New-York tribune., 1918-06-23


arsenal which the Italians have on
the Adriatic proper.
Therefore, it was determined to
hold the far less strong lines on the
Piave. Let me describe those lines,
only half of which are on the Piave
itself. but which take their name
from that river. Starting from the
Swiss frontier. down as far as Lake
Garda, you have very high crest
of mountains with only one practi-
cable pass for guns. This first part
of the line, reckoning from the
northeast toward the left, is so strong
that it ought to be held by ccmpara-
lively few troops against any at
tacker, so long as the offenders find
themselves, as they do now, holding
the SUBMITS Of the mountains.
East of Lake Garda the line runs
across what is known as the Asiago
Plateau. The formation of this dis
trict is peculiar. The main chain
of the Alps does not here fall steeply
down on the plateau as it does nearly
everywhere else between the Adri-
attic and the Mediterranean. About
halfway down the slope the noun
tains here throw down a shelf which
is saucerlike and rises to a rim on
its outer side, beyond which comes
neck or slope falling Immediately
onto the plain.
The formation of the hills here is
of limestone, and the water supply
is therefore bad. The dilemma of
those defending lines in the Asiago
Plateau is this: If you stand across
the middle of the depression of the
saucer the communications behind
you are few and difficult, and you
are overlooked entirely from the
great mountains to the north. If to
avoid these difficulties you stand
upon the outer rim above the plain
you are holding on to the last and
very narrow line of defensive.
which, if 1T breaks, lets the enemy
pour at once into the plain and come
right across the main communica-
tions by railway and road on which
the army depends. The best plan
is to stand upon the great mountains
to the north, and this the Italians
did in all the early part of the war,
but they were shaken off these by
the big Austrian offensive two years
ago, and now stand right across the
middle of the plateau
Line Presents
Dangerous Flank
Going further to the right or east,
along the line, you have the deep
valley of the Brenta, bounding the
Asiago district; beyond that high
footholds of the Alps, the last crests
of which, overlooking the plains, are
held by the Italians. You thus reach
the River Piave, which runs down
from the Alps to the sea in a south
easterly direction. The line curves
round to follow this river, holding
the western bank of it all the way to
the mouth.
If the Piave were a permanent
stream of large volume like the
Adige this part Of the line would
be very strong. Unfortunately, it is
no more than a broad torrent bed,
consisting for very much the greater
part of the year of shingly islands
separated by narrow and easily ford
able trickles of water. 1t is only
in the last ten miles before it reaches
the sea that it becomes anything OF
military obstacle. When SHOWS
are melting or after heavy rain in
the Alps it rises prodigiously for a
few hours, sometimes almost twenty
feet. To preserve the plain from
flooding, very high and large levees
have been raised on both banks.
These are from twenty to thirty feet
high, and the western one of these
on the right bank is the principal
defensive line of this sector.
If my readers will look at the man
they will see that the line thus de-
scribed from the Swiss frontier
across the lake and so on down the
Piave to the sea is one presenting {,
dangerous flank on it's left. The
communications by which the Italian
army is maintained are railways and
roads which run from east to west
along the plain under the hills. The
enemy by reaching these communi-
cations at any point between the
Piave and the Swiss frontier would
cut off and destroy the forces lying
further east of the point of rupture
The more to the west or to the left
of the Italian line the point of
rupture may be, the more disastrous
will be its effect, or the larger will
be the mass of troops cut off by the
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