The Beauty and the Sorrow (88 page)

4
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Austrian cavalry crossing the Vistula at Praga in Warsaw, 5 or 6 August 1915:
“We were told by the Staff that the enemy had crossed the Vistula in several places but so far was not molesting our forces except for small cavalry patrols which had appeared nearby.”

5
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German troops in Minsk, 1915:
“The city came as a revelation to her, not least because it sparkled with colours like pinks and whites, colours she and her companions have almost forgotten after months of existing with the many shades of brown of the earth, of the road and of uniforms.”

6
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View of Elfriede Kuhr’s Schneidemühl, 1917:
“Once again Elfriede goes to the railway station. She is going to visit Dora Haensch, her best friend, whose parents run a small restaurant in the station building.”

7
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Red Square, Moscow, October 1917:
“It is less than two months since she was last in Moscow but the city has changed enormously. The darkened streets are patrolled by all-powerful and trigger-happy soldiers wearing red armbands.”

8
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A trainload of homeward-bound Austro-Hungarian troops has stopped in Budapest, November 1918:
“Gradually the housing outside the sooty carriages begins to get denser as they enter the suburbs of Budapest. At about twelve at night the train stops very briefly at a small station in Rákos.”

THE ITALIAN FRONT

1
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An Austro-Hungarian supply column near Santa Lucia, October 1917:
“The trench itself is right in the forward line, looking towards the cone-shape of Monte Santa Lucia on the Isonzo.… There is a deep and steep-sided valley separating the Italian lines from the Austrian.”

2
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Italian Alpini in their element, 1915:
“Thanks to his mountaineering experience, [Monelli] succeeded in being selected for the Alpini, the elite mountain infantry. He joined up in June, in Belluno.”

3
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Austro-Hungarian mountain troops working their way forward in the Alps, 1915:
“A chill blast, my heart becomes agitated. The first shot of the war: a warning that means that the machinery has been set in motion and is inexorably dragging you with it. Now you’re in, and you’ll never get out.”

4
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Cima Undici, 1916:
“The Alpini battalion Paolo Monelli belongs to has been on Monte Cima for some days and they have occasionally come under artillery fire. But what is happening?”

5
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Monte Cauriol, 1916:
“By this point they have been on many dreadful mountains, but this one promises to be the worst of the lot. They stormed and took Monte Cauriol about a month ago—a feat in itself.”

6
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An Austro-Hungarian military hospital on Monte Ortigara, 1915:
“For about a fortnight they have watched battalion after battalion dispatched towards the top of Monte Ortigara and each time they have also watched the result: first to come are the stretcher-bearers with the wounded and the mules with the dead, then—after a few hours or a few days—what remains of the battalion trudges past.”