteer serving in the sanitary services of the Italian Army in the north of Italy during World War One. He is a Lieutenant supervising ambulance drivers and is often near the front lines. Badly wounded by a shell, Henry passes through a number of surgeries and, while convalescing, meets Catherine Barkley with whom he begins an affair. Their story follows them from Gorizia, to Milan, to Stresa, and, finally, and ironically, to Switzerland, a neutral nation.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Book three, chapter twenty seven of a Farewell to Arms
by Ernest Hemingway. The LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
I woke when Rinauldi came in, but he did not talk,
and I went back to sleep again. In the morning,
I was dressed and gone before it was light. Rinaldi
(00:21):
did not wake when I left. I had not seen
the Bendziza before, and it was strange to go up
the slope where the Austrians had been. Beyond the place
on the river where I had been wounded, there was
a steep new road in many trucks. Beyond the road
flattened out, and I saw woods and steep hills. In
the midst there were woods that had been taken quickly
(00:44):
and not smashed. Then beyond where the road was not
protected by the hills, it was screened by matting on
the sides, and over the top the road ended in
a wrecked village. The lines were up. Beyond there was
much artillery or the houses were badly smashed, but things
were very well organized, and there were sign boards everywhere.
(01:06):
We found Gino and he got us some coffee, and
later I went with him and met various people and
saw the posts. Gino said. The British cars were working
further down the benzisad Ravni. He had great admiration for
the British. There was still a certain amount of shelling,
he said, but not many wounded. There would be many
(01:27):
sick now the rains had started. The Austrians were supposed
to attack, but he did not believe it. We were
supposed to attack, too, but they had not brought up
any new troops, so he thought that that was off too.
Food was scarce and he would be glad to get
a full meal in Gorizia. What kind of supper had
I had? I told him, and he said that would
(01:48):
be wonderful. He was especially impressed by the dulci. I
did not describe it in detail, only said it was
a dulce, and I think he believed it was something
more elaborate than bread pudding. Did I know where he
was going to go? I said I didn't, but that
some of the other cars were at Caparetto. He hoped
he would go up that way. It was a nice
(02:10):
little place, and he liked the high mountain hauling up beyond.
It was a nice boy, and everyone seemed to like him.
He said, where it really had been Hell was at
San Gabriele and the attack beyond Lom that had gone bad.
He said. The Austrians had a great amount of artillery
in the woods along Rnova Ridge beyond and above us,
(02:30):
and showed the roads badly at night. There was a
battery of naval guns that had gotten on his nerves.
I would recognize them because of their flat trajectory. You
heard the report and then the shriek commenced almost instantly.
They usually fired two guns at once, one right after
the other, and the fragments from the burst were enormous.
(02:51):
He showed me one a smoothly jagged piece of metal
over a foot long. It looked like babbitting metal. I
don't suppose they are so affective, if Gino said, but
they scare me. They all sound as though they came
directly for you. There is the boom, and instantly the
shriek can burst. What's the use of not being wounded
(03:11):
if they scare you to death? He said. There were
croats and the lines opposite us now and some magyars.
Our troops were still in the attacking positions. There was
no wire to speak of and no place to fall back.
To if there should be an Austrian attack. There were
fine positions for defense along the low mountains that came
up out of the plateau, but nothing had been done
(03:33):
about organizing them for defense. What did I think about
the Vinzisa anyway, I'd expected it to be flatter, more
like a plateau. I'd not realized it was so broken
up Ato Piano Gino said, but no, Piano. We went
back to the cellar of the house where he lived.
I said, I thought a ridge that flattened out on
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top and had a little more depth would be easier,
more practical to hold than a societ of small mountains.
It was no harder to attack up a mountain than
on the level. I argued, That depends on the mountains,
he said, look at San GABRIELI yes, I said, but
where they had trouble was at the top, where it
was flat. They got to the top easy enough, not
(04:17):
so easy, he said, yes. I said, but that was
a special case because it was a fortress rather than
a mountain. Anyway, the Austrians had been fortifying it for years.
I meant, tactically speaking, in a war where there was
some movement, a succession of mountains were nothing to hold
as a line because it was too easy to turn them.
(04:37):
You should have possible mobility, and a mountain is not
very mobile. Also, people always overshoot downhill. If the flank
were turned, the best men would be left on the
highest mountains. I did not believe in a war of mountains.
I had thought about it a lot, I said. You
pinched off one mountain, they pinched off another. But when
(04:58):
something really started, every one had to get down off
the mountains. What were you going to do if you
had a mountain frontier, he asked. I had not worked
that out yet, I said, and we both laughed. But
I said, in the old days, the Austrians were always
whipped in the quadrilateral around Verona. They let them come
down onto the plain and whip them there. Yes, said Gino,
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but those were Frenchmen. And you can work out military
problems clearly when you are fighting in somebody else's country, Yes,
I agreed. When it is your own country, you cannot
use it so scientifically. The Russians did to trap Napoleon, yes,
but they had plenty of country. You tried to retreat
to trap Napoleon in Italy, you would find yourself in
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Brandisi a terrible place, said Gino. Have you ever been there?
Not to stay? I am a patriot, Gino said, but
I cannot love Brandisi or Taranto. Do you love the Benzisa,
I asked. The soil is sacred, he said, but I
wish it grew more potatoes. You know, when we came
here we found fields of potatoes the Austrians had planted.
(06:07):
Has the food really been short? I myself have never
had enough to eat, but I am a big eater
and I have not starved. The mess is average. The
regiments and the lion get pretty good food, but those
in support don't get so much. Something is wrong somewhere
there should be plenty of food. The dog fish are
selling it somewhere else. Yes, they give the battalions in
(06:30):
the front line as much as they can, but the
ones back are very short. They have eaten all the
Austrians potatoes and chestnuts from the woods. They ought to
feed them better. We are big eaters. I'm sure there
is plenty of food. It is very bad for the
soldiers to be short of food. Have you ever noticed
the difference it makes in the way you think? Yes,
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I said, it can't win a war, but it can
lose one. We won't talk about losing. There is enough
talk about losing. What has been done the same cannot
have been done in Vain. I did not say anything.
I was always embarrassed by the words sacred, glorious, and sacrifice,
and the expression in vain. We had heard them sometimes
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standing in the rain, almost out of earshot, so that
only the shouted words came through, and had read them
on proclamations that were slapped up by bill posters over
other proclamations. Now for a long time, and I had
seen nothing sacred, and the things that were glorious had
no glory, and the sacrifices were like the stockyards at Chicago,
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if nothing was done with the meat except to bury it.
There were many words that you could not stand to hear,
and finally, only the names of places at dignity. Certain
numbers were the same way in certain dates. And these
were the names of the places where all you could
say and had them mean anything. Abstract words such as glory, honor, courage,
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or hallow were obscene Beside the concrete names of villages,
numbers of roads, the names of rivers, the numbers of regiments,
and the dates. Gino was a patriot, so he said
things that separated us sometimes. But he was also a
fine boy, and I understood his being a patriot. He
was born one. He left with PILUSI in the car
(08:17):
to go back to Gorizia. It stormed all that day.
The wind drove down the rain, and everywhere there was
standing water and mud. The plaster of the broken houses
was gray and wet. Late in the afternoon the rain stopped,
and from out Number two posts I saw the bare,
wet autumn country, with clouds over the tops of the
hills and the straw screening over the roads, wet and dripping.
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The sun came out once before it went down and
shone on the bare woods beyond the ridge. There were
many Austrian guns in the woods on that ridge, but
only a few fired. I watched the sudden round puffs
of shrapnel smoke in the sky above a broken farmhouse,
near where the line was soft puffs with a yellow
(09:02):
white flash in the center. You saw the flash, then
heard the crack, then saw the smoke ball distort and
thin in the wind. There were many iron trapnel balls
in the rubble of the houses and on the road
beside the broken house where the post was, but they
did not shell near the post. That afternoon, we loaded
two cars and drove down the road that was screened
(09:23):
with wet mats. In the last of the sun came
through in the brakes between the strips of mattings. Before
we were out on the clear road behind the hill.
The sun was down. We went on down the clear road,
and as it turned a corner into the open and
went into the square arched tunnel of matting, the rain
started again. The wind rose in the night, and at
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three o'clock in the morning, with the rain coming in sheets,
there was a bombardment and the Croatians came over, crossed
the mountain meadows and through patches of woods and into
the front line. They fought in the dark in the rain,
and a counter attack of s scared men from the
second line drove them back. There was much shelling and
many rockets in the rain, and machine gun and rifle
(10:07):
fire all along the line. They did not come again,
and it was quieter, and between the gusts of wind
and rain we could hear the sound of a great
bombardment far to the north. The wounded were coming into
the post some were carried on stretchers, some walking, and
some were brought on the backs of men that came
across the field. They were wet to the skin and
(10:28):
all were scared. We filled two cars with stretcher cases
as they came up from the cellar of the post.
And as I shut the door of the second car
and fastened it, I felt the rain on my face
turned to snow. The flakes were coming heavy and fast
in the rain. When daylight came, the storm was still blowing,
but the snow had stopped. It had melted as it
(10:50):
fell on the wet ground, and now it was raining again.
There was another attack just after daylight, but it was unsuccessful.
We expected an attack all day, but it did not come.
Until the sun was going down. The bombardment started to
the south, below the long wooded ridge, where the Austrian
guns were concentrated. We expected a bombardment, but it did
(11:13):
not come. Was getting dark, guns were firing from the
field behind the village, and the shells going away at
a comfortable sound. We heard that the attack to the
south had been unsuccessful. They did not attack that night,
but we heard that they had broken through to the
north in the night word came that we were to
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prepare to retreat. The captain at the post told me this,
he had it from the brigade. A little while later
he came from the telephone and said it was a lie.
The brigade had received orders that the line of the
Binzisa should be held no matter what happened. I asked
about the breakthrough, and he said he had heard at
the brigade that the Austrians had broken through the twenty
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seventh Army Corps up toward Caporetto. There had been a
great battle in the north all day. If those bastards
let them through, we were cooked. He said, Germans that
are attacking. One of the medical officers said the word
Germans was something to be frightened of. We did not
want to have anything to do with the Germans. There
(12:19):
are fifteen divisions of Germans. The medical officer said, they
have broken through and we will be cut off. At
the brigade they said this line is to be held.
They say they have not broken through badly and that
we will hold a line across the mountains from Monte Majore.
Where did they hear this from the division? The word
(12:40):
that we were to retreat came from the division. We
work under the Army Corps, I said, But here I
work under you naturally. When you tell me to go,
I will go, but get the orders straight. The orders
are that we stay here. You clear the wounded from
here to the clearing station. Sometimes we clear from the
clearing station to the field hospitals too, I said. Tell me,
(13:04):
I've never seen a retreat. If there is a retreat,
how are all the wounded evacuated? They are not. They
take as many as they can and leave the rest.
What will I take in the cars, hospital equipment? All right?
I said. The next night the retreat started. We heard
that Germans and Austrians had broken through in the north
(13:26):
and were coming down the mountain valleys toward Cividale and Eudene.
The retreat was orderly, wet and sullen in the night.
Going slowly along the crotted roads, we passed troops marching
under the rain, guns, horses pulling wagons, mules, motor trucks,
all moving away from the front. There was no more
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disorder than in an advance. That night we helped empty
the field hospitals that had been set up in the
least ruined villages of the plateau, taking the wounded down
to Plava on the river, and the next day hauled
all day in the rain to evacuate the hospitals in
clearing station at Plava. It rained steadily in the army
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of the Manziza moved down off the plateau in the
October rain and across the river where the great victories
had commenced in the spring of that year. We came
into Gorizia in the middle of the next day. The
rain had stopped and the town was nearly empty. As
we came up the street, they were loading the girls
from the soldier's wharhouse into a truck. There were seven girls,
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and they had on their hats and coats and carried
small suit cases. Two of them were crying, of the others,
one smiled at us and put out her tongue and
fluttered it up and down. She had thick, full lips
and black eyes. I stopped the car and went over
and spoke to the matron. The girls from the officer's
house had left early that morning. She said, where were
(14:55):
they going to Conigliano? She said. The truck started. The
girl with thick lips put out her tongue again at us,
the matron waved. The two girls kept on crying. The
others looked interestedly out at the town. I got back
in the car. We ought to go with them. Bonello said,
(15:15):
that would be a good trip. We'll have a good trip.
I said, we'll have a hell of a trip. That's
what I mean. I said. We came up to drive
to the villa. I'd like to be there when some
of those tough babies climb in and try and hop them.
You think they will. Sure, everybody in the second Army
knows that matron. We were outside the villa. They call
(15:39):
her the mother's superior. Bonello said. The girls are new,
but everyone knows her. They must have brought them up
just before the retreat. They'll have a time. I'll say
they'll have a time. I'd like to have a crack
at them for nothing. They charged too much at that house. Anyway,
the government gypsys take the car out and have the
mechanics go over it. I said, change the oil and
(16:01):
checked the differential, Fill it up, and then get some sleep, yes,
signor Tenante. The villa was empty. Rinaldi was gone with
the hospital. The major was gone, taking hospital personnel and
the staff car there was a note on the window
for me to fill the cars with the material piled
in the hall and to proceed to board dnone the
(16:24):
mechanics were gone already. I went out back to the garage.
The other two cars came in while I was there,
and their drivers got down, starting to rain again. I'm
so blank sleepy, I want to sleep. Three times coming
here from Plava. Piani said, what are we going to do, Tenante.
We'll change the oil, grease them, fill them up, then
(16:47):
take them around in front and load up the junk
they've left. Then do we start. No, We'll sleep for
three hours. Christ I'm glad to sleep. Bonello said, I
couldn't keep awake driving. How's your car? I'mo, I asked,
it's all right, get me a monkey suit and I'll
help you with the oil. Don't you do that, Tenante?
(17:08):
Aamo said, it's nothing to do. You go and pack
your things. My things are all packed. I said, I'll
go and carry out the stuff that they left for us.
Bring the cars around as soon as they're ready. They
brought the cars around to the front of the villa
and we loaded them with a hospital equipment which was
piled in the hallway. When it was all in, the
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three cars stood in line down the driveway under the
trees in the rain. We went inside, make a fire
in the kitchen and dry your things. I said, I
don't care about dry clothes. Piani said, I want to sleep.
I'm going to sleep on the major's bed. Bonello said,
I'm going to sleep where the old men corks off.
I don't care where I sleep. Piannie said, there are
(17:52):
two beds in here. I opened the door. I never
knew what was in that room. Bonello said that was
old fish Faces room. Pianni said, you two sleep in there.
I said, I'll wake you. The Austrians will wake us
if you sleep too long. Tenante Bonello said, I won't
over sleep. I said, where's Imo. We went out to
(18:13):
the kitchen. Get to sleep. I said, I'll sleep. Pianni said,
I've been asleep, sitting up all day. The whole top
of my head kept coming down over my eyes. Take
your boots off, Baniello said, that's old fish Face's bed.
Fish Face is nothing to me. Pianni lay on the bed,
his muddy boot straight out, his head on his arm.
(18:36):
I went out to the kitchen. I'mo had a fire
in the stove in a kettle of water on. I
thought i'd start some pasta asiuta. He said, we'll be
hungry when we wake up, aren't you sleepy? Portholemeyo, not
so sleepy. When the water boils, I'll leave it. The
fire will go down. You'd better get some sleep. I said.
(18:57):
We can eat cheese and monkey meat. This is better.
He said, something hot will be good for those two anarchists.
You go to sleep Tenante. There is a bed in
the Major's room. You sleep there. No, I'm going up
to my old room. Do you want to drink Bartolomeo
when we go Tenante? Now? It wouldn't do me any
good if you waken three hours and I haven't called
(19:20):
you wake me? Will you? I haven't any watch Dente.
There is a clock on the wall in the Major's room.
All right. I went out, then through the dining room
in the hall, and up the marble stairs to the
room where I lived with Rinaldi. It was raining outside.
I went to the window and looked out. It was
getting dark, and I saw the three cars standing in
(19:42):
line under the trees. The trees were dripping in the rain.
It was cold and the drops hung to the branches.
I went back to Rinaldi's bed and lay down and
let sleep take me. We ate in the kitchen before
we started. I'mo at a base and a spaghetti with
us onions and tin meat chopped up in it. We
(20:03):
sat around the table and drank two bottles of the
wine that had been left in the cellar of the villa.
It was dark outside and still raining. Piane sat at
the table, very sleepy. I like a retreat better than
an advance, Bonello said. On a retreat, we drink Barbera.
We drink it now. Tomorrow maybe we drink rain water.
(20:25):
Imo said, tomorrow will be in Oudin. We'll drink champagne.
That's where the slackers live. Wake up, Piani. We'll drink
champagne tomorrow and Oudin, I'm awake, Piani said. He filled
his plate with the spaghetti and meat. Couldn't you find
tomato sauce? Barto, there wasn't any. Imo said, we'll drink
(20:47):
champagne and Oudin. Bonello said. He filled his glass with
a clear red barbera. We may drink blank before Oudin.
Piani said, have you eaten enough? Tenante? Imo, I've got plenty.
Give me the bottle. Bartolomeo, I have a bottle apiece
to take in the cars, Amo said, did you sleep
(21:08):
at all? I don't need much sleep. I slept a little. Tomorrow,
will sleep in the King's bed. Bonella said he was
feeling very good. Tomorrow. Maybe we'll sleep in blank. Piani said,
I'll sleep with the queen. Bonello said he looked to
see how I took the joke. You'll sleep with blank.
Piani said, sleepily, that's treason, Tenante. Bonello said, isn't that treason?
(21:34):
Shut up? I said, you get too funny with a
little line outside, it was raining hard. I looked at
my watch. It was half past nine. It's time to roll,
I said, and stood up. Who are you going to
ride with? Tenante? Bonello asked with Imo, then you come
then Piani, we'll start out on the road for Cormoon's.
(21:55):
I'm afraid I'll go to sleep. Piani said, all right,
I'll ride with you. Then. Bonello than Iamo, that's the
best way, Piani said, because I'm so sleepy, I'll drive
and you sleep Awhile. No, I can drive, just so
long as I know somebody will wake me if I
go to sleep. I'll wake you up. Put out the lights, Barto,
(22:16):
you might as well leave them. Bonello said, we've got
no more use for this place. I have a small
locker trunk in my room. I said, will you help
take it down? Piani? We'll take it. Piani said, come
on Aldo. He went off to the hall with Bonello.
I heard them going upstairs. This was a fine place,
Bartolomeo Amo said. He put two bottles of wine and
(22:40):
half a cheese into his haversack. There won't be a
place like this again. Where will they retreat to Tenante?
Beyond the Tagliamento? They say the hospital and the sector
are to be at poor Denone. This is a better
town than por Denone. I don't know Portonono, I said,
(23:00):
I've just been through there. It's not much of a place,
imost said, and a chapter twenty seven
Book three, chapter twenty seven of a Farewell to Arms
by Ernest Hemingway. The LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
I woke when Rinauldi came in, but he did not talk,
and I went back to sleep again. In the morning,
I was dressed and gone before it was light. Rinaldi
(00:21):
did not wake when I left. I had not seen
the Bendziza before, and it was strange to go up
the slope where the Austrians had been. Beyond the place
on the river where I had been wounded, there was
a steep new road in many trucks. Beyond the road
flattened out, and I saw woods and steep hills. In
the midst there were woods that had been taken quickly
(00:44):
and not smashed. Then beyond where the road was not
protected by the hills, it was screened by matting on
the sides, and over the top the road ended in
a wrecked village. The lines were up. Beyond there was
much artillery or the houses were badly smashed, but things
were very well organized, and there were sign boards everywhere.
(01:06):
We found Gino and he got us some coffee, and
later I went with him and met various people and
saw the posts. Gino said. The British cars were working
further down the benzisad Ravni. He had great admiration for
the British. There was still a certain amount of shelling,
he said, but not many wounded. There would be many
(01:27):
sick now the rains had started. The Austrians were supposed
to attack, but he did not believe it. We were
supposed to attack, too, but they had not brought up
any new troops, so he thought that that was off too.
Food was scarce and he would be glad to get
a full meal in Gorizia. What kind of supper had
I had? I told him, and he said that would
(01:48):
be wonderful. He was especially impressed by the dulci. I
did not describe it in detail, only said it was
a dulce, and I think he believed it was something
more elaborate than bread pudding. Did I know where he
was going to go? I said I didn't, but that
some of the other cars were at Caparetto. He hoped
he would go up that way. It was a nice
(02:10):
little place, and he liked the high mountain hauling up beyond.
It was a nice boy, and everyone seemed to like him.
He said, where it really had been Hell was at
San Gabriele and the attack beyond Lom that had gone bad.
He said. The Austrians had a great amount of artillery
in the woods along Rnova Ridge beyond and above us,
(02:30):
and showed the roads badly at night. There was a
battery of naval guns that had gotten on his nerves.
I would recognize them because of their flat trajectory. You
heard the report and then the shriek commenced almost instantly.
They usually fired two guns at once, one right after
the other, and the fragments from the burst were enormous.
(02:51):
He showed me one a smoothly jagged piece of metal
over a foot long. It looked like babbitting metal. I
don't suppose they are so affective, if Gino said, but
they scare me. They all sound as though they came
directly for you. There is the boom, and instantly the
shriek can burst. What's the use of not being wounded
(03:11):
if they scare you to death? He said. There were
croats and the lines opposite us now and some magyars.
Our troops were still in the attacking positions. There was
no wire to speak of and no place to fall back.
To if there should be an Austrian attack. There were
fine positions for defense along the low mountains that came
up out of the plateau, but nothing had been done
(03:33):
about organizing them for defense. What did I think about
the Vinzisa anyway, I'd expected it to be flatter, more
like a plateau. I'd not realized it was so broken
up Ato Piano Gino said, but no, Piano. We went
back to the cellar of the house where he lived.
I said, I thought a ridge that flattened out on
(03:54):
top and had a little more depth would be easier,
more practical to hold than a societ of small mountains.
It was no harder to attack up a mountain than
on the level. I argued, That depends on the mountains,
he said, look at San GABRIELI yes, I said, but
where they had trouble was at the top, where it
was flat. They got to the top easy enough, not
(04:17):
so easy, he said, yes. I said, but that was
a special case because it was a fortress rather than
a mountain. Anyway, the Austrians had been fortifying it for years.
I meant, tactically speaking, in a war where there was
some movement, a succession of mountains were nothing to hold
as a line because it was too easy to turn them.
(04:37):
You should have possible mobility, and a mountain is not
very mobile. Also, people always overshoot downhill. If the flank
were turned, the best men would be left on the
highest mountains. I did not believe in a war of mountains.
I had thought about it a lot, I said. You
pinched off one mountain, they pinched off another. But when
(04:58):
something really started, every one had to get down off
the mountains. What were you going to do if you
had a mountain frontier, he asked. I had not worked
that out yet, I said, and we both laughed. But
I said, in the old days, the Austrians were always
whipped in the quadrilateral around Verona. They let them come
down onto the plain and whip them there. Yes, said Gino,
(05:20):
but those were Frenchmen. And you can work out military
problems clearly when you are fighting in somebody else's country, Yes,
I agreed. When it is your own country, you cannot
use it so scientifically. The Russians did to trap Napoleon, yes,
but they had plenty of country. You tried to retreat
to trap Napoleon in Italy, you would find yourself in
(05:43):
Brandisi a terrible place, said Gino. Have you ever been there?
Not to stay? I am a patriot, Gino said, but
I cannot love Brandisi or Taranto. Do you love the Benzisa,
I asked. The soil is sacred, he said, but I
wish it grew more potatoes. You know, when we came
here we found fields of potatoes the Austrians had planted.
(06:07):
Has the food really been short? I myself have never
had enough to eat, but I am a big eater
and I have not starved. The mess is average. The
regiments and the lion get pretty good food, but those
in support don't get so much. Something is wrong somewhere
there should be plenty of food. The dog fish are
selling it somewhere else. Yes, they give the battalions in
(06:30):
the front line as much as they can, but the
ones back are very short. They have eaten all the
Austrians potatoes and chestnuts from the woods. They ought to
feed them better. We are big eaters. I'm sure there
is plenty of food. It is very bad for the
soldiers to be short of food. Have you ever noticed
the difference it makes in the way you think? Yes,
(06:51):
I said, it can't win a war, but it can
lose one. We won't talk about losing. There is enough
talk about losing. What has been done the same cannot
have been done in Vain. I did not say anything.
I was always embarrassed by the words sacred, glorious, and sacrifice,
and the expression in vain. We had heard them sometimes
(07:12):
standing in the rain, almost out of earshot, so that
only the shouted words came through, and had read them
on proclamations that were slapped up by bill posters over
other proclamations. Now for a long time, and I had
seen nothing sacred, and the things that were glorious had
no glory, and the sacrifices were like the stockyards at Chicago,
(07:34):
if nothing was done with the meat except to bury it.
There were many words that you could not stand to hear,
and finally, only the names of places at dignity. Certain
numbers were the same way in certain dates. And these
were the names of the places where all you could
say and had them mean anything. Abstract words such as glory, honor, courage,
(07:55):
or hallow were obscene Beside the concrete names of villages,
numbers of roads, the names of rivers, the numbers of regiments,
and the dates. Gino was a patriot, so he said
things that separated us sometimes. But he was also a
fine boy, and I understood his being a patriot. He
was born one. He left with PILUSI in the car
(08:17):
to go back to Gorizia. It stormed all that day.
The wind drove down the rain, and everywhere there was
standing water and mud. The plaster of the broken houses
was gray and wet. Late in the afternoon the rain stopped,
and from out Number two posts I saw the bare,
wet autumn country, with clouds over the tops of the
hills and the straw screening over the roads, wet and dripping.
(08:41):
The sun came out once before it went down and
shone on the bare woods beyond the ridge. There were
many Austrian guns in the woods on that ridge, but
only a few fired. I watched the sudden round puffs
of shrapnel smoke in the sky above a broken farmhouse,
near where the line was soft puffs with a yellow
(09:02):
white flash in the center. You saw the flash, then
heard the crack, then saw the smoke ball distort and
thin in the wind. There were many iron trapnel balls
in the rubble of the houses and on the road
beside the broken house where the post was, but they
did not shell near the post. That afternoon, we loaded
two cars and drove down the road that was screened
(09:23):
with wet mats. In the last of the sun came
through in the brakes between the strips of mattings. Before
we were out on the clear road behind the hill.
The sun was down. We went on down the clear road,
and as it turned a corner into the open and
went into the square arched tunnel of matting, the rain
started again. The wind rose in the night, and at
(09:45):
three o'clock in the morning, with the rain coming in sheets,
there was a bombardment and the Croatians came over, crossed
the mountain meadows and through patches of woods and into
the front line. They fought in the dark in the rain,
and a counter attack of s scared men from the
second line drove them back. There was much shelling and
many rockets in the rain, and machine gun and rifle
(10:07):
fire all along the line. They did not come again,
and it was quieter, and between the gusts of wind
and rain we could hear the sound of a great
bombardment far to the north. The wounded were coming into
the post some were carried on stretchers, some walking, and
some were brought on the backs of men that came
across the field. They were wet to the skin and
(10:28):
all were scared. We filled two cars with stretcher cases
as they came up from the cellar of the post.
And as I shut the door of the second car
and fastened it, I felt the rain on my face
turned to snow. The flakes were coming heavy and fast
in the rain. When daylight came, the storm was still blowing,
but the snow had stopped. It had melted as it
(10:50):
fell on the wet ground, and now it was raining again.
There was another attack just after daylight, but it was unsuccessful.
We expected an attack all day, but it did not come.
Until the sun was going down. The bombardment started to
the south, below the long wooded ridge, where the Austrian
guns were concentrated. We expected a bombardment, but it did
(11:13):
not come. Was getting dark, guns were firing from the
field behind the village, and the shells going away at
a comfortable sound. We heard that the attack to the
south had been unsuccessful. They did not attack that night,
but we heard that they had broken through to the
north in the night word came that we were to
(11:34):
prepare to retreat. The captain at the post told me this,
he had it from the brigade. A little while later
he came from the telephone and said it was a lie.
The brigade had received orders that the line of the
Binzisa should be held no matter what happened. I asked
about the breakthrough, and he said he had heard at
the brigade that the Austrians had broken through the twenty
(11:56):
seventh Army Corps up toward Caporetto. There had been a
great battle in the north all day. If those bastards
let them through, we were cooked. He said, Germans that
are attacking. One of the medical officers said the word
Germans was something to be frightened of. We did not
want to have anything to do with the Germans. There
(12:19):
are fifteen divisions of Germans. The medical officer said, they
have broken through and we will be cut off. At
the brigade they said this line is to be held.
They say they have not broken through badly and that
we will hold a line across the mountains from Monte Majore.
Where did they hear this from the division? The word
(12:40):
that we were to retreat came from the division. We
work under the Army Corps, I said, But here I
work under you naturally. When you tell me to go,
I will go, but get the orders straight. The orders
are that we stay here. You clear the wounded from
here to the clearing station. Sometimes we clear from the
clearing station to the field hospitals too, I said. Tell me,
(13:04):
I've never seen a retreat. If there is a retreat,
how are all the wounded evacuated? They are not. They
take as many as they can and leave the rest.
What will I take in the cars, hospital equipment? All right?
I said. The next night the retreat started. We heard
that Germans and Austrians had broken through in the north
(13:26):
and were coming down the mountain valleys toward Cividale and Eudene.
The retreat was orderly, wet and sullen in the night.
Going slowly along the crotted roads, we passed troops marching
under the rain, guns, horses pulling wagons, mules, motor trucks,
all moving away from the front. There was no more
(13:47):
disorder than in an advance. That night we helped empty
the field hospitals that had been set up in the
least ruined villages of the plateau, taking the wounded down
to Plava on the river, and the next day hauled
all day in the rain to evacuate the hospitals in
clearing station at Plava. It rained steadily in the army
(14:09):
of the Manziza moved down off the plateau in the
October rain and across the river where the great victories
had commenced in the spring of that year. We came
into Gorizia in the middle of the next day. The
rain had stopped and the town was nearly empty. As
we came up the street, they were loading the girls
from the soldier's wharhouse into a truck. There were seven girls,
(14:32):
and they had on their hats and coats and carried
small suit cases. Two of them were crying, of the others,
one smiled at us and put out her tongue and
fluttered it up and down. She had thick, full lips
and black eyes. I stopped the car and went over
and spoke to the matron. The girls from the officer's
house had left early that morning. She said, where were
(14:55):
they going to Conigliano? She said. The truck started. The
girl with thick lips put out her tongue again at us,
the matron waved. The two girls kept on crying. The
others looked interestedly out at the town. I got back
in the car. We ought to go with them. Bonello said,
(15:15):
that would be a good trip. We'll have a good trip.
I said, we'll have a hell of a trip. That's
what I mean. I said. We came up to drive
to the villa. I'd like to be there when some
of those tough babies climb in and try and hop them.
You think they will. Sure, everybody in the second Army
knows that matron. We were outside the villa. They call
(15:39):
her the mother's superior. Bonello said. The girls are new,
but everyone knows her. They must have brought them up
just before the retreat. They'll have a time. I'll say
they'll have a time. I'd like to have a crack
at them for nothing. They charged too much at that house. Anyway,
the government gypsys take the car out and have the
mechanics go over it. I said, change the oil and
(16:01):
checked the differential, Fill it up, and then get some sleep, yes,
signor Tenante. The villa was empty. Rinaldi was gone with
the hospital. The major was gone, taking hospital personnel and
the staff car there was a note on the window
for me to fill the cars with the material piled
in the hall and to proceed to board dnone the
(16:24):
mechanics were gone already. I went out back to the garage.
The other two cars came in while I was there,
and their drivers got down, starting to rain again. I'm
so blank sleepy, I want to sleep. Three times coming
here from Plava. Piani said, what are we going to do, Tenante.
We'll change the oil, grease them, fill them up, then
(16:47):
take them around in front and load up the junk
they've left. Then do we start. No, We'll sleep for
three hours. Christ I'm glad to sleep. Bonello said, I
couldn't keep awake driving. How's your car? I'mo, I asked,
it's all right, get me a monkey suit and I'll
help you with the oil. Don't you do that, Tenante?
(17:08):
Aamo said, it's nothing to do. You go and pack
your things. My things are all packed. I said, I'll
go and carry out the stuff that they left for us.
Bring the cars around as soon as they're ready. They
brought the cars around to the front of the villa
and we loaded them with a hospital equipment which was
piled in the hallway. When it was all in, the
(17:29):
three cars stood in line down the driveway under the
trees in the rain. We went inside, make a fire
in the kitchen and dry your things. I said, I
don't care about dry clothes. Piani said, I want to sleep.
I'm going to sleep on the major's bed. Bonello said,
I'm going to sleep where the old men corks off.
I don't care where I sleep. Piannie said, there are
(17:52):
two beds in here. I opened the door. I never
knew what was in that room. Bonello said that was
old fish Faces room. Pianni said, you two sleep in there.
I said, I'll wake you. The Austrians will wake us
if you sleep too long. Tenante Bonello said, I won't
over sleep. I said, where's Imo. We went out to
(18:13):
the kitchen. Get to sleep. I said, I'll sleep. Pianni said,
I've been asleep, sitting up all day. The whole top
of my head kept coming down over my eyes. Take
your boots off, Baniello said, that's old fish Face's bed.
Fish Face is nothing to me. Pianni lay on the bed,
his muddy boot straight out, his head on his arm.
(18:36):
I went out to the kitchen. I'mo had a fire
in the stove in a kettle of water on. I
thought i'd start some pasta asiuta. He said, we'll be
hungry when we wake up, aren't you sleepy? Portholemeyo, not
so sleepy. When the water boils, I'll leave it. The
fire will go down. You'd better get some sleep. I said.
(18:57):
We can eat cheese and monkey meat. This is better.
He said, something hot will be good for those two anarchists.
You go to sleep Tenante. There is a bed in
the Major's room. You sleep there. No, I'm going up
to my old room. Do you want to drink Bartolomeo
when we go Tenante? Now? It wouldn't do me any
good if you waken three hours and I haven't called
(19:20):
you wake me? Will you? I haven't any watch Dente.
There is a clock on the wall in the Major's room.
All right. I went out, then through the dining room
in the hall, and up the marble stairs to the
room where I lived with Rinaldi. It was raining outside.
I went to the window and looked out. It was
getting dark, and I saw the three cars standing in
(19:42):
line under the trees. The trees were dripping in the rain.
It was cold and the drops hung to the branches.
I went back to Rinaldi's bed and lay down and
let sleep take me. We ate in the kitchen before
we started. I'mo at a base and a spaghetti with
us onions and tin meat chopped up in it. We
(20:03):
sat around the table and drank two bottles of the
wine that had been left in the cellar of the villa.
It was dark outside and still raining. Piane sat at
the table, very sleepy. I like a retreat better than
an advance, Bonello said. On a retreat, we drink Barbera.
We drink it now. Tomorrow maybe we drink rain water.
(20:25):
Imo said, tomorrow will be in Oudin. We'll drink champagne.
That's where the slackers live. Wake up, Piani. We'll drink
champagne tomorrow and Oudin, I'm awake, Piani said. He filled
his plate with the spaghetti and meat. Couldn't you find
tomato sauce? Barto, there wasn't any. Imo said, we'll drink
(20:47):
champagne and Oudin. Bonello said. He filled his glass with
a clear red barbera. We may drink blank before Oudin.
Piani said, have you eaten enough? Tenante? Imo, I've got plenty.
Give me the bottle. Bartolomeo, I have a bottle apiece
to take in the cars, Amo said, did you sleep
(21:08):
at all? I don't need much sleep. I slept a little. Tomorrow,
will sleep in the King's bed. Bonella said he was
feeling very good. Tomorrow. Maybe we'll sleep in blank. Piani said,
I'll sleep with the queen. Bonello said he looked to
see how I took the joke. You'll sleep with blank.
Piani said, sleepily, that's treason, Tenante. Bonello said, isn't that treason?
(21:34):
Shut up? I said, you get too funny with a
little line outside, it was raining hard. I looked at
my watch. It was half past nine. It's time to roll,
I said, and stood up. Who are you going to
ride with? Tenante? Bonello asked with Imo, then you come
then Piani, we'll start out on the road for Cormoon's.
(21:55):
I'm afraid I'll go to sleep. Piani said, all right,
I'll ride with you. Then. Bonello than Iamo, that's the
best way, Piani said, because I'm so sleepy, I'll drive
and you sleep Awhile. No, I can drive, just so
long as I know somebody will wake me if I
go to sleep. I'll wake you up. Put out the lights, Barto,
(22:16):
you might as well leave them. Bonello said, we've got
no more use for this place. I have a small
locker trunk in my room. I said, will you help
take it down? Piani? We'll take it. Piani said, come
on Aldo. He went off to the hall with Bonello.
I heard them going upstairs. This was a fine place,
Bartolomeo Amo said. He put two bottles of wine and
(22:40):
half a cheese into his haversack. There won't be a
place like this again. Where will they retreat to Tenante?
Beyond the Tagliamento? They say the hospital and the sector
are to be at poor Denone. This is a better
town than por Denone. I don't know Portonono, I said,
(23:00):
I've just been through there. It's not much of a place,
imost said, and a chapter twenty seven
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