The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1915-09-30
IS NIGHT IN HE'LL HON ALP|NES t|GH|
ItaIy Reveals Unique New Arm
to the World.
Mountaineers of the Alps Perform
Feats Which Nobody Believed Pos
sibIe-ScaIe SUBMITS and Take
Enemy by Surprise.

Rome.-The Italian war has re- !
vealed to the world new arm, the
"A1pines.'
The Alpine troops are strictly al
Italian institution and, with the Ber'
saglieri form picked corps. The de-
Tense of the Alps is intrusted to them.
First of all an Alpine soldier is q
son of the Alps. They are recruited
there and they are organized into
battalions. The mountaineer Of the
Alps never wastes q shot. His mark
manship must be infallible or the fam
ished wolves infesting the deep,
wooded gorges will destroy his herd.
When military CONSUMPTION claimed
him he knew every peak, road and
track. Constant exposure to The
severe winter cold or the heat Of
the summer had hardened his mus
cles and made him insensible to IA
tigue.
The training of the Alpine includes
everything belonging to the infantry
arm and more He is taught how to
regard cave as his fortress and
rock as a redoubt He is taught
methodically and scientifically how to
climb to an almost inaccessible peak
or scale a sheer wall with the help
of a rope and pick. Further, he
learns how to dynamite a rock III the
space Of a few seconds and how to
set tons Of stones rolling down upon
| the enemy climbing after him.
The training and fighting qualities
| of hn 1riy7 n
test during the advance in the Tren-
tino and Carnic frontiers, where the
occupation Of the passes and the sum-
mits dominating them had to be made
swiftly and effectively The task de-
volved wholly on the Alpines and in
fantry
On May IS, at two in the morning
the reveille was sounded and the Al
pines received the order to scale the
SUBMITS facing them, chase the enemy
away and prepare the ground for the
infantry and artillery. Not in a sin
gle instance did the Alpines fail to
reach their objective.
The Austrians We're surprised and
either fled or surrendered after a
brief resistance. At noon every bat
terry of mountain artillery was in its
place and Smelling the Austrian forts
simultaneously the infantry occupied
the passes and entrenched itself IN
der the protection Of the artillery.
On the Carnic frontier or more pre-
cisely, in the Monte Nero sector, the
task entrusted to the Alpines was
harder and more complicated.
Probably the exact history Of the
capture of the five peaks COMPOSING
the Monte Nero range will never bt
written, but eye-witnesses maintain
that this history will be a hymn o
praise to the Italian Alpine troops
General Cadorna in describing tn
capture Of Monte Poce, the fifth peak
said the Alpines performed feat
! which nobody believed possible. TIL
, Austrians themselves regarded thi
, particular peak as absolutely impres
nable. Towards Italy it was nothin
I but sheer wall The only way c
. approach lay through deep gorg
on the northern side of the mountai
y looking toward Plezzo. On the TIA
+ ian side even a sentry was regarde
as superfluous.
d The only way to take the fort wa
e to scale the wall and reach tb
e trenches undetected. The Alpine
+ did it.
v The rest is known. Two Austria
t. companies were surprised and di
e patched in their sleep Two MOI
e shared the same fate. Later in IL
n day the Austrians launched again
the Italians a battalion of Hungaria
D. Honved, in desperate effort to r
t, take the position, but the battalie
le was annihilated and the bodies
n the Hungarians are still at the botto
70 of the gorge