CHAPTER XX:

Declaration of war between Italy and Germany—Effect of declaration at Udine—Interesting incident—General Cadorna consents to give me a sitting for a sketch—The curious conditions—Methodic and business-like—Punctuality and precision—A reminder of old days—I am received by the Generalissimo—His simple, unaffected manner—Unconventional chat—“That will please them in England”—My Gorizia sketch book—The General a capital model—“Hard as nails”—The sketch finished—Rumour busy again—A visit to Monfalcone—One of the General’s Aides-de-camp—Start at unearthly hour—Distance to Monfalcone—Arctic conditions—“In time for lunch”—Town life and war—Austrian hour for opening fire—Monfalcone—Deserted aspect—The damage by bombardment—The guns silent for the moment—The ghost of a town—“That’s only one of our own guns”—A walk to the shipbuilding yards—The communication trench—The bank of the canal—The pontoon bridge—The immense red structure—The deserted shipbuilding establishment—Fantastic forms—Vessels in course of construction—A strange blight—The hull of the 20,000 ton liner—The gloomy interior—The view of the Carso and Trieste through a port-hole—Of soul-stirring interest—Hill No. 144—The “daily strafe”—“Just in time”—Back to Udine “in time for lunch”—Return to the Carso—Attack on the Austrian positions at Veliki Hribach—New Difficulties—Dense woods—Impenetrable cover—Formidable lines of trenches captured—Fighting for position at Nova Vas—Dramatic ending—Weather breaking up—Operations on a big scale perforce suspended—Return London await events 281

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

The Author in San Martino del Carso _Frontispiece_

During the entire day the onward march continued 11

Rugged and threatening, visible for miles around, is the frowning pinnacle of bare rock known as Monte Nero 26

It meant practically scaling a cliff of rock 38

A rude altar of rough boxes was set up 50

The King appeared indefatigable and was out and about in all weathers 62

Along the big military highway constructed by Napoleon 74

As he whirled past in the big car 88

The whole region was positively alive with warlike energy 100

A very useful-looking Nordenfeldt quick-firer mounted on the fore-deck 112

Before us stretched the broad valley of the Adige 124

On one of the worst portions we passed a gang of peasant women carrying barbed wire up to the trenches 136

One would have liked to spend an indefinite time in these scenes of warlike activity 148

But nothing had stopped the rush of the Italians 160

And came up with reinforcements hurrying forward 172

The least severely wounded occupants jumped out of the wagon 186

And day by day one heard of minor successes in Trentino 198

The object of this being to hide movements of troops and convoys 210

Two infantry regiments, the 11th and 12th, forded and swam across the river 222

The soldiers round us now began to move forward, and we were practically carried up the gully with them 234

I was fortunate enough to get some interesting sketches of the cavalry crossing the river under fire 246

The only difficulty the officers experienced was in getting them to advance with caution 258

They came racing across the stretch of “No Man’s Land” 270

A grey-haired officer of medium height, whom I immediately recognized as the Generalissimo, was reading an official document 283

To advance through the jungle called for all the cool, disciplined courage of the Italian soldier 291