To the north of the Makovo pass rises a great mass of rock known as the Piton Rocheux, from whose summit the enemy dominated our lines to the right and the left, as well as the Morihovo and Suha valleys. In the Piton Rocheux the enemy had excavated numerous caverns and dug-outs, which hid machine-gun nests and sheltered the troops from the fire of Allied artillery. The Italians here occupied a series of irregular tooth-like rocks, between which were lines protected with sand-bags. But they were dominated by the enemy on the Piton Rocheux, so that one could not go from one position to another with comparative safety except at night. Further west the enemy held another dominant position, the Piton Brûlé, whose fire dominated the Italian positions which were out of the range of that of the Rocheux. Our infantrymen in the front lines had no other shelter in this part of the sector than the shallow holes dug into the rock known as “Serb holes,” with low parapets of heaped up stones and sand-bags in front of them; they were about 30 m. from the enemy and 10 m. below them. The communication trenches between these holes were so exposed that they could only be used after dark. In no other sector of the Macedonian front were the troops more exposed to the burning heat of summer, to cold, snow and wind in winter, and to enemy fire at all seasons. Beyond the Piton Brûlé the enemy trenches receded to some extent from ours, ascending to the summit of 1050, which was also bristling with machine guns. The enemy positions on 1050 and on the Rocheux sustained each other mutually, so that if we had succeeded in occupying the one we should have been exposed to an infernal fire from the other. Hill 1050, seen from on high, may be compared to a long arrow-head pointing towards the north-east, with two sharp barbs, and a triangular depression between the two, about 1 km. broad at its widest. We held the south-west barb and the depressions of the Meglentzi valley; our line of main resistance ascended this spur, and at the head of the Meglentzi valley met the first line. Thence it pushed on until just below the highest ridge known as the _Castelletto_ (little castle). From the Castelletto the enemy could observe the whole Italian front from the Piton Rocheux to Novak, as well as the lines of approach, except certain little gullies hidden beneath the steep rocks, where the batteries were placed. Not a supply column, not a lorry, nor even an isolated horseman or pedestrian could escape observation. In order to give some shelter to the troops holding these positions trenches had been cut out of the rocks, every little irregularity utilized, caverns excavated in the mountain side. But the enemy bombardments, which were often concentrated on these defences--sometimes as many as a thousand shells were dropped in one day on a very narrow tract of the line--had reduced the hill to a mass of shingle and sand which offered but slight protection.