Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-07-28
FIGHTING AMID
ETERNAL SHOWS
Mountain, 1850 Feet High.
Scene of Battle Between
Italians and Austrians

Headquarters of the Italian Army,
July 20. - Correspondence OF the AS
sociated Press) - Adamello, which
Virgil crowned King of the Italian
Alps" is the most elevated spot in the
world where war has ever been waged.
Through the courtesy of the Italian
general staff. which is desirous that
the world outside of Italy should know
the hardships Of this unprecedented
campaign, the correspondent of the
Associated Press was the first civilian
allowed to witness the fighting on this
colossal mountain, which is 1900 feet
high and covered with eternal SHOWS.
The correspondent saw the noun
tain swarming with thousands of
white-clad Alpine soldiers, singing
alert, eager, crossing glaciers, chal-
longing avalanches, charging the en-
emy with fixed bayonets-all above
the clouds.
There the correspondent witnessed
the action of heavy artillery, battery
of which fired from the highest point
in the world where artillery had ever
been placed or from which it had ever
been fired. 1t seemed almost miracle
that such big guns could have been
transported in two months OF haro
labor from a distance or hfteen miles
in one of the alleys below. over two
hundred men had been required ior
the dragging of a single one or the
pieces. and at one stage of the work
| an avalanche had swooped down from
the mountain sides and swallowed up
the cannon and devoured forty OF the
men.
The professional mountain climber
never attempted to reach the TOP OF
Adamello, but in summer the view
of the surrounding Alps with Mont
Blanc, the Jungfrau, and Monte Rosa
in the distance is considered the best
in Europe. Winter and summer, the
frhting there is under conditions that
prevail only in the Arctic regions
There Austrians and Italians meet IN
silent death grip, their deaths and
their deeds all but unrecoroea save IN
dry army annals, given but brler llne
in the terse bulletins of General Ca
dorna.
While the Austrian and Italian can
non rumbled lazily, exchanging rude
courtesies, or seeking to dislodge avail
anches to better destroy and hamper
the enemy, awakening echoes that
| leaned
down the abrupt peaks, the genlal
italian colonel accompanying the cor
RESPONDENT remarked that in no other
war had such fighting ever been, that
neither the armies of Hannibal, nor
Caesar, nor Napoleon ever dared en-
gage in such work, that their armies.
which did go over mountains not halI
the height, were haroly laFser tnan
regiment of Alpine troops as to-day
oreanized. that above all they did not
winter in the mountains nor deal with
heavy artillery, nor drag up to these
! fastnesses pound by pound, plank oy
plank. piece by piece, their food, their
supplies, and the guns and ammuni-
ton.
u-bese conditions are not limited to
the Adamello region, but repeat them
selves on two-thirds of the italian
front or over a line of 275 miles Of
mountain chains going from the Swiss
frontier down to the banks of the
Isonzo river from which can be seen
the bitter" blue of the Adriatic, az
the poet d'Annunzio described it. Along
this line titanic struggles take place
daily of which the outside world never
hears It took FIVE days for the corre-
spondent to slowly climb the Adamello
crest and in this period the Italians
succeeded in blowing of the top OF an
other mountain called Coldi Lana,
which suddenly burst into the air with
its defenders who were on their side
trying to explode a mine which would
blow to pieces the Italian troops.
One of the curious facts connected
with this mountain front is that no.
where have the song birds deserted it.
IF were to write home that every
night / go to sleep listening to the
boom of cannon I would be readily be-
lieved, but If added that often
I lie awake for hours listening to the
liquid trill of friendly nightingales IN
the nearby woods, my statement would