were taken, as well as several hamlets and hills east of Gorizia and Plava. The Plava bridgehead had by this time been strengthened by the building of the "Badoglio Road," the "road of the thirty-two hairpins," which dropped by successive zigzags down from Monte Corada. As to Kuk, a distinguished English author writes: "A few days after its capture I saw on the top of Monte Kuk some Italian 'seventyfives' that had been dragged up, Heaven knows how, by sheer strength of arm and will during the mêlée itself." ITALIANS SUFFER VERY HEAVY LOSSES ON THE ISONZO. THE "The Italian losses were, of course, very heavy. The attacking troops had carried positions that might well have been thought impregnable, and they had paid the price. When the Avellino and Florence Brigades were taken out of the line to rest and re-form after three and four days' fighting respectively, the Avellino had lost over 100 officers and nearly 2,700 men, out of 140 officers and 5,000 men; and though the casualties in the Florence Brigade were not quite so heavy, they lost nearly 50 per cent of their strength." The Austrians attempted a diversion on the Trentino at this juncture, opening heavy fire in the Val Sugana, on the Asiago Plateau, and in the Adige Valley. There was vigorous fighting on Monte Colbricon and the "Dente del Pasubio." The inevitable counter-attack, occupying the first week in June, was most violent from San Marco southward. From Fajti Hrib to Jamiano, the bombardment and infantry drives did not make much impression; but farther south the Italians fell back from onethird of a mile to a mile and a quarter on a three mile front, recrossing the Timavo and dropping behind Flondar. The fighting was fierce and terrible. Yet there was one strange stain on the great record of valorous endeavor. A brigade, engaged on the slopes of Hermada, surrendered without any attempt at real resistance and so made way for the enemy. It was composed of men newly drafted from a region where pacifist propaganda was astir. A danger from within, more baleful than any host of tangible warriors however armed, had begun to raise its head. General Cadorna at once wrote to the Government with warning and appeal. In the whole spring offensive the Necessity for economizing in military Italians lost nearly 130,000 men, of supplies forbade General Cadorna's at- whom about 6,000 were prisoners. They tempting to attack simultaneously on had taken, in return, 24,260 Austrotwo sectors of any great width. Con- Hungarian prisoners, and had reduced sequently, the stroke upon the Carso the enemy fighting forces by something was not delivered until May 23. It less than 100,000 in killed and woundfell with such overwhelming force that ed. In mid-summer, the glacier-fed in a few hours the Austro-Hungarians flood of the river was rushing through had been driven back nearly a mile gorges between lofty cliffs, or rollbeyond their immensely strong front ing beside occasional narrow plains. lines from Kostanjevica to the sea, Far to the north, it passed towering and had yielded Hudi Log ("the Evil Monte Nero, overlooking Caporetto on Wood"), Lukatic, Jamiano, and several the west, with its peaceful Italian garrihills. At the southern end, on the son, and Tolmino on the southeast, with coast, Bagni was taken in a battle that its unmolested Austrian inhabitants. engaged 130 airplanes and a group of ERMADA SHAKEN, BUT NOT CAPTURED the Royal Navy seaplanes. The first HMADA SHAKEN day's contest gave the Italians 9,000 prisoners. By May 28, the line had Less than twenty miles farther down the stream, close behind the Italian position at Gorizia, rose the sheer precipice of Monte Santo, on whose summit, lifted "like a church spire," lay the ruins of a shrine. There, at the outbreak of hostilities, the aged emperor of Austria-Hungary had been carried in a sedan chair, to pray for the success of his Imperial arms. Now, Franz Josef had passed beyond the bounds of human history, and the shrine had crumbled into a heap of white marble under shell-fire from Sabotino, only a half-mile away across the river. Still farther southward, where Isonzo meets the sea, across the blue gulf one could gaze along the Carso to "ugly turtlebacked Hermada Mountain blocking the road to Trieste." But the boast of Hermada was partly silenced. Not all its guns could speak as they had done. After the unavoidable check in the vigorous Italian offensive of May, 1917, General Cadorna was unable to press for further progress until summer had begun to wane. His allies could not spare him sufficient aid for a great offensive movement, while his adversaries were enabled to build up their resistance by transferring troops from the demoralized Russian front, no longer formidable since the collapse of the Russian government in the spring. HE BATTLE RESUMED ON THE ISONZO TIN AUGUST. After mid-summer had passed in comparative quiet, a month of continuous and intense conflict was inaugurated on August 18 by a great bombardment from Tolmino to the sea. North of Gorizia, where the Isonzo makes a bend that points westward, lies Plava, which had been steadily useful to the Italians since its capture in June, 1915. Again it was to be employed as a starting place for an important attack, this time, upon the Bainsizza Plateau. Fitting into the angle of the river and stretching eastward as far as the Chiapovano Valley, the Bainsizza is an elevated region with surface broken by rock masses, glens, and doline, or depressions, somewhat in the same way as that of the Carso. The Second Army, under General Capello, was operating from Gorizia BGREAT DIFFICULTIES. RIDGES CONSTRUCTED AT NIGHT UNDER But from Plava, on August 18, a sally was made to the northeast, resulting in the seizure of a valley situated between Kuk and the Bainsizza. A short distance farther up the river, where as yet the Italians had found no foothold upon the eastern bank, a crossing was accomplished on the night of August 19. In preparation for this feat, the river had been nightly diverted from its channel until ten foot-bridges had been constructed. By day the stream flowed as usual, showing no sign of change. On the evening of the nineteenth, four pontoon bridges were added, though the cliffs were so abrupt that the boats had to be dropped on skids, and ladders had to be used to get the men to the level of the river and up again on the opposite side. To screen the movements on the river, a great battery of search-lights, ranged along the heights of the western shore, was turned upon the Austrian gunners, and heavy firing covered the sound of work upon the bridges. By their impetuous and unexpected rush up the declivity, in the face of machine guns, the heroic fighters of Capello's army drove their way through the front lines of the enemy, then pushed on north and east across the plateau until, by August 24, they could look across to the edge of Lom in the one direction, and were within range of the Ternova batteries in the other. On the Bainsizza they soon were beyond all points where artillery or trucks and ambulances could accompany them. The engineers followed as fast as was possible, in an effort to keep communications open; but the Austrians had not made good roadways leading to their own front lines and the poor approaches were now ploughed up or encumbered with wreckage. Therefore, there were several days during which the advance of the Italian army could be supplied only by carriers on foot, and the wounded had to be borne back for miles over the rough ground by their companions. Water also was lacking. It was a time of great danger, but the venturous battalions held their own until the paths had been leveled sufficiently for guns, lorries, and ambulances to carry them relief. Always the reliable Fiat cars, with their intrepid drivers, and the British Red Cross units arrived as near the front as might be and at the earliest moment possible. Further relief was furnished by a diversion in the form of attacks in the middle Isonzo region, around San Gabriele. MONTE SANTO SURROUNDED FORCED TO SURRENDER. AND In that sector, northeast of Gorizia, on August 23, Monte Santo had been threatened from the rear, and its garrison isolated by the capture of Sella di Dol, "the saddle" connecting Santo with San Gabriele. Thus cut off and surrounded, Monte Santo yielded, on the twenty-fourth. Above its summit, more than 2,000 feet high, the Italian tricolor floated out, while regimental bands celebrated there the victorious hour, playing under the direction of the great Toscanini. During this first week of the offensive, the Duke of Aosta and the Third Army had been doing admirable work on the southern Carso, where the 23rd Corps, under Diaz, demolished the Austrian 12th Division and secured Selo. Very quickly the ground that had been lost in June was recovered, and the Austrian line forced back from Kostanjevica (Castagnevizza) across the Brestovica Valley. Nearer the sea, an advance was made beyond San Giovanni and Medeazza, and attacks on Hermada reopened. In that sector, British and Italian monitors took part in the bombardment. The Italian monitors, it is said, were of a sort never before used in war, and employed shells of greater calibre than had ever before been fired from warships. Around the head of the Adriatic and on the Bainsizza as well Caproni airplanes, too, furnished admirable assistance in the offensive, flying forward by swarms, in advance of the infantry, and dropping tons of bombs upon the enemy positions. The first week of September, 1917, marked the beginning of "a fight for a natural fortress within as narrow limits of movement as any old battle for town or castle.' It was a struggle for the possession of San Gabriele ridge, which, by the fall of Santo, had become an Austrian salient surrounded by Italians everywhere except on the northeast. For ten days the contest seethed. A correspondent writes: "When first I looked down (from Santo) upon the battle for San Gabriele I seemed to hang directly over the crater of a volcano. A matter of 40,000 Italian shells on a daily average are bursting over San Gabriele's crest. In addition are the Austrian shells, for the lines on San Gabriele are now so close that the topmost positions SAND-BAG TRENCHES ON THE CARSO TABLELAND That forbidding plateau, the Carso, "yields as little shade or water as the Sahara." Its stunted vegetation reminded the South Africans of their veldt. In places, great natural hollows in the rock furnished ready-made shelters for men and guns; but in other parts, where digging was an impossibility, sand-bag trenches were used. AR IS FINALLY DECLARED UPON THE September; 145 cannons, 265 mitrailleuses, and great quantities of other guns and matériel had fallen into the hands of the victors. But on the opposite side of the account were written 155,000 Italian casualties. Under the Austrian counter-strokes, the Italians fell back from Hermada and San Giovanni, though they relinquished no ground in the vicinity of Kostanjevica. San Gabriele was still divided. Not yet was the road from Gorizia to Trieste opened, when in mid-September the offensive died away. General Capello's Bainsizza position had been reinforced, but it was a salient of peculiar difficulty and WGERMAN EMPIRE. Not until August, 1916, was the last link of the Triple Alliance formally severed. Up to that time, Italy had declared war against Austria-Hungary, against Turkey, even against Bulgaria, but not against Germany. The situation was anomalous and compromising, for there was no question that Germany stood behind AustriaHungary with support and direction in her warfare upon Italy. Moreover, the Prussian power was continually committing unfriendly acts, in violation of all agreements with its Latin ally. The atmosphere was cleared by the Italian Government's denunciation of the Commerical treaty with Germany, which had been made on May 21, 1915, and finally, on August 27, the face behind it." Yet, the war had gone on without bringing forward any German army upon the Italian frontier. HE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE ITALIAN PEAS Victor Emmanuel made proclamation THAT SOLDIER At the eastern end of that frontier, after the terrific strife of August and September, 1917, "both sides settled down exhausted on the ground where they found themselves." The Italian ITALIAN DOCTOR INOCULATING BERSAGLIERI AGAINST DISEASE Italian soldiers are for the most part sound and tough in physique, especially the mountain troops. And the Bersaglieri are particularly uncomplaining when wounded and in pain. In modern warfare no precautions are spared to prevent epidemics; so inoculation, quarantine, careful supervision over food, drinking water, hygienic conditions of barracks, etc., are part of the duty of the Sanitary Department. Picture from Henry Ruschin Three months later, when, on November 21, Franz Josef came to the end of his long career, the hostile feelings of the Italians for their German antagonists grew more intense. The old emperor, nicknamed "Cecco Beppe" by his southern neighbors, had long held the rôle of their traditional oppressor and evil genius. At his death the heritage of hatred passed, not to his young successor, Karl, but to the German Empire. Caricatures of "Cecco Beppe" were then given Prussian lineaments. and crowned with Prussian helmets. The natural animosity of the race had been transferred "from the mask to Third Army, under the Duke of Aosta, rested along the line they had established on the Carso, facing the extreme left wing of the enemy from Gorizia to the sea. Flanking them, from Gorizia and San Gabriele northward over the Bainsizza to beyond Tolmino and Caporetto, stood the Second Army, commanded by General Capello, whose area of control had been considerably extended since 1916. Many in these two armies had sustained the heavy strain of war for months, had borne the "heat and burden" of long days of furious fighting, the cold and depression of weeks of |