The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-01-03
ITALY FIGHTS HARD
Progress in Alpine Warfare
Slow and Difficult.
Siege of Gorilla Nearly Sue
cessfuI After Six Months.
AIDING STRICKEN SERBIA
Resources of Italy Unimpaired
Since Entrance Into War.
VictOr'S Troops Push Grim Of
fensive Against Austria.
(BY ALICE ROHE.l


the world will begin to appreciate the
role played by King Victor in the
greatest tragedy of history
Act II was well under way before
Italy joined the players and King Victor
with his tuft of rooster feathers ap-
peared from the wings. He had fire.
quently been mentioned in the lines.
and no sooner had he strobe upon the
stage than he and the veteran actor
Franz Josef came to blows.
Verona will fall before Gorizia,'
shouted the Austrian.
"Gorizia first" retorted Nictor-and
the play went on.
II was not until May of last year
that Italy declared war on Austria.
Immediately the Italian general staff
outlined the following land program:
1. An aggressive. systematic opera
ton on the mountainous northern
frontier. Trentino and the Carnic Alps
long fortified by Austria, designedly
to make an Austrian invasion of Italy
easy while standing impregnable
against Italian invasion.
,. An offensive on a large scale
against the valley of the Isonzo which
barred Italys way toward the Julian
Alps on the east and the Istrlan PEN
insuIa to the south.
The naval program was this: De-
structiOn of Austrian commerce on the
Adriatic and adjacent waters and the
botthng up or destruction OF the Aus
TRAN fleet.
on land today Italy faces the New
Year as the only one of the allied
powers whose main army is firmly en-
trenched on the soil of an enemy. On
water the Duke Of Abruzzi's fleet is su-
prome. The Austrian main fleet, ref
uged in Pola harbor, refused the Ital-
ian challenge just as the German fleet
defies the British-in the Kiel canal.
Like Germany. Austria is unable to
give safe convoy to her own COM
merce.
With an army of more than 2.250,-
600 men in uniform; with reserves of
1850, 900 men between 1S and 80 yet
to be called to the colOrs; with album
dant equipment especially heavy ar
tillery; backed by a splendid industrial
mobilization capable of feeding mu-
nitions for any emergency, Italy looks
to the future with the utmost conf
dence. This feeling was wildly re-
Elected in the recent utterances of
Baron Sonnino. minister for foreign af-
fairs. in the chamber. in which he
announced not only Italy's agreement
with the allies not to conclude sep
arate peace, but her purpose to ex-
tend the campaign across the Adriatic
in support of stricken serbia.
In answer to the latter pledge, So
900 Italian troops have already landed
in Albania. where pioneers are busy
at rOad-building and other means of
transport through the painless noun
tains. Food and clothing by the ship
load are being sent by the Italians for
the Serbian refugees.
Seven months of fighting along the
lines of the general staff's plan of
campaign have produced far greater
results than the daily communicates
have indicated. On the Isonzo front
the offensive has reached the stage
where an Italian occn patton of the en-
tire Istrian peninsula, as well as eff
fective thrusts northward and east
ward is believed to be possible early
in 1916.
The northern campaign, in the
Trentino and Carnic regions, has
closed with the object attained. After
months of the SeVerest and most diff
ficult mountain warfare, heroic strug-
giles on precipitous backgrounds, the
Alpine troops, Bersaglleri and infan-
try with heavy artillery sometimes
drawn up the mountain sides with
ropes, have battered fort after fort
into dust, stormed and captured hith-
erto impregnable Austrian defenses,
and consolidated the conquered crags
and valleys against a successful coun-
ter offensive. The floodgates of in
vasion for which Austria had been
preparing since 1856 and which she
has boosted would give her the city
of Verona before Italy could reach
Gorilla, are now closed against her
with double bar and lock.
Weeks of desperate fighting against
JerrlTlc OQQS were sometimes required
by the Italians to take single fort
ress or position in this phase of the
campaign.
While this was going on, the second
part of the general staff plan was be-
ing executed in the ISonzO valley. on
June ? King Nictor's armies crossed
the IsOnzO. on June 9. Monfalcone
fell to General Cadorna- Two days
later Gradisca had succumbed and the
AustrianS retreated to Gorilla. or
July 7, the bridgehead at Gorilla was
reached by the Italians. where for five
months the ebb and flow of battle hat
soaked the soil with Italian and Au~
trian blood. A general advance oveI
the entire front from Tolmino to Mon.
falcone July % still found Cadorna'.
troops before Gorilla locked in the
death struggle.
Gorizia's loss would mean a severe
blow to Austria and all means are EN-
ployed to defend it. Reinforcement:
were brought from Galicia, and it wa:
only the timely arrival of German
regiments on one occasion that saved
the Austrians from disastrous rout il
the sector north of PLAYA.
During the latter days of Novem-
Der, the Austrian resistance at Gorilla
beagn to weaken. December l founC
the city invested from three sides. tn,
surrounding fortresses pounded t.
fragments by Italian howitzers and tn,
town defended by only a single line o.
trenches. Italian shells of heavy cali
bre were ploughing the streets
The fall of Gorilla would give Gen
eral Cadorna's troops access to all tn,
roads leading toward Villach to tn,
north, Laibach to the east and Triest,
to the south. The investment o.
Trieste would mean an expeditions oc
cupation of the Istrian peninsula in
Guiding Pola, refuge of the Austrian
fleet.
According to the latest estimates
the total Austrian casualties in tn,
Italian campaign are more than 800
600, of which $4,000 are killed. Aus
train prisoners in Italy number $4,000
The Italian losses, too, have beer
heavy, but probably less than tn