The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-07-11

damage wrought by the Austrians IL
being repaired, while the railroad bridge
over the Adige, which was destroyed,
has been fixed Up Professionally and
trains with supplies from Italy are
again steaminG UP to the station.
Although as a rule the Austrians re-
tired before the Italian advance, still
besides destroying all bridges n bar
ricaiing every road and mountain pass
they attempted to check the progress
of the Italian army by means Of dyna-
mite mines c~leverly hidden on the
slopes of hills which they intended to
explode from a distance. These mines
were laid in such a way as to cause
the greatest amount of damage possible
in the hope that a wide area over which
the Italians were advancing would he
buried under the debris from the noun
tains n hills on each side of tho
road.
The Italians advanced very carefully
and scouts were sent ahead to remove
all obstacles and cut the wires con-
meeting the mines with the hiding places
where the Austrians were waiting 10
explode them. Thanks to good scouting
on the part of the Italians, hardly a
single Austrian mine was exploded. An
officer in command OF a scouting party
N'IN ohl " '"N - AitAN' GU INV
experience which he recount to his
family in a letter as follows:
Starts on Exploring Trip.
ITO one side of the road there was
a wood. Suspecting that some wire en-
tanglements were connected with hidden
mines, before advancing any further |
decided to take six men with me and
go out to explore the wood. The sem
tries facing the wood were accordingly
warned not to fire. as n patrol was
going out front, and toward midnight
we started. II was n dark night, nut
we explored the wood thoroughly. cut
out some wires and waited until dawn
before returning to our lines.
lowing to a heavy mist we lost our
way, at least we did not return the
same way we went out. and when we
reached our lines we were fve miles
further toward the left. of course. the
| sen,ries mistook us for the enemy and
opened fire. | shouted out that we were
Italians and yelled the password, oul
the s~entries continued firing like mad
and although ordered my men 10
hide behind a tree we were IN lmhle-
diate DANCE of being potted, as soih'
OF our s~harpshooters were crawllnp
ont and taking deliberate aim NJ US.
was at n loss what to do When | nav
A., bright idea. I ordered one or my met
10 climb up a tree and wave "A whlt'
handkerchief In sign of surrender
"Our men were very careful, as mr.
Austrian patrol IA few days before nae
shown the white flag ana wheh '"'
mo nadvanced to capture the Austrian
they fred a volley at short range ""'
fled. Fortunately only three out OF seNe'
escaped, as four were Killed We'll ou'
,rer we're very careful. Hands W
first = they ordered, ana then we '"n'
on, from under cover and finally W.
were recognized and ] march'" .'.r
In command Of the patrol sent out u
capture uS. ~
Another officer who is in command o
,mal, detachment left as u garrison
/, q village OF the Trentino very n'a'
n large town still held by the Austriah
wr,tes TO his family that every morn
ing ne goes marketing.
II take four men with a basket o'
, one side and a rifle on the other, ah'
We mr., arch to the nearby town wher'
there ia a good vegetable market. .
c,urse We know that there are ST.
twenty Austrian gendarmes In the owl
and very often we meet some OF then
hut We pretend not to see them AM
they do likewise. so that after we nav
allied our baskets we return in safet
~ our lines. would not be surprise
IL later on the Austrian sendarines WI
salute us. II fact they seem surprise
that we have not yet occupied the to"f
and of course they know that H. lhsteh'
of four men / took fifteen to MARKET III
town would be ours"