The engineering problems solved in the Carso are such as would be
considered insurmountable in peace times. Fighting has been taken to
the very tops of the mountains. In order to get material where it is
needed and to transfer troops quickly from one sector to another more
than 6,000 kilometers of automobile road have been literally chiselled
out of the solid rock of almost sheer cliffs. To the most difficult
peaks mule paths have been carved, and after victory comes a whole new
and marvelous country will be opened to the dilletante tourist by means
of these extraordinary trails. The Italian engineers have hesitated at
nothing. Mountains considered unscalable have been mastered, and one
now goes up to a forbidding peak or crag as one formerly went up to
an easy pass. Palisade formation is no longer an obstacle, the roads
traversing the palisades being of perfect type and execution. The
admiration and marvel I experienced going over them are indescribable
and the feats that have been accomplished well nigh unbelievable. Over
the roads and mule paths stretching higher and ever higher to the
snow-piled mountain tops cannon of all calibers are hauled by traction
or man power and are installed in impregnable positions. Often heavy
cannon are passed from mountain top to mountain top by means of wire
cables, just as cash boxes are flung by wire trolleys from department
store counters to cashiers' desks.
Having motored nearly to the summit of a mountain, I entered a tunnel.
Presently I found myself on the other side of the mountain, in a
gallery where a battery of heavy artillery was mounted. On the one side
as we entered we had looked down upon the sunlit plain of Vicenza.
On the other side, in the shadow, we faced the tops of the Trentino
Alps. The contrast was bewildering. Praise is poor recompense for the
men of science who dared to imagine and for the willing hands that
dared to execute those extraordinary feats. And the one I mention was
not exceptional. An Alpini remarked to me: "It is indeed the death of
Alpinism, for every one now is an Alpinist!"
Where it is impossible to use roads or mule trails for the transport
of troops or supplies the Italians use aerial railways, called
telleferica. I saw one of these consisting of a single span of 2,160
meters--this was Neri's remarkable accomplishment. And ever so often
cannon in leash, men in baskets go swinging from post to post over
chasms that make the heart pound as one darts a look into their
recesses. There is to-day in all that mountain country scarcely a
spot upon which a bird may roost or to which a goat may climb that
the Italian engineers have not conquered, and in conquering achieved
so much in pressing back the detested Austrians. And with what
cheerfulness, light-heartedness, courtesy, consideration for one
another, devotion and loyalty are the Italians accomplishing these
miracles of warfare. When one has looked upon their work and has
associated with them in the deep snows and in their tunnelled quarters
one is seized with an irresistible desire to tell the world how
wonderful they are--to describe, however poorly, their triumphs of will
and courage.