Julius M. Price

“ It was quite touching to hear on all sides the expressions of affection of the big rough soldiers for the wiry little man, covered with dust, who saluted one and all so genially as he whirled past in the big car.
It is this feeling of brotherhood of which the King sets the example that animates the whole army—one could not fail to be struck by it—officers, non-commissioned officers and men are all on the most friendly terms together and there is probably no more democratic army in the world to-day than the Italian. ”

“ In this connection I recall a pleasing incident I witnessed one day on a mountain track; an officer riding a mule at the head of a small detachment of soldiers, who were plodding along stolidly in the intense heat, was reading his newspaper aloud for the benefit of them all. Curiously enough this camaraderie leads to no impairment of discipline—rather the contrary perhaps, as for instance, one sees men go out of their way, so to speak, to salute officers at all times, not as a matter of duty only, but to show their respect for their rank. ”

“ Arsiero is situated in the valley of Astico; behind it is the semi-circle of mountains which form the boundary of the tableland of the Altopiano, so close as to dominate it completely, foremost amongst these mountains being M. Cenzio and M. Cimone, standing up like colossal barriers above the valley.
From the point of view of an artist it would be difficult to conceive a more delightful panorama than one had before one’s eyes: it was a glorious picture waiting to be painted in peace time, but you felt that there was nothing attractive about it from the military point of view. ”

“ These were the encampments of the thousands of Italian soldiers who have accomplished all this marvel of mountain warfare, and in the teeth of the Austrians and of nature as it were as well, and have carried the line of entrenchments across wooded hills, meadows, torrents and snow-clad slopes.
It is safe to assert that, with the exception perhaps of the great wall of China, never before in the history of warfare have operations of such magnitude been undertaken. ”

“ Trenches and gun emplacements confronted you on all sides.
A sort of gigantic furrow wound through the valley and climbed the mountain like some prehistoric serpent, till lost to view away up on the summits more than two thousand metres above; and round about this fantastic thing were numberless little quaint grey shapes dotted here and there on the rocks, and often in positions so steep of access that you wondered how they got up there at all, and for what purpose. ”

“ The Austrian trenches commenced a few hundred yards beyond Lucinico, and we were now walking along a road that for fifteen months had been “No man’s land.”
The spectacle we had before us of violence and death is indescribable. Everything had been levelled and literally pounded to atoms by the Italian artillery.
The ground all around was pitted with shell-holes, and strewn with every imaginable kind of débris: the remains of barbed-wire entanglements in such chaotic confusion that it was frequently a matter of positive difficulty to pass at all ”

“ I had been prepared to see Nature in its most savage mood, but the scene before me was so terrible in its utter desolation as to inspire a sense of awe.
Imagine the Brighton downs covered from end to end with colourless stones and rock instead of turf; no sign of vegetation anywhere; ribbed in every direction with trenches protected by low, sand-bagged walls; bristling with wire entanglements, and everywhere pitted with huge shell-craters. ”

“ The big military motor Camions, raised such clouds of it that progress at times was almost impossible.
You could scarcely see a yard ahead, and where you knew that the roadway ended abruptly on one side, it was not altogether pleasant to reflect that your safety depended solely on the skill or luck of your chauffeur— a speck of grit in his eye, a momentary lapse of “nerve,” and you might find yourself in “Kingdom Come.” In fact, it always struck me that the risk you ran from shell-fire was infinitesimal as compared with that of motoring on these mountain roads. ”

“ One frequently had the road to oneself at this hour, and you could have imagined you were on a pleasure jaunt till you heard the booming of the guns above the noise of the engine; for it did not matter how early one was, the guns never seemed to be silent. With a sympathetic companion in the car these runs out to the lines were quite amongst the pleasantest features of one’s life up at the Front. ”

“ Here, at Venadoro, Italian, French and English fraternised in a delightful spirit of healthy camaraderie and although we all shut ourselves up in our rooms during the daytime when we were not on an excursion, in order to get on with our work undisturbed, we all met for lunch, and the evenings after dinner saw us united in the big saloon, where with music, billiards, and bridge the time passed very cheerily. ”

“ The Swiss and Austrian frontiers meet on the summit of a Brobdingnagian cliff of rock of strange formation, which towers above the Forcola. Through field glasses the frontier guards and the blockhouses are plainly discernable.
This overhanging proximity of the enemy strikes me as constituting a constant menace to the Italian position, as every movement within its enceinte is visible from the height above. The fact also of the Austrian and Swiss frontier guards being so close to each other as to be able to fraternise must inevitably conduce to espionage. ”

“ It is certain that no troops ever went to battle in higher spirits than these splendid fellows. One heard them marching along singing and laughing as though [39] they had not a care in the world.
The road all the way from Udine to Cormons was a wonderful sight, and looked like a defile of troops on some national fête day rather than the opening of hostilities.
I saw the French armies on their way to the Front at the beginning of the war, flower-bedecked and bubbling over with enthusiasm, but somehow that was different to this advance of the Italians. The world war had not then commenced ”

“ For the moment the guns were silent, and there was a strange quietude in the streets that struck me as being different to anything I had noticed anywhere else, except perhaps in Rheims during the bombardment when there was an occasional lull.
One had the feeling that at any moment something awful might happen. Even the soldiers one met seemed to me to have a subdued air, and the drawn expression which is brought about by constant strain on the nerves. ”

“ Towards evening the Austrians recommenced heavily shelling the city, aeroplanes began to put in an appearance, as if a big counter-attack was coming, but it died out suddenly for some unexplained reason.
It was now time for us to be thinking of getting back to Udine, as Barzini had to send off his despatch and I had my sketches to work up. We had a longish walk before us to Lucinico, but there was no particular need to hurry, so we made our way slowly to the wooden bridge we had crossed in the morning. ”

“ Although fighting was taking place within an hour’s motor run, nothing in the usual life of Udine was changed. There were several good restaurants, which were crowded for lunch and dinner, the delightful old twelfth century market-place that is one of the artistic treasures of the town, presented every day the customary scene of peaceful animation and brilliant colour one always associates with Italy, and which has such charm for the painter; it was “business as usual,” although you could generally hear the thunder of the guns quite distinctly. ”

“ Rumour had it that so eager was the nation to get to grips with its hereditary foe that a revolution would ensue were the King to hesitate as to his course of action, while it had been an open secret for some weeks that a general mobilisation of the Army and Navy had been in active progress since the commencement of the period of tension. Italy, therefore, was the point de mire of the entire world on the 20th of May, 1915, when I left London, and I could congratulate myself that, thanks to the journalistic flair of Charles Ingram, I should be on the spot in time for anything that might happen. ”

“ Many grim and barbarous devices for causing death in the most horrible and unexpected form were discovered in the Austrian trenches here on the Doberdo plateau, and the mere sight of them was often sufficient to rouse the Italian soldiers to a pitch of frenzy.
One is apt to forget at times that the Austrian is by nature quite as callous and inhuman a creature as the Hun, but here one had ample reminder of what he is capable of when he realises that he is up against a better man than himself. ”

“ Lucinico was full of movement when we got back there: troops coming in, motor ambulances arriving, and numbers of officers’ cars waiting. A start had also been made at clearing the débris of ruin from the road, so no time was being lost. Wounded were being brought in continually, and one saw them lying about on stretchers everywhere, waiting for the Red Cross men to come along.
With difficulty we managed to get our car through the block of vehicles and masses of soldiers, and headed for Udine. Then commenced what, to my mind, was the most impressive spectacle of this wondrous day. ”

“ It was always a pleasure to be amongst the troops, and it was an endless source of astonishment to me to see how they had in so short a time settled down to the irksome daily routine of warfare as it exists at the rear of the fighting line.
The glorious summer weather doubtless contributed [46] in no small degree to the high spirits of the soldiers, for camp life in the Italian army is very different to that of the English—it is far more picturesque, but of comfort there is very little, it appeared to me. ”

“ Through a pathless wilderness of shrub or bare precipitous rocks the men made their way forward unhesitatingly, cutting a roadway as they advanced, dragging the heavy artillery with them and consolidating each yard behind them with barbed-wire entanglement and trench work in case the apparent weakness of the Austrian was but a ruse. ”

“ One was not long realizing that it would have been impossible to have obtained a real conception of the terrific character of the mountain warfare and the indefatigable work of the soldiers if one had not been enabled to see it for oneself at close quarters.
A better starting point than Brescia for an extended tour of the whole of the Front would have been difficult to find, as it commands comparatively easy access to the principal positions in this sector. With a reliable car and no “speed limit” the radius you could cover in a day was remarkable as we soon discovered. ”

“ It looked, therefore, like taking months to accomplish what the Italians had fondly hoped would be but an affair of weeks, though considering the unforseen difficulties that had to be overcome, it redounded to the credit of General Cadorna and his lieutenants that so much could be recorded as actually compassed.
The occupation of two thousand square miles of Austrian territory with a population of over 300,000, was an achievement which in itself was sufficient answer to those captious stay-at-home arm-chair critics who were continually asking “What is Italy doing?” ”

“ In the centre of the town is a statue of the Emperor Maximilian (it looks exactly like Beckmesser in the “Meistersingers” singing his pricelied) , and on the day of the entry of the Italian soldiers some wag conceived the happy idea of placing a sack over the head and an Italian flag in one of the hands, an indignity that must have caused the Austrian inhabitants to gnash their teeth with impotent rage, but there were touches of humour discernable everywhere which conveyed to you more perhaps than anything else an idea of the moral of the troops. ”

“ Many an experienced climber would hesitate to negotiate so precipitous an ascent in daylight. The Alpini, with almost incredible daring, undertook it on a moonless night.
It meant practically scaling a cliff of rock in pitch darkness, encumbered with rifle and munition; however, amongst the men, all of whom were hardy mountaineers, there was no hesitancy. In order to lessen the danger of making any noise which might arouse the suspicions of the Austrian sentries, they removed their boots and bound rags round their feet to prevent them being cut on the rocks. ”

“ The richly wooded undulating plain of Friuli, dotted with villages, stretched away from below the terrace.
In the distance, a couple of miles or so away, was the Podgora Ridge, bristling with gaunt tree-stumps; beyond it you could just distinguish the houses of Gorizia. To the right was the Carso and Monte San Michele, some five miles away.
It may be mentioned here that the word “Monte” in Italian does not necessarily signify a “mountain” as it is understood in English. The Italian “Monte” is a very elastic term, and, according to the dictionary, may mean a mountain, a hill, or a heap. ”

“ From Rome to Brescia is quite a long journey, via Milan, where one has to pass a night.
There was quite a big gathering at the reception of correspondents in the quaint little Town Hall where we assembled, as, in spite of the weeding-out process which had taken place in Rome, no fewer than forty-one papers were represented—twenty-six Italian, six French, seven English, and two Swiss.
As was to be expected, Italian journalism was widely represented. It had no less than twenty-six correspondents, and every town of importance in Italy appeared to have sent someone. ”

“ At one place we passed a long Red Cross train full of badly-wounded men just in from the Front. This was the first time there had been any evidence of the fighting that was taking place on ahead. It was almost a startling sight, and came in sharp contrast to the cheering crowds of healthy boys in the troop trains that had gone by a few minutes previously.
There was a big crowd of officers and soldiers on the platform at Udine, which was the terminus of the line, and one realised at once that it was an important military centre. ”

“ We left the car here to await our return and walked on. A hundred yards or so and we were clear of the forest, which ended abruptly on the edge of a slight acclivity.
A little below us was a wide expanse of grass-covered plain, and in the centre of it, about a mile away, were the white houses of the little town of Asiago, of which one had read so much during the past few weeks. ”

“ So within five minutes of the departure of my guide I had fallen on my feet.
My luck even then was not out: just as I got off the tram I ran into the affable stranger who had walked with us from the station on the day of our arrival. He seemed so genuinely pleased to meet me again that my suspicions of him vanished at once, and I unhesitatingly accepted his offer of an “Americano” at the café close by; the fact of my being alone seemed to interest him immensely, and [33] he expressed astonishment at my risking remaining in Udine without understanding Italian. ”