SIR - Not many people know that Yorkshire soldiers (from the west and north Ridings), in 69 Brigade of the 7th Division of the British Expeditionary force, saw action in North Italy during 1918.
The 7th Division, along with other French and British divisions, remained in Italy to help the Italian Army until the final victory in November 1918. Friday, June 15 marks the centenary of the Battle of the Asiago Plateau where the Allied troops resisted a major offensive by the Austro-Hungarian Army. The attack resulted in fierce hand to hand fighting with trenches being taken and then retaken as the Austrian troops for pushed back.
It was during this battle that Captain Edward Brittain MC, 11th Battalion Sherwood Foresters, brother of Vera Brittain (author of Testament of Youth), lost his life defending his company’s trench on the San Sisto Ridge.
When he was shot by a sniper, he was leading his men in a counter attack to push out about 200 Austrian troops who had forced their way into the trench. Edward is buried in the Granezza British Cemetery in Italy on the Asiago Plateau.
Peter J Palmer, Buttermere Road, Bradford
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