Cunningly concealed trenches, barbed-wire entanglements and gun emplacements commanded every approach, whilst protecting the advance of troops. It seemed incredible that such well planned works should have been abandoned. But here as elsewhere the lightning strategy of Cadorna left the Austrian commanders no option. Monte Marmolada, 11,000 ft. high, and other mountains on which the Austrians had placed heavy artillery, were captured by degrees. The strategic value of these positions was incontestable. Unless one has seen the Dolomites it is impossible to form any conception of what these successes mean or the terrible difficulties that had to be surmounted to gain them. Neither Dante nor Doré in their wildest and most fantastic compositions ever conceived anything more awe-inspiring than warfare amidst these towering peaks. At all times they exercise a kind of weird fascination which is positively uncanny; add the thunder of modern artillery and the effect is supernatural. You try hard to realize what it means fighting amongst these jagged pinnacles and on the edges of the awful precipices. Death, however, has little terror for the men, judging from the look on the faces of the mortally wounded one saw from time to time brought down from the trenches. A little incident related to me by Calza Bedolo brings home the spirit of Italy’s soldiers. He had shortly before come upon a stretcher-party carrying down from the mountains a very dangerously wounded man. Upon enquiry as to how the wound had been caused he was informed that it was a case of attempted suicide. What had led up to this desperate act? It appeared that for some trivial breach of discipline the man had been deprived of the privilege of a place in the front trenches and sent to a position in the rear! The most important of all the strategic points at that time was the Col di Lana, which dominates the Falzarego and Livinallongo passes, close to Cortina d’Ampezzo. Here the Austrians were putting up a defence which was taxing the strength and resources of the Italians, to their utmost, but it was gradually being overcome. Every mountain which commanded the position was being mounted with guns of the heaviest calibre, and big events were said to be looming in the near future. As a matter of fact, it was only six months later that the Italians succeeded in capturing the Col di Lana, so strongly were the Austrians entrenched on it. A young engineer conceived the idea of mining it, and so successful was he that the entire summit of the mountain, with the Austrian positions, was literally blown away.