CAREFUL PREPARATIONS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXVI, Issue 3558, 19 September 1916, Page 5

CAREFUL PREPARATIONS.

GALLANT ALPINE WORK

MILAN, Soptensb'er 17. During the months following the fail oi' Oorizia 30,000 Italian ongineers. toiled day and night,-mostly v under fire; constructing cement platforms ' for heavy guns and laying light railways and broad paved highways for automobiles and artillery. By this means 1000 guns were concentrated on a .15-------mile front, and prepared the way for the recent advance. ■•■ ■ The Italian troops crQjK-.h-ing behind steel ;shicjlds. The foremost line consisted .of sappers carrying long tubes of explosive gelatine, with which they-completed tho demolition of, the wire defences. A largo number of Austrians rushed down the slopes towards the Italians, shelled by'their own artillery, waving 'handkerchiefs. They wore speedily in the Italian communication trenches. An Italian semi-official message describes 'the brilliant font of tho AJpini in tho Fiome Alps in the Tyrol. They nsoended . a thickly-wooded heighi reaching 6000 feet up, and then finally eaine to a perpendicular wall scarred

with doep fissures, which was considered before the war, to be.unnegotiable. Tho Alpini used successive iron footholds, and scaled the vertical walls on the north-oaat 'of Mount Cauriol. They then rushed the trenches with bayonets, and were thrice repulsed; but finally captured the whole position. Tho stubborn Tyroleso defenders were all killed except 100 who were taken •prisoner.