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AMERICAN FORESTRY 



VOL. XXV SEPTEMBER, 1919 NO. 309 



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FOREST LOSSES ON THE ITALIAN FRONT 



BY NELSON COURTLANDT BROWN 



U. S. TRADE COMMISSIONER 

 (Photograph* by Courtesy of the Italian General Headquarters') 



UNTIL October, 191 7, the fighting along the Italian 

 front had been 'restricted almost exclusively to 

 the mountainous regions. The line, until that 

 date, stretched from the mountains of the Carso region 

 and the upper valley of the Isonzo along the Carnic and 

 Julian Alps to 

 S w i t z erland. 

 The high di- 

 vide along the 

 crest of these 

 mountains con- 

 s t i t u t e s the 

 natural boun- 

 dary between 

 Italy and Aus- 

 tria, and the 

 small region 

 about Trieste 

 and the upper 

 valley of the 

 Trentino con- 

 s t i t u t e s the 

 "Italia Irre- 

 denta" for 

 which Italy has 

 largely been in 

 t h e struggle. 

 Before the un- 

 fortunate re- 

 treat from 

 Caporetto the 

 Italian front 

 was longer 

 than the entire 

 Western front 

 in France and 

 Belgium, a fact 

 which is gen- 

 erally not appreciated in this country. The total length 

 formerly was about five hundred miles. For the year 

 preceding the signing of the armistice, the length of the 

 Italian front was about two hundred and twenty miles. 

 Fighting in this rugged and precipitous Alpine country 



Photograph by courtesy of the Italian General Headquarters 



YOUNG AND SCATTERED FOREST GROWTH IMMEDIATELY BACK OF THE LINES ON THE 

 HIGH ASIAGO PLATEAU— PURPOSELY LEFT TO PROTECT MEN AND SUPPLIES GOING TO AND 

 FROM THE FRONT LINE TRENCHES. IT WAS PRACTICALLY WINTER THROUGHOUT THE 

 YEAR ON THE HIGH ITALIAN ALPINE FRONT WHERE A CONSIDERABLE PART OF THE 

 LINES WERE FROM 6000 TO OVER 9000 FEET IN ELEVATION. 



was naturally carried on under the most extreme physical 

 hardships. Correspondents who have been on all of the 

 fronts have informed me that the tremendous physical 

 difficulties encountered on the Italian front have far 

 exceeded those of any of the other fronts and one can 



easily under- 

 stand this when 

 seeing how the 

 men live and 

 fight and bring 

 up their sup- 

 plies under 

 those most un- 

 usual condi- 

 tions. The first 

 impression one 

 has is that it is 

 difficult enough 

 to merely exist 

 in that precipi- 

 tous Alpine re- 

 g i o n without 

 attempt i n g to 

 maintain a 

 fighting front 

 and to bring 

 up heavy guns 

 and enormous 

 q u a n tities of 

 supplies which 

 fighting in that 

 country in- 

 volves. 



For the last 

 year of the war 

 the Italian 

 front ran par- 

 tially across the 

 flat Venetian plain, the Piave River forming the boundary 

 from the Adriatic Sea to Valdoppiana, where it crossed 

 the Piave River and rose sharply from the flat plain to 

 the higher altitudes of the Alps. There is a most abrupt 

 change from steep mountain topography to the flat plains, 



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