The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1917-07-11
ITALY IS DOING
ITS SHARE IN WAR
over OBSTACLES
Meaning Of Recent Victory
and Mountain Opera
: lions Account
(Written by A. II. Savage Lander,
the Great ExplQracl

V4S4AS A.ASSS s%SS~
| (Written by A. H. Savage Lander,
the Great Explorer.)
visited the region where the Ital-
iads are fighting, and found them ex-
traordinarily well prepared. From
the very beginning they have been
! fighting on scientific lines. They have
selected for their most difficult jobs
men of genius, and they have left
nothing whatever to chance.
Everything near the front has been
organized in a most wonderful man
ner; hundreds of miles of new roads
have been constructed, old roads
widened. and all kept in perfect re-,
pair. In the mountainous region they
have constructed some 800 "telefer-
iche" or cable ways, several of which
are several thousand yards long, con-
Meeting the mountain tops with the
valleys, and they have proved of the
| greatest use for moving UP ammuni-
ton and men and for removing the
wounded.
General Cadorna gave me long
audience. It is not for me to- pass
| judgment on so great a man, but he u.s.
| to my. mind. perhaps the greatest
general the Allies possess at the pres
ent moment. To see him is to realize
his terrific strength of will and the
outward calm of man who knows
exactly what he is doing
/ had heard a great deal about the
difficulties of mountain warfare and
admiration at the way the Italians
have got their guns up to peaks 5000
feetfto 10000 feet above the sea lev
! ell, but the operations in >the Carso
region, where they are not having
such striking successes. are more diff
ficplt than anything in the high
mountains.
The region is formed OF rocky
plateaus,1 varying in elevation from
800 feet to 2,400 feet. Trenches can
not be easily excavated in the hard
rock, SO hundreds of miles of stone
walls had to be constructed to protect
the soldiers
| The ground is formed of broken
4 rock rising at all angles and most
difficult to work over at any time,. let
alone under a heavy fire.. 1t was re-
! markable how the Italians in their
i great advance there last November
4 attacked. stumbling, and slipping and
/ tanning their feet between rocks al
most every step. Then there were
the cleverly masked rbarbed-wire OBJ
structions and the murderous spiked
pits. The Austrians were then occu-
plying the higher positions.
i During the present campaign the
Italians are much better off. as they
had already conquered the most diff
4 ficu1t positions But even now the
i difficulties are immense owing to the
terrible formation of the ground
There are a great many grottos in
u the sides of. natural hollows, like huge
basins, and these have been used to
great advantage by the Austrians as
shelters for their men. where they
are perfectly safe under the heaviest
artillery fire and where they can con
ceal their machine guns.
i The Italians were greatly delighted
at the arrival .of the ten batteries OF
British guns. They were glad of the
heavy gums because they had felt the
II need Of them in the past, handicap
ped as they were at the beginning OF
the war in the manufacture of MUM
tions by the scarcity of coal and othel
! difficulties.
The Adriatic coast Of Italy is very
shallow and there are no good har.
bors between Brindisi and Venice, q
distance of some 600 miles, SO thai
:. ships of a shallow draught like the
British monitors would be- of econsid.
cradle aid
The Austrfans must have foreseer
the possibility of this attack from the
. sea, but according to the official re.
ports they were unable to make any
effective reply to this very. serious
menace to their lines Of communica>
ton. The Austrian fleet is bound K
come out, and we should soon hear o,
big naval fights in the Adriatic. -.
Trieste should fall before very long
: When was behind the Italian line
the italian armies were then onl!
eleven miles from the town.
The capture of Trieste will hav,
, an immense moral effect quite sapar
, from the great military significance
The enthusiastic Italian troops will
: not stop therei Trieste is the chic
tseaport Of Austria, and it's loss to TIL
Austrians will be by far the bigges
disaster sustained by the Contra
4 Powers in the war. Already the Aus
TRANS are preparing to evacuate tn
town. The Italians could have takel
: it before but for the fact that tn
enemy had heavily fortified tn
Mountains behind. But Cadorna /
now evidently prepared to deal witt
: this difficulty, and with his usua
n thoroughness expect he will sur
o mount it.
From the beginning have alway
held it would have been sounde
strategy to help the Italians befor
: now. To my mind it is on their from
a that the war will be decided, for
n successful advance on a large seal
9 Will eventually end in not only smash
ing Austro-Hungary, but will separat
Bulgaria and Turkey from the Ger
n trail Powers
g 1t is no good blockading a countr
= like Germany on one side only, an
n leaving the back dvor open with
free way via Constantinople into Ash,
II the Russians are able in tn
i near future to advance also upon Aui
d tria, a meeting of the two great A
e lied armies might be brought abou
W and then Rumania, Serbia, and Nor
tenegro could be recaptured.
As it Is. there are sad moments
}, store for Austria If the Italians al
a as successful as their advance in til
4 Carso suggest, and the Austrians 10.
4 Trieste In the near future and I'll
reater part of their coast. 1t on
means that the disintegratfon will |
- fastened of that already much shall
! en- empire.
: ANDERSON ESTATE 50, 100.
Inv~ntasz OF the estate of Gusts
r,L5,aa-xfr1s f1Ios7E al x1a,