The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-02-13
VETERANS
 IN ITALY LEARNING
 NEW WAYS TOF|GHT
Methods in Mountain Re- gions Are Entirely Diff ferent From Any They
 Had Been Used to

With the French Armies in Italy, Jan uary 19.- .-(Correspondence of the As sociated Press .)-Though the French troops who have come to Italy have brought much, gained during their three years and half of war, from which the Italians have proflted and are profiting. they. themselves, are busily searning new ways of fighting totally foreign to the modes of warfare in France, and made necessary by the altered conditions here
 One of the most spectacular. interesting and important of thees is the "teleferi- CO.," which the Italians have made an almost indispensable adjunct of their mountain fighting, and which the French now use on the mountainous part of the sector they have taken over. The "teleferico" Is an aerial tram way or transportation line which, built of slender cables supported by steel tow CTS, spans valleys and in half an hour carries food and ammunition, even men, to heights that would require hours on foot or by vehicle.
 The teleferco is thorough and er- ficient .on Mount, Pasubia, just to the west of Arsieros where, at height of more than 1000 feet, Italian Alpini and other troops have. held the Austrians in check since May, 1915. In this defense the wonderful aerial tram has played its silent but important part,
 The Italian military authorities who week earlier9had permitted the cor respondents accredited to the French ar mics to visit all the naval defenses which protect Venice and to see in detail the | ,F xrar rfN TO
 among the lagoons and marshes between the city and the lower Piave river granted similar permission to the Asso- ciated Press correspondent to see and study this other and unique style of fighting.
 Soon after leaving the pretty village city of Schio, just south of the foothills that lead up to imposing Mount Pasubio, the broad, stone -bedded road begins to rise perilously, curving each 90 or Al fest with sickening "hair-pin curves Soon the cars of the correspondents re- fused to travel upward further over the icy roads, and were abandoned when they showed an inclination to slide pack
 wards over the precipice
 It was then that the ''teleferico" was resorted to. just as 1t has on countless
 occasions been used to bring wounded
 men down quickly when delay and la
 borious mule-back transportation would
 cost them their lives
 Far out over the valley to the right
 of the steep road, seemingly beginning nowhere and ending nowhere, and sup
 ported at long intervals by massive steel
 uprights resembling the towers that carry high power electric wires, were four
 strands of cable and, as the correspon- dents contemplated their useless autemo-
 biles a tiny carriage or car loaded with
 sacks of potatoes came swinging dizzily
 along two of the strands, mysterousiy
 working it's way upward until It van
 ished out Of sight behind shoulder Of
 the mountain.
 Tn a few moments we'll be comfort ally easconeed in one of those and won't need the autemohiles. said the dashing young Italian officer heading the party.
 A short walk up the road led to low
 wooden shed-the starting point or one
 of the tcleferico lines that encircies
 Mount Pasubia from it's base to its
 crest And into the cars the party crept
 two to a car and in reclining posi-
 tion--the to be swung off into space
 on the first stage of the journey to the
 tor.
 There are several stages to the journey
 each requiring about half an hour, and
 each becoming increasingly nerve-rack-
 ing since the cars, which start off at a rather smart pace, slow down in the
 middle of the stretch, come almost to stop and leave the amateur traveller sus-
 pended dizzily anywhere from loOo to
 5000 feet above the nearest Jagged rock.
 Generally also on the higher lines the
 pause comes during siowstorm at this season.
 However the danger, according to the
 .old-timers.'. who travel daily. is small.
 The teleferico will carry a maximum
 weight of over 500 pounds to each little
 car-and but two human beings are per
 mitted to ride except In the case or ur-
 gent wounded, who are slowed away
 three to a car. The greatest danger of accident lies in rocking the boat" and itwere. agitating the car so that it might
 top or rock sideways and spill one out.
 The trans are supported in their hair raising journeys by a half-inch steel ca
 ble. and are pulled upwards-and all
 lowed to descend-by g. smaller cable that runs around huge wheel at each
 end of the line. and that is driven by
 hydraulic motor. Accidents are extremely rare.
 Many of the lines. those that run up-
 wards at the dizziest angles. and that Fave fewer steel supports, are not used by passengers, but carry only ammuni- tion and supplies. At certain times of
 the year the lines highest up cannot be onerated by day because they are in
 view of the Austrians and make excel lent targets. but at this season it is possible to run them constantly because of the snow and fog.
 The last of the lines runs almost to thc front trenches. which are hewn out of rock. but which, in winter. are gen. ere lly showed in, so that the troops em-
 bed themselves in snow trenches and kt,n fn nf ms
 see5ers yn5Mio.25; cows and heifers,