LAND & WATER 
Cjje WLSIV 
The Great Italian Battle 
By Hilaire Belloc 
August 30, 1917 
THE great Italian action affords by far the most 
important military news of the week, aJid although 
it is not yet complete nor the result achie\ed. its 
development throughout the whole week is sufficient 
to show, not only the scale upon which the operation is.heing 
conductetl, but the promise of its bearing fruit. 
The action is taking place along the whole of the Isonzo 
line from Canale, in the north, to the trenches in front of 
Dnino, in the south. As is the case with every such offen- 
sive, there are two main points of concentration; upon the 
two wings. The first on the north is concerned with breaking 
up the Austrian defensive organization in the mountains 
above Gorizia. It is on the extreme left wing of the Italians 
that this has been successfully accomplished. The second, 
in the south, on the extreme right wing against the sea, is 
concerned with the forcing of that formidable bastion covering 
Trieste, known as the Hermada or " Oak " Hill. 
The measure of our Italian Ally's success on this wing, 
now that they are fully established with heavy pieces, and 
their munitionment, will be the fate of the Hennada Hill. 
It is for tliis bulw-ark co\'cring the approaches to Trieste that 
the great battle is being fought on the south, as it is being 
fought on the north for the plateau of Bainsizr,i aijd its 
escarpment wall of heights, the topmost of which, the m>nte 
Santo, was carried last Saturday. 
Very numerous examples in the course of the war ha%e 
taught us both the importance and the limitation of an 
overlooking position in trench warfare. 
Briefly, to occupy a, commanding height, difhcult of assault 
and giving direct obser\'ation over one's opponent, is a necessary 
preliminary to any final success, but it has not the same 
quality of advantage as it had. One can no longer talk of 
a height as " the key" of this or that. Its occupation is no 
more than the first — though necessary — step in a long process. 
It gives superiority in one function alone of the many which 
make up a modem battle ; to wit, observation — and only 
local observation at that. 
The advantage of higher ground for repelling an assault 
and for fulfilling all the functions of a glacis, in field of fire 
as well as in slope, are not what they were when the rifle 
determined battle. \\Tiat conquers a belt of territory in 
to-day's warfare is the artillery, and it is after the artillery 
has done its work that the infantry occupies. There is, indeed, 
some advantage in such occupation taking place uphill, 
but the fact that the position you are bombarding is slightly 
above you makes very little difference to the preliminary 
artillery action. 
In general then, a dominating height, giving full observation 
and presenting an obstacle to advance against it-is, to-day, an 
asset to the party occupying it . It weighs down the scale of his 
side. It increases the efficacity in that slow work of reducing 
then enemy's line by attrition, moral and material, whicli 
is the whole strategy of the present war in the West and 
South. But it does not rapidly determine an issue as was 
still the case only a few years ago. 
We may judge very properly of the valtie of position by 
remembering that the enemy when he was driven to earth 
in Fi-ance three years ago (and whenever since he has elected 
or been compelled to stand upon the defensive), has made it 
his first business to secure position. 
We- may judge equally well of the limitations from which 
position suffers to-day in this trench warfare, by his com- 
parati\e inability to achieve any decisive success in spite of 
his original occupation of the heights. 
After the Marne, the enemy held prettv well every domina- 
ting position from the Argonne to the North Sea. He had 
the Moronvillers group of hills east of Rhcims and Nogent 
Hill and Brimont Hill overlooking that city ; then the whole 
of the Aisne ridge, the higher ground on both sides of the Somme 
from Chaulnes to in front of Peronne, and then all the line 
of positions from Gommecourt to the neighbourhood of Arras. 
He had the Vimy Ridge and the Messines Ridge. Almost 
everywhere he looked down upon the Allies. Yet, even 
while he still had a grave superiority in artillery he got nothing 
decisive from, that advantage. If in the long run he had 
been able to maintain and increase his artillery superioritv, 
then his positions on the heights would have borne fruit; 
but, as we have seen, the superior civilisation which he 
foolishly challenged, was able, once it turned its mind to 
It, to outpace him in production : and it is now the Allies. 
not Prussia and her dependents, who can make use of increasing 
artillery preponderance. Therefore, lor them the occupation 
of dominating positions is fruitful. 
It is t]iis«liaractbr of position in the present phase of the war 
—though not immediately decisive yet laying the foundation 
for ultiiuate success^that makes the struggle for tlie Hermada 
of such essential importance. This is why in the grouping 
of the Italian artilleiy much the greater part of the southern 
pieces are turned on to the Hermada and its neighbourhood. 
This is why the British monitors are attacking it from the sea. 
This is why the brigade from Salerno (once again provmg 
^Ae C JI in S O 
5elo^ StJaraLokva 
I 
'BrestDvizza^ 
the nonsense of all the old talk about bad recruitment from 
the South) struck its heavy blow above Selo, in the effort to 
outflank the Hermada on the North,, and this is why the 
Austrians have massed their reserves upon their left, princi- 
pally for counter-attacks in defence of the mountain. 
The readers of this paper will remember our sliort descrip- 
tions of the Hermada during the fighting earlier in the summer, 
when once before it was attempted to master that height. 
The Hermada rises up from the Gulf of Trieste above 
Dumino in a fairly compact and isolated lump, between the 
southern edge of which and the sea run the main railroad and 
the main road to Trieste. 
. The mountain is about two miles long by about one mile 
broad. On the southern edge it sinks steeply down on to the 
sea coast and the ledge along which the road and railway run. 
"But on the northern side it is attached by a neck of high 
ground to the escarpment of tlij Carso. 
Its highest summit, which is roughiv in the middle of the 
formation, is 1,074 i<-'et high. Its a'pproach is rather less 
