On the very day on which war was declared active operations were begun. Both sides had been making elaborate preparations. Austria had prepared herself by building strong fortifications in which were employed the latest technical improvements in defensive warfare. Upon the Carso and around Gorizia the Austrians had placed innumerable batteries of powerful guns mounted on rails and protected by armor plates. They also had a great number of medium and smaller guns. A net of trenches had been excavated and constructed in cement all along the edge of the hills which dominated the course of the Isonzo River. [Illustration: Painting: Hundreds of soldiers using ropes to drag a large gun up a mountain slope.] ITALY'S TITANIC LABOR TO CONQUER THE ALPS When the Italians were making their first mighty advance against Austria descriptions came through of the almost unbelievable natural obstacles they were conquering. Getting one of the monster guns into position in the mountains, as shown above, over the track that had to be built for every foot of its progress, was one such handicap. [Illustration: Painting: Soldiers debarking from a transport under heavy gun fire.] THE HISTORIC LANDING FROM THE "RIVER CLYDE" AT SEDDUL BARR An incident of the Dardanelles Expedition. Horrible losses were sustained by the Allied troops from the concentrated fire of the Turkish machine guns on shore. These trenches, occupying a position nearly impregnable because so mountainous, were defended by every modern device. They were protected with numerous machine guns, surrounded by wire entanglements through which ran a strong electric current. These lines of trenches followed without interruption from the banks of the Isonzo to the summit of the mountains which dominate it; they formed a kind of formidable staircase which had to be conquered step by step with enormous sacrifice. During this same period General Cadorna, then head of the Italian army, had been bringing that army up to date, working for high efficiency and piling up munitions. The Army of Italy was a formidable one. Every man in Italy is liable to military service for a period of nineteen years from the age of twenty to thirty-nine. At the time of the war the approximate war strength of the army was as follows: Officers, 41,692; active army with the colors, 289,910; reserve, 638,979; mobile militia, 299,956; territorial militia, 1,889,659; total strength, 3,159,836. The above number of total men available included upward of 1,200,000 fully trained soldiers, with perhaps another 800,000 partially trained men, the remaining million being completely untrained men. This army was splendidly armed, its officers well educated, and the men brave and disciplined.