FOREST LOSSES ON THE ITALIAN FRONT 



1317 



as the point of crossing on pontoon bridges by the Aus- 

 trians. The trees had been torn to pieces as if a com- 

 bined hurricane and electrical storm which had hit every 

 tree, had recently destroyed the whole section. When a 

 shell hits a tree the contact fuse causes an explosion and 

 the shattering of the trunk or limb in both directions so 

 that a severe splintering effect is the result. On Monte 

 Grappa, which is the keynote of the whole mountain 

 front, acre after acre has been literally "chewed up" by 

 successive bombardments until the whole surface was a 

 mass of shell holes. Near Monte Cimone not only the 

 picturesque little Alpine villages but nearly every living 

 thing in the form of a tree of any size has been destroyed 

 as well. West of Lake Garda, the front was commonly 

 above timber line at elevations of from 6,000 to 9,000 

 feet above sea level. Little damage to forest growth 

 consequently is evident in those sectors. 



Reforestation strikes the imagination at once as being 

 the only salvation for this situation. The land is too 

 rough and rugged to be suitable for agriculture and much 

 of it is so rocky and precipitous that it is not even suitable 

 for development into a grazing proposition. Before the 

 war many parts of Italy were in serious need of refor- 

 estation but now that the war is over Italy should devote 

 a large share of her efforts along the lines of reforesta- 

 tion in the devastated forest regions overlooking the 

 fertile valley of the Veneto. 



Undoubtedly the happiest and most contented in all 

 Italy during the war were the Austrian prisoners. Ask- 

 ed if they wished to go back to their native land, the 

 invariable answer was that even if they had an oppor- 



Photograph by courtesy of the Italian General Headquarters 



A MACHINE GUN LOCATION ALONG THE FRONT LINES BORDERING THE PIAVE RIVER. 

 THIS IS A COMMON FORM OF PROTECTION FROM MACHINE GUN FIRE AS WELL AS 

 ARTILLERY AND ENEMY AIRPLANES. 



THE FRONT LINE OF TRENCH ON MONFENERA. AN OUT- 

 LYING RANGE FROM MONTE GRAPPA, THE KEYNOTE OF THE 

 ITALIAN MOUNTAIN FRONT. THIS HILL WAS FORMERLY 

 FAIRLY WELL FORESTED. SCANT REMAINS OF TREES ARE 

 SEEN IN THE RIGHT BACKGROUND. IN THE DISTANCE IS THE 

 PIAVE RIVER, FLOWING ACROSS THE FLAT VENETIAN PLAIN. 

 ON THE RIGHT OF THE RIVER IS THE MONTELLO, WHERE THE 

 AUSTRIANS BEGAN THEIR BIG OFFENSIVE OF JUNE 15. 1918. 



tunity to get back, either by stealing away or by ex- 

 change of prisoners through Switzerland, they would 

 only be ill-fed, harshly treated, 

 and forced to fight at the front 

 once more. This prospect held 

 out no attraction to these prison- 

 ers at all. Especially was this 

 so in the case of the Hungarians, 

 the Czechs, the Slovaks and the 

 Slovenes. 



It had always been a matter of 

 interest what a country like Italy 

 actually did with several hundred 

 thousand of these prisoners, that 

 is, whether they were kept in 

 barbed wire stockades or em- 

 ployed on some useful and pro- 

 ductive work. They are actually 

 found doing almost everything 

 in the way of physical labor 

 throughout Italy. One finds 

 them chiefly on railroad work, 

 on construction of bridges, homes 

 for refugees, clearing land, farm 

 work, and all sorts of forestry 

 work, and saw mill and woods 

 work. 



They are always used in small 

 squads of from twenty-five to 

 fifty or sixty and one is surprised 

 at the comparatively small nam- 



