in mind, as I have tried to emphasize in preceding
chapters, that when the war opened, the Italians had always to go up
while the Austrians needed only to come down. The latter, intrenched
high on that tremendous natural rampart formed by the Rhaetian and
Tyrolean Alps, the Dolomites, the Carnic, Julian, and Dinaric ranges,
had an immense superiority over their enemy on the plains below. The
Austrian offensive in the Trentino was dictated by four reasons:
first, to divert the Italians from their main objective, Trieste;
second, to lessen the pressure which General Cadorna was exerting
against the Austrian lines on the Isonzo; third, to smash through to
Vicenza and Verona, thus cutting off and compelling the capitulation
of the Italian armies operating in Venetia; and fourth, to so
thoroughly discourage the Italians that they would consent to a
separate peace.

The story of how this ambitious plan was foiled is soon told. By the
first week in May the Austrians had massed upon the Trentino front a
force of very nearly 400,000 men with 2,000 guns. Included in this
tremendous accumulation of artillery were 26 batteries of 12-inch guns
and several of the German giants, the famous 42-centimetre pieces,
which brought down the pride of Antwerp and Namur. By the middle of
May everything was ready for the onset to begin, and this avalanche of
soldiery came rolling down the Asiago plateau, between the Adige and
the Brenta. Below them, basking in the sunshine, stretched the
alluring plains of Venetia, with their wealth, their women, and their
wine. Pounded by an immensely superior artillery, overwhelmed by wave
upon wave of infantry, the Italians sullenly fell back, leaving the
greater part of the Sette Communi plateau and the upper portion of the
Brenta valley in the hands of the Austrians. At the beginning of June
a cloud of despondency and gloom hung over Italy, and men went about
with sober faces, for it seemed all but certain that the enemy would
succeed in breaking through to Vicenza, and by cutting the main
east-and-west line of railway, would force the armies operating on the
Isonzo and in the Carnia to surrender. But the soldiers of the Army of
the Trentino, though outnumbered in men and guns, determined that the
Austrians should pay a staggering price for every yard of ground they
gained. They fought as must have fought their ancestors of the Roman
legions. And, thanks to their tenacity and pluck, they held their
opponen