WINTER WAR IN THE CARSO

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2988, 27 January 1917, Page 3

WINTER WAR IN THE CARSO

SPLENDID ITALIAN ACHIEVEMENTS HEAVY AUSTRIAN LOSSES (Special Correspondent of the ing Post.") , , ' talian Headquarters, November. J no advent of winter has limited the activity of the Italian troops in the sec.or of the Carso. On the remainder or tho front tho trenches aro already buried in sno'.v. Tho lines of communication are menaced by avalanches. Hundreds of thousands of men will remain at a standstill for some months, waiting for the spring to free them from the terrible grasp of the Alpine muter. But on the Cfirso the soldiers of *' ctfll ; Emmanuel aro still fighting. The ouensiye operations in this sector are unceasing. The Carso seems now to be tho only part of the Italian front where any appreciable concentration, i el " .troops or artillery, is possible. This extreme eastern extremity £ J} 1 ? kalian front, in the direction ?• n ° S '' 6 IB -Adriatic, is practically tho only operating ground remaining to the Italian soldiers. It is chiefly on tho Carso that the Italians may hope some day to break down the resistance of tho Austrians. Only in that region is it possible for tho decisive battles to take place in this strange war, which the impregnable walls of the Alps necessarily reduce to a wearisome war of positions. In this region the Italians remained for close upon fourtfeen months grappling with the dominating enemy positions and carrying on a most trying siege, which resulted last summer in the splendid •victory of Gorizia. After the battle of Gorizia there followed, in the course of the Rummer. a series of important offensive operations which have secured' for tho Italians a laigo nart of the uplands. Natural Fortifications. It is difficult to convey an exact idea of this battlefield, which has no equivalent in any of the other parts of the European theatre of war. The Carso Giulio, that enormous mountain triangle about 300 square miles in extent, is the natural barrier opposed- to the advance of the Italians towards Trieste, Lubiaiia, and the other vital centres of the Austrian resistance. It is a. desolate, uninhabited.region, covered with rocks like a scene from the "Inferno" of Daute, and situated beneath a series of lulls and peaks varying in height from two to live hundred iiietres. The geographical outline of the heights and depressions in the C'arso almost appears to have been designed by some great strategist. Tho dominating positions of the Carso form one completed whole. It is not possible to advance along this terrible tableland of rocks without coming into collision with the whole enemy front. The complete absence of railways, of roads, of waterj the difficulty of hewing any sort of shelter in the solid rock, greatly increases the difficulties in this centre of military operations. The Italian Army, after the great victory of Gorizia, has made tremendous progress in these lofty regions. In the three months winch succeeded that victory they have gained about a hundred square miles of this tablelaud as the result of fiercely contested 'engagements, in which the best troops of the Austro-Hungarian Army were engaged. On tho right' tho Italians have advanced! to within twelve miles of Trieste. In tho centre they have driven back the Austrians almost to tho extreme limits of tho Carso Giulio. This is the highest, of the mouutain barriers _ which' bar the progress of the Italians on the great Austrian line of communications running from Reifemberg to Comen. At length the Italians have vigorously attached the line, and thero is no doubt that soon it will be in their possession. On the left wing, along the valley of tho Vippacco, they are seriously menacing the Austrian communications towards Lubiana, after overcoming 'the Austrian resistance on the heights above Ternova. Progress of the Italians. Having paid a visit last April to the Italian positions on the borderfe of tho Carso, I am in a position to appreciate the gigantic progress that lias since been made there by the forces of Victor Emmanual, and the result is an absolute conviction in my mind that they aro destined to aohieve a complete victory. The youthful and enthusiastic Italian Army has greatly improved during the last few months. It. has acquired a tactical ability which forms a useful adjunct to ' its impetuosity and courage. The particular character of the terrain in the Carso requires of the soldier fearless initiative combined with a wise-discipline. In the last three months there havo taken place on this front the most desperate hand-to-hand struggles that can possibly be imagined. The enemy lies concealed in hundreds and hundreds of small natural caverns, against which the action even of the most powerful artillery is comparatively powerless. In these hand-to-hand encounters some of the best regiments of Austria-Hun-gary have teen decimated, and, in some few cases, annihilated, so that among troops the region is commonly called "the Carso Hell." It has heen ascertained that the last three months of the Italian offensive in the Carso cost the Austrians heavy losses. Considerably more than a hundred thousand men were put hors de sombat, a fact , sufficiently indicated by the enormous number of prisoners— more than forty thousand—whom tho Italians have captured since August 6. New Trench Mortars. A constant increase in the supply, of armaments has accompanied tho growth in numbers of the Italian Army. The rapid and efficient organisation of war industries has secured for the. Italian irmy an immense supply of guns and ammunition. As a consequence, the power of tho artillery has immensely increased since the beginning of the ivar. It now includes, in particular, powerful trench mortars (bombarde), riiich havo literally revolutionised tho :onditions of trench warfare. The power and the carrying capacity of these mortars are stupendous. 'Tho mposing concentration that was made >f them on tho Carso front enabled the Italians to demolish the original Aus;rian lines on tho mountain declivities vhich at first appeared absolutely unassailable. It is possiblo that the activity of the Italian Army on the Carso may not )e arrested by the coming winter. Tho itrategic position which lias beon gained so far hv the Army-of Victor Em-, nanuel in the face of the immense difieulties presented hy the terrain on vhich tho operations have taken place s such that there is no doubt that tho noral of the Austrian troops has.been ioriousl.v weakened.