 Wheeler and the brigade arrived in Italy on 20 November , and proceeded through the Italian <unk> to reach <unk> , where it had been sent to bolster the Italian troops against a German and Austro @-@ Hungarian advance . As the Russian Republic removed itself from the war , the German Army <unk> its efforts on the Western Front , and so in March 1918 Wheeler 's brigade was ordered to leave Italy , getting a train from <unk> to <unk> Rouen in France . Back on the Western Front , the brigade was assigned to the 2nd Division , again part of Julian <unk> 's Third Army , reaching a stable area of the front in April . Here , Wheeler was engaged in artillery fire for several months , before the British went on the offensive in August . On 24 August , in between the ruined villages of <unk> and <unk> , he led an expedition which captured two German field guns while under heavy fire from a castle mound ; he was later awarded the Military Cross for this action . Wheeler continued as part of the British forces pushing westward until the German surrender in November 1918 . He was not <unk> for several months , instead being stationed at <unk> in Germany until March ; during this time he wrote up his earlier research on Romano @-@ Rhenish pottery , making use of access to local museums , before returning to London in July 1919 . 
