The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1916-08-27
||TALY'S MOUNTAIN
FIGHTER IS DEAD
Gen. Giardana Knew War
fare of Snow Peaks
WON CLOUD BATTLES
Great Soldier Tells Correspondent Be-
fore His Death How Problem of
Alps Are Solved by Life
time of Study


August -(Correspondence of the Asso-
ciated Press.)-Gen. Carlo Giordana
known in Italy as the man who carried
mountain fighting to the summit of Ad-
amello the highest altitude in the his
tory of warfare, met his death recently
on the plateau of the Seven Commons
1t was only after several days search
that his body was found on the cannon
pioughed field near the Austrian lines
He had been killed while making an in
spection of outposts alone.
Since his death the value of Genera.
Giordana's work as a developer of noun
tain fighting has been reviewed by Leon
ida Bissolati, the minister of war rela-
lions, who is himself an Alpinist and
who served as a sergeant under General
Giordana last winter before the promo
ton of that officer from the rank of
colonel to a general in recognition of his
operations at Monte Nero and at Aada-
mello. rs=~
Only short time before his death the
general, who was modest gentleman
nered officer, had told correspondent of
mountain fighting.
MOUNTAIN WARFARE
"The mountains are like the sea-" he
said. Before you can win battle upon
them. you must first have conquered
them, SO it takes lifetime to learn the
dangers of the mountains and how to
avoid them. When you have learned how
to calculate weather, snow and ava
lanche prospects, when you by instinct
know that snowstorm is cooking out
upon the glacier, then you can begin
% lay plans for defeating the enemy"
General Giordana invited the CORES
pondent to accompany him upon Adamel-
10 during one of his frequent journeys
of inspection to the outposts-on such a
one as that when he was killed.
AS the nirnble buros trotted past the
countless lines Of reserve trenches built
across the valley sides, like dams for a
freshet, past the immense shaeks of Geor-
gia pine thrown up as shelter for the
reserve troops, past the long lines of
supply automobiles and army wagons, ON
up the towering sides of the mountain
upon the solid road, Is feet in breadth,
that had been built towards the noun
tain top, General Giordana explained the
d1frerence between the mountain methods
of Hannibal, of Caesar, of Napoleon, and
of the modern Italian army.
For one thing said General Gior-
dana, 'ft must be remembered that we
today operate with hundreds of thou
sands of men in these SHOWS whereas in
the old days the armies whose exploits
have become famous were but a few
thousand. perhaps 10000 to 10000 at most
Further, they merely crossed the Alps
whereas We operate on the attitudes OF
1900 to $500 metres as compared to the
1909 of Hannibal's army or the 24OO OF
Napoleon's army which crossed Great St
Rav ay>1 + ho
mond's army, which in the same year
crossed the Splurga, also $500 metres
high, 1t must be remembered had at its
disposition the solid roads built by the
Romans and preserved since their time
We have to build our own roads at every
step before our troops can advance Along
this road to Adamel1o where we are now
riding, before the war there was hardly
q path and no one ever tried to go ur
1t except in summer"
WONDER OF MOUNTAINS
AS General Giordana and the CORE
spondent finally passed the timber line,
with no object to break the whiteness of
the vast stretches reaching ever upwards
to the dazzling blue sky line, he dis
mounted and led the way to the new
transportation wonder of the mountains,
the fteleferfca, the aerial railroad which
the Italians have devised to cross
quickly the deep valleys and to mount
swiftly their tedious mountain climbs
AS General Giordana and the CORE
spondents were srelayeda from point to
point, crossing chasnls and valleys from
500 to 1000 feet deep. he continued his
story of the long struggle of the Italian
army to get ready to fight on the noun
tain tops, to keep up the courage of the
men to maintain at steady level their
fighting capacity. Out upon the glaciers
where the ''tormento," the wind of tor
ment, may blow up within an hour, cast
into the air every loose particle of snow
and blind the most experienced Alpinist
civilians often wonder why the
armies take first the youth of a country
in preference to older men," he re.
marked. Its because youth only haa
the morale, the courage necessary, the
recuperative physical qualities. Up here
we win battles with the young fellows
because they look on the whole thing as
chances, then they have family affairs
on their mind.
HARD TO TEACH MEN
zone of our difficulties with these
young fellows is to teach them to hold
back sometimes. to protect themselves
against freezing. Every hour of the day
you can see companies of them coming
in from the advance trenches. When
they reach the top of an incline, they
slide down 1t on the seat OF their trOuS-
ers. They don't stop to think that they
are wearing them out and that they
may not be able to get another pair. We
give them white canvass clothes that
make them invisible upon the snow,
white clothes designed after those ones
worn by the Roman legions for noun
tain work, but 1T isn't easy to make them
wear these clothes, they are so thought
less. If it's avalanche weather they
would venture out Just the same, II not
for the older heads, and match their
strength against hundreds of tons OF
rolling snow masses, hoping to be able
to swim out.
Eve have to thin kof everything up
here, where a whole regiment may lose
its life by false step, by not guarding
against natural conditions; we have to
think of providing everything from a
30-gallon thermos soup kettle to shoe
grease Run short of hot food or warm
clothes and the condition is more dan
gerous than facing an enemy without
cartridges in your belt or cannon shells
in your boxes. And then after you have
done your best to prepare, while you are
engaged in surprising the enemy, nature
may surprise and overwhem you,
swallow you up completely that
neither friend nor enemy can reach you.
Isn't that the way Of the sea, too?"
for travellers Is that the bristles are laid
down flat on the handle and are thus
kept In shape. Z