Evening star., 1918-01-08
Built Up a Great Army.

i Built Up a Great Army.
4 Luigi Cadorna is perhaps the most
tragic outstanding military figure of
the entente armies. Certainly he is the
4 orc most sc2ntiiy rewarded by fortune.
He had reached the highest grade in
the military hierarchy during the dis
! quiatins months OF neutrality when
4 Italy possessed only ea0.600 bayonets.
With a constant zeal and untiring et-
{ forts during all the twelve battles
fought almost UP to the suburbs of
8 Trieste. the 258.Ooo bayonets had been
multiplied to more than 100000.
Around the first small armed nucleus
s possessed by Italy, lacking heavy artil-
lery. specialized troops and material
! for modern warfare, accustomed to con-
Z slider itself as small defensive mass
i which at the first blow of the foreigner
4 would have run to the defenses of the
J. Po. there was erected a powerful army
/ rich in artillery and the latest tech
4 nfcal instruments 1t was ready to
! take the Italian flag into defended ter
Z rItory, to the Castle of Goritz, to Monte
Santo. to the Carso and to the plateau
\ of Bainsizza.
4 The strategic power of Luigi Cadorna
made itself manifest to Italy for the
first time during the "strafe" expedi-
ton in May. 1916. Gen. Conrad, to-
( Ecther with Gen. Danke and the Aus
trian Emperor Carl. then hereditary
srcfduke and commander of the army
corps of Grotz. had conceived a plan
OF invasion of Italy through the val
Ieys of the Adige and Brenta. The aim
cf this maneuver was to occupy the
plain between Vicenza and Venice so
as to cut the retreat of all the Italian
/ forces ranged in Cadore. Carnia and on
! the Isonzo. The Aust,o-Hungarian SUI
J p-eme command possessed an army of
z about 100000 men. From the Isonzo
Cadorna conceived and carried out on
: May is a naneuver of the inner lines
which enabled him. only ten days later
TO announce that the adversary's often
sive was stopped without an Austrian
detachment having been able to reach
the plain. But even if Conrad's armies
had been able to break through, the in
vasion would still have been repelled
i by another army centered there and
{ which had been organized in less than
- week
Cadorna Captures Goritz.
Tn the month of August, while the
.Trentino fighting was still going on.
tsdorna ordered another rapid man
\ eHyer. He transported his reserve
army from Asiago and Arsiero to the
! 1sonzo. He broke through the OBJ
| efacies before Podgera and Sabotino.
which were considered the most
strongly fortified camps, both for the
qua nifty OF exeavated position. en-
ttangiements and caverns as well as
on account of the natural difficulty of
the ground, and took the town of
iSoritz, which the Austrians had trans
sformed into a renowned fortress.
But Cadorna's activities as head of
tfhe general STAN were most apparent in
I ali that had to do with the tactics of
S breaking the resistance of armed
4 camps: on this subject he has written
i a book, 'L'Attacco FrontaIe," which is
! widely known and studied He is IA
NOUS also for the choice of the most
NJ 10y Iiyer fl,<
SAINT for the infantry in a siege. The
Italian army was first in the world
10 grasp the necessity and Importance
! OF wide use of the bomb or trench NOR
\ tar for destroying entanglements and
/ chevaux de frise thorse entangIe-
Z fn,rntsl.
eadorna. in spite OF his past connec-
: non with the bersagiieri. where he re-
4 lied SO strongly on. the morale of his
troops. has always insisted or the i'm
j partance of the technical side of war.
fare- This has been carried out to the
silpost minute details. and, stimulated by
his advice. by his reports and determi-
nation to secure the greatest possjbie
Il effort Italy has become great in
dustrial workship, whose production OF
y wer material deserves the highest
(. praise.
I Cadorna Great in Character.
In Luigi Cadorna are united the Quail
4 jty and of a character as hard as the
granite of the Alps. 1t is a type not
nneommon in the best leaders of the
Italian army. even when this army was
!; cafied "Piedmontese" and was prepar-
ing itself to be the instrument Of a
liberal and unifying campaign for the
hoase of Savoy. Gen. Cadorna is he
1iever and processing Catholic, vet
net bigot. His religion; is that of
Dante and Mazzini. 1t has as basis
f.f,c moral law Of dut.- th consistency
between words and deeds. y sens. Of
responsibility before God, the father
:; land and history: d desire for the good
= Of all men. whether the people or the
aristocracy.
The Italian people venerate the old
&. general who has relinqufshed the posi-
ton of commander after innumerabIe
Victorious trials. They consider MIN
the awakener of the national energy
AT a difficult period the creator of its
s-loed power and the symbol OF the
cause fer which they went out to war
against the enemies of civilization.