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Six months on the Italian front cover

Six months on the Italian front

Chapter 21: CHAPTER XIX
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About This Book

A war-artist correspondent records six months spent with the Italian army at the front, blending travel notes, illustrated sketches, and immediate battlefield reportage. He describes movement from major cities to frontline towns, dealings with military authorities and press censorship, everyday life under mobilisation, the challenges of mountain and Adriatic sectors, aerial raids on urban centres, and the logistical and tactical preparations that preceded assaults culminating in the capture of Gorizia. The narrative interweaves descriptive vignettes of trenches, troop movements, medical and supply work, and portraits of leadership and soldiery, offering vivid, on-the-spot impressions rather than technical strategic analysis.

CHAPTER XIX

Difficulties Italians have still to contend with on way to Trieste—Italian superior in fighting quality—Dash and reckless courage—Success reckoned by yards—Total number of prisoners taken—A huge seine net—The “call of the wild”—A visit to San Martino del Carso—My companion—Our route—The attraction of the road—Early morning motoring—On our own—The unconventional quarters of the divisional general—The Rubbia-Savogna railway station.—The signalman’s cabin—An interesting chat with the General—At our own risk—The big camp on Monte San Michele—The desolate waste of the Carso—An incident—Nothing to sketch—“Ecco San Martino del Carso”—Shapeless dust-covered rubble—The Austrian trenches amongst the ruins—Under fire—Back to Udine—A pleasant little episode—Déjeuner to Colonel Barbarich at Grado—A “day’s outing”—The little “Human” touch—The “funk-holes” in the dining room—A trip in a submarine chaser—Things quiet in Udine—A period of comparative inactivity.