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Most of our prearranged daylight shoots were observed from an O.P. in a ruined house at S. Andrea, on the plain just outside Gorizia, where one had a fine view southwards of the Tamburo and of the whole boundary ridge of the Carso from Dosso Faiti to the Stoll. Observation was beautifully easy on these high hills and in this clear air.
Although, thanks to the tunnels of matting, the Austrians cannot see the traffic on the roads, they know that it must cross the bridges, so on them they keep up a continuous rain of projectiles, and there you have to take your chance. The Gorizia bridge-head was not a place where I should have cared to loiter.
In the outskirts of Gorizia stands the château of an Austrian nobleman who was the possessor of a famous collection of paintings.
It gave eastern Friuli to Italy, including Gorizia, split Istria into two parts, and assigned Trieste and Pola also to Italy, but under such territorial conditions that they would be exposed to enemy projectiles in case of war. The National Council of Fiume issued its proclamation before it had become known that the battle of Vittorio Veneto was begun i.e., October 30, 1918.
As I left the Group Headquarters, a number of wooden huts at the foot of the wooded slopes of Monte San Michele, which rise upwards from the road, I went under the railway which in peace-time connects Gorizia with Trieste. It is useless now, being within easy range of the Austrian guns, which have, moreover, broken down the high stone bridge on which the line crosses the Vippacco.
The war as originally planned on the Austro-Italian frontier was to be one of swift movement in the direction of Trieste and Dalmatia; with the gradual cooperation of the Balkan nations and a general invasion into the interior of Austria. Until, therefore, decided headway could be made on the Isonzo front and Gorizia had fallen, a feeling-out movement would appear the best to be followed.
Meanwhile the Austrian armies were being heavily reinforced, and General Cadorna found himself unable to make progress. Much ground had been won but Gorizia was still unredeemed. Many important vantage points were in Italian hands, but it was difficult to advance. The result of the three months' campaign was a stalemate. In the high mountains to the north Italy's campaign was a war of defense.
But it is the true military boundary between Italy and Austria, and it was always regarded by the Austrians as their first line of defense. For almost its entire length, as far south as Salcaro, about four miles north of Gorizia, the Isonzo River runs through a deep gorge and is easily defended.
Gorizia lies in a salient of the hills, with the Austrians looking down upon it from the tops of most of them. But, still hoping to win it back, they do not shell it heavily or often. There are special reasons, too, for their forbearance.
A young Sicilian Sergeant accompanied me as a guide and pointed out Gorizia, some six miles away to the north, a widely-scattered town, very white in the sunlight, lying at the foot of high hills famous in the history of the war on this Front, Monte Sabotino, Monte Santo, Monte San Gabriele, of which there will be more for me to say hereafter.
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