Background
The 1/4th Battalion of the Royal Berkshire Regiment was under command of 145th (South Midland) Infantry Brigade of 48th (South Midland) Division. It moved to northern Italy in late 1917, after more than two years of service in France and Flanders.
On 26 October 1917, British General Headquarters in France received an urgent order from London, directing it to send two divisions to Italy as quickly as possible. The Italian Army had suffered a shattering reverse when attacked at Caporetto and was in serious danger of collapse. The Supreme Inter-Allied War Council had advised moving some British and French reserves into the Italian theatre. The 23rd and 41st Divisions, both about to be relieved from the fighting at Ypres, were selected. A further order on 8 November then expanded the force, and the 7th and 48th (South Midland) Divisions also prepared to move. On 14 November the 5th Division was added, making the British force in Italy up to five divisions.
The entrainment of the 48th (South Midland) Division took place between 21 and 26 November 1917. Unfortunately the Italian railway system completely broke down under the strain of five British divisions arriving from France, and detrainment and concentration proved somewhat chaotic. The units detrained along the Este-Verona line, between Este and Isola della Scala. By 10 December the 48th (South Midland) Division moved up the Brenta Valley to an area around Tezze, and was under orders to prepare for a move a little further on to Marostica. During January 1918, the crisis having been averted by actions elsewhere, the division was moved into reserve near Treviso. 5th and 41st Divisions were returned to France.
In early March 1918 the 48th (south Midland) Division relieved the 7th Division in the front lines of the Montello sector. It did not stay long here, being relieved by the Italian 58th Division later in the month, and then moving back to Treviso.
On 23 April 1918, the division moved into the right sub-sector of the front on the Asiago Plateau, which was being taken over by the British from the Italians. This was a mountainous region with snow, and special preparations in terms of equipment, signalling methods etc. were made as far as possible. Trench warfare was resumed, with its usual attendant dangers.
On 15 June 1918 the Austrians attacked the British force on the Asiago Plateau, using about four and a half divisions. The British front was being held by the 23rd and 48th Divisions, both well under-strength due to lack of reinforcements and cases of influenza, and each holding 4000 yards of line. For example in 144th Brigade, where companies should have been 250 strong, they only averaged 75 men each. The British force received good intelligence about the forthcoming attack.
At 3am on 15 June 1918, a heavy bombardment including gas opened on the entire British front and gun battery positions. The enemy fire was not registered or accurate, but it brought trees down and sent large rock splinters flying. Artillery signalling lines were soon out of action. British counter-battery work (firing at the Austrian guns) commenced at 5am and was throughout the day very successful. The Austrian infantry attack opened at 7am, and the battle soon broke in the mist and wooded country into fragmented local affairs, with hand-to-hand fighting. The 23rd Division lost a little ground at the flanks but recovered it during the day. The front of the 48th Division was broken at several places but again this was recovered by early on the 16th. British patrols were sent out, in the belief that the Austrians were confused and demoralised, but they ran soon into resistance that suggested otherwise. The total of casualties suffered by whole British force in this action – the “Battle of the Asiago Plateau” – barely exceeded 1,400. Severe as the fighting was, it bore no comparison with the experiences of the Western Front. Indeed, conditions remained quiet until October, punctuated by various raids, as the division remained in the Asiago area. It is one of these raids that is decribed below.
The raid
The British Official History of Military Operations on the Italian front tells us that, “The month of August was closed by two considerable raids against the enemy security posts in the old trenches. On the 26th/27th the 1/Buckinghamshire Battalion and the 1/4th R. Berkshire of the 48th Division, with powerful artillery support, raided the enemy trenches east of Ave. They killed many Austrians and brought back 210 prisoners, their casualties amounting to 169 killed, wounded and missing. In the 23rd Division, which had relieved the 7th, on the same day, the 10/Duke of Wellington’s attacked the post near Vaister, killed about eighty men and captured 65 at a cost of 56 casualties. In both cases the enemy was found prepared and at first offered resistance.”
The battalion’s orders were quite succinct: the objective was to kill or capture the Austrian garrison of the position being raided. Two of the battalion’s four companies (“B” and “C”) were to lead the raid. They would be followed by “A” Company which would then push through them to carry the attack further north, and finally “D” Company would also advance and take the raid to its final objective. In other words, this raid was a full-scale attack by the entire battalion. The battalion began to move forward from its own outpost line, deploying ready to attack at 10.40pm on 26 August 1918.
At zero hour a heavy British artillery barrage began to crash down, lifting further forward at one, five and nine minutes after zero to then turn into a “box barrage”: this meant that shells fell around the perimeter of the battalion’s attack area, ensuring Austrians could neither escape or move in to reinforce the units being attacked.
The attack proceeded more or less according to plan. At least 72 Austrians were taken prisoner (the after-action report did not state how many were killed or wounded, and a later brigade report said there were 210 prisoners taken); the battalion suffered the loss of one man dead, 4 missing, five officers and 41 men wounded and evacuated for medical treatment, and an officer and 25 men were slightly wounded and remained at duty.
The action took place between Guardinalti and Ave. Sadly the battalion diary does not contain a good map of the raid (although it is possible that such a map might be found in the diary of the Divisional HQ, Brigade HQ or elsewhere, At time of writing, the Italy diaries are not digitised and online. All are held in National Archives collection WO95).
The battalion’s dead can be traced by reference to the records of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. details expanded by references to other sources:
- Commemorated at the Giavera Memorial (men without known graves)
- Pte 203192 Frank Thomas Cleveland. X Platoon, C Company. Missing in action 26 August. Aged 22, son of Harry Ernest and Jane Cleveland of Edgbaston, Birmingham. Enlisted in Reading.
- Pte 200099 John New. Missing in action 26 August. Aged 23, son of Tom and Elizabeth New of Eddington, Hungerford, Berkshire.
- Pte 36028 Arthur Macdonald. X Platoon, C Company. Missing in action 26 August. Son of Annie Macdonald of 50 Grace Road, Sparkbrook, Birmingham and the late Arthur Macdonald.
- Buried at Cavaletto British Cemetery
- Pte 14102 James Henry Clutterbuck Merriman. Died of wounds 27 August. Aged 25, son of Benjamin James and Susannah Grace Merriman of Tottenham, London.
- Special memorial at Barenthal Military Cemetery
- Pte 220192 Edward Lewis Bullen. Died of wounds on 26 August. Aged 20, the second son of Mr and Mrs W. T. Bullen, of 1 Garfield Road, Great Yarmouth. Previously of the Norfolk Regiment.
Awards
After the raid
On 25 October 1918 the Allies commenced a general offensive on the Italian front. Advances were made on all sectors, particularly in the east (the Vittorio Veneto) in which the Italian and British 7th and 23rd Divisions made a deep advance across the River Piave. The 48th (South Midland) Division also made progress in the Trentino. Hostilities came to an end on 4 November 1918, when the Austrians signed an Armistice. On that morning, elements of the division (sadly not the 1/4th Royal Berkshires) were the first British forces to cross an international border in Europe and set foot on what had been an enemy country back in 1914.
This article draws on my study of 200905 Frederick William Thomas Robinson MM, carried out for a private client in 2015. Frederick, who was born in Reading in 1899, earned his MM in the raid.