ITALY.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 October 1917, Page 5

ITALY.

POSITION IMPROVED HIGH GROUND TAKEX. COUNTER-ATTACKS FAIL Aus. and X.Z. Cable Assoc, and Reut.cr. Received Oct. 1, 10.10 p.m. • London, Sept. 30. Italian official: By a sudden attack wo improved our position on the southeastern edge of Ba insizza plateau, capturing high ground southward of Pod. laki;, south-eastward of M:;doni. Wo took prisoner A\) officers and 13110 men, and maintained our positions against violent counter-attack!!. Kncmy attempts to dislodge us between Selladile and Monte San Ga'brielle tailed completely.

OM ITALY'S FRONT.

FIGHTIXG IX HOLLOW MOUXTATXS.

Over and ove,r again I was asked by Italian officers: "Hi™- does our front compare with other fronts'" I told them (writes Hamilton Fyfo to London Daily Mail) that if; is impossible to institute comparisons between objects essentially dissimilar. The only major front which has anything in common with the Italian is the Carpathians. tout the Carpathians are not mountains like the Alps. They are. bills.

I myself cannot imagine anv form of warfare more difficult'than that which our Allies are carrying on from the Adriatic right round to the frontier which divides Italy from Switzerland, How can I make you understand the j character, the difficulties of this warfare? A friend of imne in the Trcntino «oid the mountains were each organised for fighting like ships. That stuck in my Bjind. It is an apt analogy. Let Us see how it works out.

I camo in the heat of the afternoon to a mountain which lav backing in a roil of haze. There was nothing to distinguish it from the -ordinary run of mountains except that there* wore a great many roads and paths cutting up and across it'; grey-green sides. That told ine it v:;y-. a. fortified mountain. The energy of the Italian engineers in pushing reads everywhere reminds me of that draughtsman of the variety stage whose .drawings made in a mairie lantern, are reproduced stroke by stroke, upon the screen. A a his lines' travel with measured rapidity over the white sheet, so I seem ,o see the Italian roads running here, there, .aid everywhere, leading up to the front. Often light railways are laid as well—a proof that Italy is propaved to go on as long as may lie neressary. Take it together with the systematic rebuilding of ruined homes, and it is an earnest also that our Allies mean to keep what they have won. Up one of the new-made roads our motor-car climbs. We pass long linos of huts for the men, horse lines, mule lines lorry parks, ammunition dumps, .masses of stores, We are cm the back of the mountain. This is the lower .part of the "ship." the forecastle, the hold. The motor-car, stops; AVe get out and walk up. We enter £ tunnel, blasted in the solid rock. We walk for (several .hundred yards. It is like walking through a mine-gallery. We have acetylene lamps to light out footsteps, which bring us to a rock chamber where there are four square openings to the light. I'ehind each opening is a gun. We have walked right through the mountain. I T'lese openings face the enemy's. They are just like the cannon port-holes in an old wooden man-o'-war. This mountain and any number of other mountains have been turned into fortresses. They are no lunger solid. They are hollow. You can walk a',\out inside them. The compressed-aid drill and the dynamite cartridge have done their work well. Cm through tunnels and past more port-holes. The batteries are not very busy to-day. There is an artillery duel going on-not far oil'. The' sound of it is'tossed to and fro among the summits, Echo keeps up an uneasy grumble, But here the gunners are taking it easy. The only sounds of war close by are mysterious muffled explosions which wc hear above our heads. Uncanny the effect, but t.hev are only mines going off to displace more rock. Now we will go up to tho top of the ■mountain and visit the observation-post, the conning tower.

M'iiile we iveiv burrowing a sionu lias drifted over. "We grope among clouds. Soaking rain blots out the view. We buftom our waterproofs tight round our necks.

"It won't last," my officer-guide .prophesies, and ho is right. F,y the time we are on top the Trentiuo mountainmass lies before us, clear-washed and sparkling. Over there is the broad plateau of Asiago, so /hotly fought for. Down below we see plainly shattered Arsiero, with its big paper-factory in ruins. Tho village of Esiago (Ass-yah-go) was a favorite summer-time resort, a peaceful, healthful spot, Now . ruins also. Up there oa a mountain frowning at us across a deep gulf are the Austrian* in their 'i-hip/.'" All around these anchored vessels stand and bombard one another.

It is hard to believe these fortressmountains could ever be stormed. Yet the Italian troops storm them. Come with me to another part of'lhe front,up a still higher mountain; come and see a "ship" which was boarded and made a prize.

Tlie way is long and varied. First we motor up an entrancing valley on a new-mado ro.id.. narrow for our big army car, and with hairpin turns in it which bring our back wheels ereepily near the precipice. Then we ascend in live "Telefericas," one after the other. Tlie last brings us to the eternal snows. It is comforting to warm oneself with a cup of eoll'ec beside tlie stove in an Alpine ollicer's hut. "Wo mustn't delay, though," ho tells us. "The dogs are ready."

Short, sharp barks greet us as we come out. The sleighs with their three (logs each are waiting on the edge of an immense glacier, rno'stlv covered with snow. Off we go downhill at a capital pace. Uphill is another story. The dogs pant and whine. We get out and walk.

So for an hour and a-half over the. glacier. If you dropped anything through _onc of its shining blue crevasses it would 'fall seven or eight hundred feet. A man falling through would he '.'cliilhd meat" for ever; the jco would • prevent decay. So hot are we under the morning aun that the prospect sounds Quite refresh-

ing! We have left the dogs behind now, anil are tramping on. Soon our destination is before us. It is a ''horn" of snowcovered mountains, steep and high, captured by Alpine troops in one of their latest pushes. How they wriggled and scrambled successfully up its slopes, under fire, is hard to imagine. Success, swift and striking, was theirs, (however, and the fortified height whence tha< Austrians had .peppered daily the approaeh to the Italian trenches was captured and firmly held. Trendies 'of ice; tunnels through the snow,. a long communication "boyau" With, solid snow walls , . . it sounds like a fantastic Wells romance. Yet all of it true. These eyes have seen. And from the trench, looking over the suow parapet, we mark plainly the Austrian line, with its frequent redoubts, each protected .by a fan of wire entangl.v meats.

In the sunshine the snowseane sparkles. The blue sky is exhilarating. But think of it in winter, when snowstorms last for days and only the dogs can find the tracks by which all food and all ammunition must reach the man' in the firing-line.

What the Italians do on the tops of the mountains can only bo believed by those 'who see the fruit of their toil. I stayed at one camp, 7500, feet up, in a perfectly equipped little hospital, hot and cold water, hot pipes, up-to-date operating room, everything. At another hutvillage, nearly. SOOO feet, 1 was entertained in a cleverly decorated room (paintings in black and white by a soldier), where the meals were not below but well above sea-level form. Yet transport .here present difficulties which nobody on the Western front has thought of even in nightmares.

All clay ami all night the wirc-rapo "Telefericas" are swinging materials upward. The dog-sleighs are at work no matter what the weather may he, aud the A.S.C. men carrying burdens are dotted black against the snow. These hollowcdrout mountains, tbe.-e positions above the snow-line, will be the most .sensational among all niy memories of the war. ' ~