The Brenta River runs through the wartime scenes near Dolo as both a practical obstacle and a landmark within reach of bombardment. The ambulance section must cross it to reach its quarters, and later, bombs fall into and around the river as the men shelter in a villa nearby.

Setting and Crossing

After moving to Dolo, on a frozen canal in the Venetian plain, the section is quartered in an elegant villa reached by crossing the Brenta River. The crossing makes the river part of the ordinary work of getting to and from the section’s quarters, even in raw, wintry weather. The villa’s comfort and formality stand against the exposed conditions surrounding it.

A Bridge Prepared for Retreat

The bridge over the Brenta River has been mined by a company of British sappers, who are ready to blow it up if the retreat begins again. They promise to wait until Section 1 has crossed before destroying it. The river crossing is therefore more than a route: it is a point whose continued availability depends on the section’s passage and on the changing military situation.

Bombardment at the Villa

During a moonlit night at the villa, Austrian planes drop bombs near the Brenta River. The men have been drinking and fail to notice the antiaircraft guns and shrapnel overhead. One bomb falls into the river; others explode in front of the window, shaking the villa and bringing plaster down from the ceiling and tiles off the roof. Feldmann, the section’s head, urges them to take shelter after reporting that an Italian mechanic has been killed and a soldier injured on the road.

The River After the Raid

At dawn, Dick Savage staggers to the window as heavy rain falls. Through it, the Brenta’s foaming rapids appear white. The river, first crossed as part of the section’s routine movement and later marked by a bridge prepared for demolition, now frames the aftermath of the night’s attack. Its presence links the villa’s temporary refuge to the surrounding danger without making that refuge secure.