As we were quite exposed to the Austrian batteries this appeared reasonable enough, so, accompanied by a very amiable and learned Staff Officer as guide we ascended a hill close by from which we were able to gain some idea of what was going on.
Facing us were being carried out the most important strategic operations on the whole of the Italian Front.
We were looking up the valley of the Isonzo River, here somewhat narrowed; the stream, from the height where we were standing, looking like a dark blue ribbon laid across white gravel.
Precipitous mountains rose abruptly from either side of the valley, and towering above all was Monte Rombon, 10,000 feet high, at the very summit of which the Austrians had their most strongly fortified position in the Front.
This position was the key of the Austrian defences in the sector, and to capture it the Italians, at the time of our visit, were putting out every effort.
It was already completely invested, and the Italians were bombarding it with heavy artillery, placed on Mount Svinjak opposite.
We could see the shells bursting high up on the precipitous slopes of the mountain. The report of the guns echoed and re-echoed grandly, but the tiny puffs of smoke looked ridiculously insignificant in comparison to the volume of sound.
The difficulty for the Italian artillery was, we learned, to locate the emplacement of the Austrian guns, as they were hidden in caves and all manner of unwonted places on the mountain side. Still, they were gradually being discovered and silenced, and at any moment the Alpini might be called upon to try and repeat their previous deeds of valour by scaling the mountain and capturing the position à l’arme blanche. Meanwhile the artillery duel between Rombon and Svinjak proceeded without intermission.
At the foot of the mountains, in the valley on the right bank of the Isonzo, at its junction with the Koritnica, one could just distinguish the first house of the town of Plezzo and its fortress. Through one’s glasses you saw that little but ruins now remained of what had been one of the most picturesque and prosperous towns in the Carniola.
Plezzo was now but a sort of “no man’s land,” and though practically in the possession of the Italians, was for the moment uninhabitable, being directly under the fire of the guns of Monte Rombon. The Austrians, with their customary “kultured” amenity were continually bombarding it in order to prevent the Italians from installing themselves there, with the result that the town was slowly but surely being wiped out of existence.