irst infantry attack came. The troops attacked _en masse_,
and at the same time attacks were made from the Adige to the Val
Sugana. Four onslaughts were made on Zugna Torta. Our machine guns cut
down the blue masses of men; the wire entanglements were heaped with
dead. The bombardment had destroyed all the first-line trenches. The
infantry then hurled itself against the advance posts of the Val
Terragnolo. The Alpini, deafened by twelve hours of bombardment,
defended every foot of the ground, fighting always in snow. Three
terrible bayonet counterattacks lacerated the Austrian lines, but the
assailants were innumerable, and no help could come, as the entire
front was in action. The Alpini who remained, so few in number, threw
themselves on the enemy again, permitting the retirement of the main
body to the line running from Malga Milegna to Soglio d'Aspio. Even
here there was one avalanche of fire. The enemy artillery had been
pouring explosives on these positions for ten hours. The enemy
infantry here attacking were annihilated and the enemy dead filled the
valleys, but fresh troops swarmed up from all parts.

"Night fell on the first day's slaughter."

The following day, May 16, 1916, the Austrians attacked again the
Italian positions on the northern slopes of the Zugna Torta in the
Lagarina Valley in five assaults. In the zone between the Val
Terragnolo and the upper Astico a violent concentrated fire from the
Austrian artillery of all calibers forced the Italians to abandon
their advanced positions. In the Asiago sector persistent attacks were
repulsed. In the Sugana Valley the Austrians vigorously attacked
between the Val Maggio bridgehead and Monte Collo. The prisoners taken
by the Austrians were increased to forty-one officers and 6,200 men,
and the booty to seventeen machine guns and thirteen guns. Along the
whole remaining front there was artillery fire. Sporadic infantry
attacks were made in the San Pellegrino Valley, the upper But, at
Monte Nero, Mrzli, the Tolmino zone, the northern slopes of Monte San
Michele, the region east of Selz, and Monfalcone.

Austrian aeroplanes shelled Castel Tesino, Capedaletto, Montebelluna,
and the stations at Carnia and Gemona. Italian aeroplanes shelled
Dellach and Kotsschach in the Gail Valley.

The shelling of Zugna Torta was renewed on May 17, 1916, when five
attacks against the Italian positions were repulsed with heavy losses.

Meanwhile artillery fire continued agai