Six months on the Italian front

by Julius M. Price

It was the spice of ever-present danger that gave, as it were, an extra zest to being there, and made one the more appreciate all one saw. The Austrian artillery was firing continuously over us, and there was an incessant fusillade from their trenches, which were not more than a couple of hundred yards away—so close in fact that you could have plainly seen the men in them had they shewn themselves.

The difference between this entrenched position in the mountains and others we had been into was very great; in fact, it struck me as being unlike anything I had seen elsewhere.

Here the enemy’s trenches were below us, and we were midway between the Austrian and Italian batteries, so that in the violent artillery duel which was going on all the time we were on Pal Grande the projectiles were passing overhead continuously, with a noise reminding one of a big railway junction with an endless succession of express trains going by.

Of course all the shells did not pass over us, but exploded round about on the mountain side, too near in several instances to be pleasant, especially when their objective appeared to be the direction in which we had come up.

At times, in fact, one began to wonder if it would not be too “hot” for us to get back that day, and that a big attack was developing. Fortunately, the Austrian gunners did not know how close to the Italian position they were dropping their shells, as they were only firing blindly in our direction.

The view one got from here was magnificent. Towering above us on our right, as we faced the Frontier, was Timau, nearly 10,000 feet high; in the near distance, and just behind it, across the Frontier was Avostaunis, only slightly less in height.

Almost facing us to the left were the precipitous slopes of the Freikoffel, which the Alpini had captured at the point of the bayonet, and under the fire of the Austrian guns a short time previously.

How mortal man could be found to scale these giddy heights at all, leave alone under such awful conditions, baffles me. There are no tracks at all to ascend by it, so it is a mystery how it was accomplished.

The Austrians abandoned all their positions here so precipitately that they left their wounded behind, who, together with those of the Italians, had to be actually lowered by ropes from the summit, there being no other means of bringing them down to the ambulances.

Pal Grande had been the scene of several sanguinary fights before its final capture by the Italians not long before our visit to it; at one moment, in fact, the Austrians looked like re-taking it, so desperate and reckless was the counter-attack. It is said that had it not been for the presence of mind and initiative of one of the military doctors it was practically lost.