The Battery’s good luck continued.  On the 30th, while my Gun Detachment were at breakfast, a 5.9 burst in their shelter trench, at the moment unoccupied, and covered every one with showers of loose earth.  All the breakfast vanished, and our shells were thrown about like driftwood in a storm.  But no ammunition was exploded and no one was hurt.  Raven, who had been up Sabotino that day, told us that “San Gabriele is tottering.”  Our offensive seemed to have completely come to an end on the Carso and in the Vippacco Valley.  But we were still hammering away at San Marco and San Gabriele, at intervals of a few days at a time.  On the 2nd of September San Gabriele was still “tottering,” on the morning of the 4th it was reported taken, on the 6th we heard that it had been taken, lost and retaken, the Arno Brigade having distinguished themselves by some wonderful bombing.  Cadorna’s objective now, it was said, was Lubiana, and not Trieste.  The Major and I both agreed that the Entente ought to put every available man and tank on to this Front and go for Vienna.  On the 8th Raven told us that the top of San Gabriele was held, but not the lower slopes nor Santa Catarina, which were still precariously supplied from behind San Marco.  A few days later we lost the top of San Gabriele, and the attack upon it was not renewed.

Then followed quiet times, except for activity by Austrian Trench Mortars against our trenches on Hill 126.  We established direct telephonic communication from the Battery to the Infantry Brigade Headquarters in order to provide rapid retaliation, and we made several Reconnaissances to try to locate Trench Mortars in the tangle of broken ground through which the enemy line ran.

On the 17th we were warned to be ready to move at short notice to the neighbourhood of Monfalcone, for a big push against the Hermada in three weeks’ time.  Battery positions were chosen, but we never went.  Instead a rumour began to spread that all British Batteries were leaving Italy and going East.  It was said that the War Office had the wind up about the Turks.  An international tug of war was going on behind the scenes.  On the afternoon of the 28th we were told on high authority that our movements were still undecided, but the Battery was inspected that day by General Capello, the victor of Bainsizza, who looked like an Eastern potentate, and was heard to say that he wanted as many British Batteries as he could get, to increase the gun power of the Second Army.  That evening, however, our fate was said to be unofficially decided.  We, with the rest of Raven’s Group, five Batteries in all, were to stay in Italy, the other two Groups were to go away.  It was not till the 3rd of October that we received definite orders on the subject.  The other Groups went to Egypt and a couple of Batteries, after three months of doing nothing in Cairo, came back to Italy again.  They had at any rate found a little employment for some of our surplus shipping and they had missed some queer experiences in Italy meantime.