August 17, 1916 
LAND & WATER 
The Italian Advance 
The Italian success, which runs all along the main 
front from Monfalcone to Gorizia, including the occupa- 
tion of the latter town, is essentially another example of 
the way in which the gradual dwindling of his effectives 
has reversed the enemy's position ; first from a partial 
olfensive to a defensive everywhere, and next to the 
cracking here and there of that defensive. We must 
consider in a moment whether this now rapid dwindling 
of his effectives must necessarily continue, and if not, 
what effect rally might have. But the immediate 
news, the Italian success from the mountains to the 
sea upon the main Isonzo front is, I repeat, nothing 
more than another example of that prime chara,cter which 
the war has taken on in the last six weeks, a character 
essentially due not only to the growing inferiority in 
men from which the enemy now suffers, but to his actual 
inability to maintain his defensive lines at their full 
necessary minimum. 
. There is, of course, in this as in every other similar 
problem, a factor of quality as well as of quantity. And 
when you read in detail what happened on the Isonzo line 
last week you perceive that quality has quite as much 
to do with the result as quantity. I have seen nothing in 
the communiques and have received no information from 
any other sources, to indicate what the enemy's units 
were at various parts of the line, but it is perfectly clear 
from the nature of the fighting that the line was patchy. 
Not so long ago the ridge of the Carso and so right down 
to the sea was held by good Hungarian reserve units. 
It may be that the human material was still better on 
the southern part of the line than on the northern, but 
at any rate you have only to look at the map to see that 
the resistance gets progressively weaker as you go north- 
ward from Monfalcone, and I believe it will appear when 
we have the news of the units and their recruitment 
that the Austrian breakdown was mainly due to the 
tension in human material to which their line here was 
subjected. They could, of course, have leinforced much 
more heavily if they had not got themselves so deep into 
the mud by obeying Berlin in the matter of the TrentiTio. 
Their defensive strategy was simple enough and sound 
enough until they received and submitted to those 
disastrous orders. I shall deal with the effect of the 
Trentino in next week's article It was ^•ery directly 
responsible for the loss of Galicia. 
My readers are, I think, acquainted with the nature 
of this front sufficiently from a number of articles which 
appeared several months ago, but a brief recapitulation 
will be of advantage at this moment. 
When you survey the whole of the Isonzo front from 
the Rock of Medea, standing more or less where does the 
X on map IV., the eye grasps the whole of the front 
within the two lines marked divergent from that point. 
This height, from which all those who visit the Italian 
front are shown the general scheme of the main Italian 
line on the Isonzo, presents a view stretching from the 
sea to the Alps, and in that view the characteristic fea- 
ture is the contrast between the bare brown escarpment 
of the Carso and the Plain of the Vipaccio, with its capital, 
the town of Gorizia, thrust up in the northern corner of 
it under a horseshoe of mountains. Further north again 
beyond Gorizia, the really high hills 2,000 and 3,000 and 
4,000 feet rise in tiers, and behind all this is the main chain 
of the Alps. 
The Carso, which is the stronghold of all that line, is 
a bare limestone plateau of very curious formation, deeply 
pitted like some miniature lunar landscape with small 
craters upon which geologists have made their guesses, 
but which in a military study are interesting chiefly 
because they afford such exceptional opportunities for 
cover. 
On the other hand, the Carso formation has this diffi- 
culty about it for defence, that trenches can only be 
drawn across it with the utmost difficulty. You are 
nearly everywhere working in stone, and there is no such 
thing as the rapid establishment of a deeply entrenched 
lino. All the fighting for months has been "for the mere 
exterior escarpment of this plateau, roughly speaking for 
the line A-B upon Map III, with its chief summit, the Peak 
of St. Michael, about 700 feet above the river, in the 
immediate neighbourhood of Gradisca and just opposite 
that town. 
The action Jbegan ten days ago with an attack upon 
the heights immediately above Monfalcone. This attack 
had some success, and captured some hundreds of prisoners 
and three guns. The pressure was continued all along 
the line and immediately afterwards there came the 
break in the plain between Gorizia and the Carso heights. 
The whole enemy line fell back to the dots represented 
on Map.I I by the letters C-D. The crossings of the Isonzo, 
the town of Gorizia itself, fell into Italian hands, and since 
the Plain was thus abandoned over, a belt varying from 
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two to nearly three miles, the escarpment of the Carso itself 
was no longer tenable. The Italians carried the height 
of St. Michael, the village of St. Martin, Doberdo and all 
the western part of the plateau which takes its title from 
Doberdo. There runs across the Carso from north to 
south a depression called the Vallone, marked upon Map 
III by the letters V-V-V. This depression has a sort of 
saddle or pass, rather to the south of the middle, the 
highest point of which is about 350 feet above the sea 
at Z. The Italians carried all the northern part of this' 
depression, crossed it ; on the Friday were already in 
occupation of the village of Oppicchiasella, and by the 
Saturday were established as far as the line of crosses 
in the sketch. They also took Hill 121 above Monfal- 
cone ; and, having made somewhat further progress at 
the point Y where there is a rather steep round hill to be 
carried, the summit of which they have not reached, 
they stood upon Sunday night, to which the last com- 
muniques bring us, upon the Hue of crosses on the sketch. 
The advance has accounted for some 16,000 prisoners 
up to date. What second fine the Austrians have pre- 
pared upon the Carso (and it must have been prepared at 
long date to be of any use at all) we do not yet know, 
but the next few days will show us. Progress beyond 
Gorizia is difficult, because the town is directly dominated 
by rising hills and the Austrian artillery established upon 
the plateau at E is not dislodged. Below the plateau 
the foothills continue to sink to the neighbourhood of the 
Vipaccio, and the whole country is difficult in the extreme. 
The Western Front 
Upon the Western front the main features of the fight- 
ing remain unchanged. There is the same rnanifest 
abiUty to seize narrow belt after narrow belt at will upon 
the Somme, the same inability o^the enemy to check this 
process definitely by counter-attack. There is the same 
balance in front of Verdun, the French never allowing 
the enemy to" withdraw his men, and never putting forth 
on their side an ounce of unnecessary weight. Lastly, 
there is the same expectation of what may be the third 
phase in the western position before the summer is over. 
But with all this similarity between the state of affairs to- 
day, upon the Somme particula^iy, and that of last week. 
