On the day of the occupation of the fortress an engineer officer, strolling about examining the construction of the place, happened to catch his foot in what he took to be a loose telephone wire, which had apparently been accidentally pulled in from outside.
In disengaging it his attention was attracted by a peculiar object attached to the wire, when to his surprise he found that it was an electrical contrivance connected with a live fuse leading to a positive mine of dynamite in one of the lower galleries.
A small splinter of rock had somehow got mixed up with the detonator, and thus, as though by a miracle, the fortress and the Italian troops in it had been saved from destruction. Almost needless to add, the wire led from the nearest Austrian position.
We only made one excursion from Verona, but it was of extreme interest in view of what was taking place at the time in this sector of the Front. It was to Ala, a small Austrian town in the valley of the Adige, which had been captured a few weeks previously.
There had been some sharp fighting in the streets, as many of the houses bore witness to, but its chief interest to us lay in the fact that it was in redeemed territory, and actually within the portals of Austrian Trentino. Like, however, most of the liberated towns I had visited, Ala was more Italian than Austrian.
The whole region was positively alive with warlike energy ([see page 75])
To face page 100
The Mayor offered a lunch to the correspondents, and the usual patriotic toasts followed. Afterwards we motored to the nearest position, which was only a short distance from the town. Crossing the river Adige on our way by an ingenious ferry-boat, constructed by the engineers, the Austrians having destroyed the only bridge in the vicinity. The “ferry” consisted of two big barges clamped together, then boarded over and steered by an immense paddle projecting from the after part. It was worked on the fixed-rope and sliding-pulley principle, the swift current supplying the motive power.
We had all been looking forward to getting a good conception of the operations, which just then were of vital importance, but we were to be disappointed; we were only to be permitted a long range view.