Six months on the Italian front

by Julius M. Price

Rateau and I had a very cordial reception, and the officer in command of the position took a visible pride in showing us round it and explaining everything, whilst I made a lot of interesting sketches. The ability and rapidity with which it had been constructed and fortified were worthy of the very highest praise. Such a fortress brought into being in so short a time and at such an altitude was in itself such a marvel of military capacity that one was lost in wonder at it all. Evidently no obstacle presented by nature deterred its accomplishment.

In the emplacements were guns of a calibre one certainly never expected to see except in the valley, and you were lost in conjecture how the feat of getting them up here was achieved.

Everything was approaching completion, and by the time the snow set in and the position would be practically cut off from the lower world it would be a big, self-contained arsenal with all that was necessary for carrying on its share of the general scheme of operations on the Frontier without extraneous assistance should the rigours of the Alpine winter render it unapproachable.

In the warfare in the mountains, positions develop more or less into isolated communities, as the men seldom have an opportunity of going down to the busy world below, besides which the summer is so brief at these altitudes. Even on the date we were at the Forcola, the twentieth of August, there were already unmistakable signs of the approach of winter; the air was decidedly frosty—there had been a fall of snow a few hours previously, and most of the peaks were powdered with silvery white.

We gladly accepted the invitation to have some lunch in the mess-room, for the keen air had given both of us healthy appetites, and while we were doing justice to a well-cooked steak with fried potatoes and a flask of very excellent Valtellino. I had a chat with some of the younger officers, and learned to my surprise that they had not stirred from the place since they had come up nearly three months before, and they had no hope of getting leave for a long time to come as things were developing and the winter coming along. A visit from two civilians like ourselves, who could give them some news of the outside world, was therefore a veritable red-letter day for them.

Yet, in spite of the monotony of their existence, these cheery fellows did not complain. There was always plenty to occupy their minds, they said, and prevent them from brooding over old times. To defend the Forcola at all hazards was now their sole pre-occupation; and after all, they added, with an attempt at mirth, they might easily have been stationed in a still more isolated spot and with fewer companions. Such admirable equanimity was only what I expected to find now that I knew the Italian soldier, so it did not surprise me at all.

After lunch, as the Austrian batteries seemed to be getting busier, we strolled up to the “observation post,” a sort of tunnel in which was a telephone installation and an instrument known as a “goniometre,” a powerful telescope in miniature, combined with a novel kind of range-finder, through which the slightest movement of the enemy can be instantly detected and telephoned to the officers in command of the different gun emplacements. The machine is always in readiness, as it is so fixed that once it is focussed it requires no re-adjustment.

There was a small, irregular hole at the end of the tunnel that faced the enemy’s line, and through this the goniometre pointed. Two soldiers were on duty, one to keep his eye on the opposite mountain, the other to manipulate the telephone. It evidently required some practice to use the telescope, as I had a good look through it and could scarcely make out anything.

When we visited the post the Italian batteries were not yet replying to what I was informed were only the usual daily greetings of the Austrians, but their response would doubtless be sent in due course, judging from the conversation of the operator with the telephone.

Everything we saw was so absorbingly interesting that we should have liked to remain on the Forcola many hours more, but time was getting on by now, and we had to think of getting back.