South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1917-08-19
ITALIAN ALPINI
FINE SOLDIERS
Men of the Mountains Perform
Daredevil FeatS While
Fighting AuStrianS.
international News Service


most picturesque descriptions OF the
hardy Italian Alpini, the soldiers
battling on the snow-covered noun
tains against The Austrians. is given
by Hamilton Eyfe. who has just re-
turned from a visit to the Austro-
Italian front. In the Daily Mail he
says:
Il have been spending a week
with different attachments OF Ital-
ian Alpine troops in the high noun
Jains. These troops seem To me TO
be in many ways the most wonder
full soldiers in he world.
ITO begin with. no other troops
could support so easily and even
gaily the conditions of life on rocky
peaks and snowy ranges. far above
the rest of mankind. / found the
thin atmosphere trying even at
midsummer. 1 suffered for a dar or
two from q form of mountain sick
ness. I had 10 wear snow goggles
10 protect my eyes. Ny face be-
came first scarlet and then skinless
from the combined effect of sun and
snow. I discovered for the first
most perpendicular rock-face and
chung with the desperate energy of
a drowning man TO q rope which
hung from the top. what it means
10 be a. years of age. These things,
Of course, do not trouble the Alpini,
although some volunteers run UP TO
so and the oldest men, I was told,
frequently are the best They have
been accustomed, many of them, To
the high mountains regions from
their birth.
Many OF them, but vet not near
~ all Like our own Highland regi-
ments. they get their recruits where
they can. and they quickly turn the
man Of the plain or the lowlaUds
into so good an imitation of the
mountaineer from birth that it is
hard TO distinguish between them.
They all struck me as being more
like channels than men. They leap
about in places where a slip means
destruction with not merely a disre-
gard. but a positive Inconsistencies
of danger. They stand on crags
with eternity around and below
them, just as one sees channels
standing in pictures painted by ar
lists Who draw their inspiration
from the geological gardens. They
run down slopes where their visitor
carefully, with an apparent longing
to be dashed TO pieces.
Living among so many perils
from nature as we'll as from the evil
war-lille arts Of man. they come TO
heed them as little as we do the
chances of being run over in city
streets. As I drove up the lovely
valley whose mountain eliminate at
Cortina, lying in its shell Of massive
Dolomite groups, L saw many times
the notice.
81 was shown places where whole
columns of men, where barracks on
the mountain side, where parties of
roadmakers had been swept into
sudden annihilation. Even when
there is respite from this peril one
must beware Of falls Of rock and
stones Several times I was told TO
be quick across a sandy. stony slope
on the steep side Of mountain so
as not to be caught by a rush from
above. Ny guides were more par
ticular about avoiding these than
about crossing zones of Austrian
fire, I noticed. They find nature
worse enemy than man.
IF at midsummer YOU find ice on
your water in the morning YOU can
ter. Yet your guess will be a long
way short of the reality. Alpini
officers, less accustomed than their
men to hardships have told me that
i'm windy weather when snow
storms blot out every familiar mark.
it is appalling. Yet in all weathers
sentries must be posted reliefs
must find Their way 10 the firing
line. transports must 90 on as usual
And somehow or other all these ser
vices do go on. The motto of the
Alpini is, Never be beat
con the way up a mountain
where 1 had hard work enough 10
drag myself, I overlook a food con-
voy. A dozen men were carrying
SOUP I'm sealed vessels. water-skins,
and bread up TO the vedette on the
very summit Their loads weighed
20 pounds each. They had 10 carry
them for nearly two hours. painting
all the time. 1 asked one of them if
he considered IL hard work. He
grinned. Nothing TO speak Of he
said. If only this blessed soup-tin
wasn't so hot
"AT up the side Of this mountain
there were companies of Alpini. liv-
ing in wooden huts fixed 10 the
sheer rock like birds nests out
side the huts there are little ba.con-
les on which the men spend most of
their time. there being nowhere else
in fact TO spend il. From these bal
comics there is a drop OF several
thousand feet into the valley, where
the famour Dolomite road runs.
What occupies both sides con-
tinually is mining. The Alpiui do
not pretend 70 like this kind OF
burrowing warfare They want 10
get at the enemy. How they reach
him they do not mind If necessary
they climb up. hanging on 10 the
rock-face with teeth and eyelids. as
we'll as hands and feet"