WAR ABOVE THE CLOUDS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1631, 31 October 1916, Page 4

WAR ABOVE THE CLOUDS.

ITALIA NT CAMPAIGNS. DIFFICULTIES OV'E!(('( LME. Throughout (hose 15 mouths of wor the Indians have been working—and fighting I —all day long and every day, writes .1. M. Doddiugtoii in Country Life. Valour, unshakable determination, patient, indomitable skill —these are the qualities that have been manifested to an almost unbelievable extent by those whom armehair erities have esteemed a raee of negligible dilettanti. They have fared and overcome the tremendous Alpine barriers of Trentino and Cadore; they have dragged their great gnus up mountains thousands of feet in height, and have hewn for them emplacements out of die living rock. They have hraved at every step the devastating tire of the enemy: amid snow and ice they have fought and died tike the heroes that they are. Said King Victor Eipappel of Italy the other day; “My men been 9,000 ft. up in (lie clouds for seven months in deep snow so close to (he Austrians that at some points the men can see their enemies’ eyes through the observation holes. Imagine the difficulties of such a life, with continual sniping and homb--1 browing.” The Italian mason has built roads up into these clouds, wide, splendid-

]y eon-Dueted roads, for if anybting he worth doing it is worth doing well, soys this master craftsman. When these reach the utmost possible height, the overhead railway takes their place. Steel e a hies span yawning abysses and ascend almost, vertically from hilltop to hilltop—into the clouds. L ; p these go food, limber for the men’s shelters, guns, ammunition. Down them come the wounded.

They work, they light, those Kalians, amid gales and snowstorms such as are unimaginable by the dwellers upon peaceful plains. They face the greatest danger of all, the swiftly descending avalanche. By it whole platoons have been swept, awav. All the while that this stu-*' pendens mountain warfare has been waged, from the fertile plains ol Venelia, among its gently undulating foothills, another Kalian army, the brave men of the Isonzo front, have also been working their way upward, attacking an enemy posted in almost impregnable mountain barriers bristling with innumerable guns of every calibre. The odds against them were tearful —what wonder that again and yet again they were repulsed, that their losses were formidable? The (Jorz bridgehead, a semi-criclc of peaks and ridges honeycombed with immensely strong fort ideations, defied all their gallant efforts for close upon fifteen months. Then after two days’ terrific lighting the summits were won and they charged down (he farther slope upon Gorz itself, nestling in the valley with the bine tson/.o (lowing between.

The bridges had been partially destroyed by the fleeing enemy; hn>, heedless of shot and shell, I lie advanced troops forded the river, doubled up the narrow streets and hoisted the red, while and green of Italy's Hag upon 1 lit* old castle walls. Monte "Michele on the mirth ami Monte San Michele on the south of the town have been cleared of the enemy. The Doherdo plateau, close to the head of the Adriatic, is in Italian hands. Many hard fights will yet have to he fought, many sirougholds stormed before the way to Trieste —to which Gorz is the hey —can lie said to he open, hut one by one (lie obstacles are being cleared away. Not to Trieste alone is Gorz ihe hey; llie little town commands tin' two great roads across the Julian Alps to Vienna. These will he hmgish roads to travel, hut who shall say that Cadorua is not, the man to do it ?