2Lt Youll VC

The Official History of the War - Military Operations Italy 1915-19 (curiously not published until 1949) explains the British Forces were initially deployed in support of the Italian Armies on the River Piave in the Veneto region. In Spring 1918, however, they moved some 75kms northwest onto the Asiago Plateau as intelligence assessments forecast this was where the next Austro-Hungarian offensive would take place. Sure enough on the 15th June the assault commenced through the densely wooded area immediately south of the town of Asiago high in the foothills of the Alps. 11th Bn Northumberland Fusiliers were in the front line when the Austrian troops broke through and 2Lt Youll’s citation reads as follows:

‘For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty during enemy attacks when in command of a patrol, which came under the hostile barrage. Sending his men back to safety, he remained too serve the situation. Unable subsequently to rejoin his company, 2Lt Youllreported to a neighbouring unit, and when the enemy attacked, he maintained his position with several men of different units until the troops on his left had given way and an enemy machine gun had opened fire from behind them. He rushed the gun and, having killed most of the team, opened fire on the enemy with the captured gun, inflicting heavy casualties. Then, finding that the enemy hadgained a footing in a portion of the front line, he organised and carried outwith a few men three separate counter-attacks. On each occasion he drove back the enemy but was unable to maintain his position by reason of reverse fire.Throughout the fighting his complete disregard of personal safety and very gallant leading set a magnificent example to all.’

What emerges from a study of the history is that 11th Bn Northumberland Fusiliers were on the extreme left flank of 23rd Division. To its left was the British 48th Division. In this area the Austrians’ attack came directly at the interdivisional boundary, always a military point of weakness. The British units were not well trained in mountain warfare as they had come from the Western Front and one of the particular challenges that morning was that communications above battalion level did not exist, as the artillery barrage had destroyed the cables that could not be dug in because of the rocky terrain. 11th Bn Northumberland Fusiliers only had contact with the unit to their left, the 1/4th Bn Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry as a result of the initiative of individuals like Jack Youll. When you visit the battlefield, it is difficult to identify exactly where his acts of bravery took place, but from a study of the black and white images in the ‘Museo 1915-18’ housed in the former railway station at the nearby town of Roana, it is clear the woods then were less thick than now. The plateau is at an altitude of over 3,500 feet and reports of the battle say the was mist down, which would have added to the confusion. As you walk through the woods it is possible to still see the remains of the trench constructions, and the diagonal ‘switch’ positions that demanded the low-level leadership that Youll clearly gave soldiers from another company that day.

Curiosity made me wonder what happened to Youll as he clearly survived the Battle of Asiago as the photograph [1] shows. In September 1918 the majority of British Forces left the Asiago Plateau in preparation for the final Italian offensive known as the Battle of Vittorio Veneto. The Commander-in-Chief of the British Forces, General the Earl ofCavan, was given the unusual privilege of commanding the Italian 10th Army, which included the 7th and 23rd British Divisions. As part of 23rd Division, 11th Bn NorthumberlandFusiliers were part of the assault on the 26th/27th October, which Norman Gladden describes so vividly in his book ‘Across the Piave’. This account is unusual as it is written by a soldier who joined the 11th Bn in May 1917 and survived the war, but who did not record his memories until 1971. Pte Gladden served in a different company to Jack Youll, but both had deployed to Italy at the same time and fought in the Battle of Asiago. Gladden recalls:

‘We strung out in open order and continued our progress, expecting at any moment to hear the rattle of a machine gun ahead, but still nothing untoward happened. Coming in from the right – itwas a characteristic of our flank position that everything came from our right that morning – we saw an officer approaching who, as he came nearer, we recognised as the battalion’s VC; he had been wounded in the hand and was going back to the rear to have it dressed. We waved and wished him the best of luck, not without the usual streak of jealousy for his good fortune. Later I heard that he had been killed crossing one of the pontoons, which was receiving attention from the Austrian artillery. Such is the futility of military glory.A brave man dies by a chance shell as easily as a coward. Neither bravery nor cowardice are keys to survival in the days of high explosive.’  

And that is the explanation as to why Jack Youll is buried with 24 of his comrades from the Northumberland Fusiliers in the Giavera Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in a quiet and sheltered corner of the Veneto region of Northern Italy.  

[1] Reproduced courtesy of IWM archives.

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