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Show MAGAZINE SECTION, V V JL TIIE IIERALD-KEPUBLICA- SALT LAKE CITY, 'UTAH, SUNDAY, JULY 9, 1916. N, Immanuel s IL, JJ.il MAGAZINE SECTION. til did not want her front visited and therefore no requests to visit it had been made, particularly by neutrals. The visitors at present admitted on the front, once the officers of the press bureau had satisfied themselves these visitors are without unfriendly intentions, are shown fully and freely all that they wish to see. In the handling of newspaper copy written from the front, the largest latitude is permitted the writers. Restrictions about naming geographical locations are cast aside, since it is evident that the Austrians have military maps of the region and, as they are within speaking distance of .' the Italian soldiers for nearly every foot of the 400 miles of front it would be difficult to hide from them the names of the rivers and mountains and towns along the Fighting on Adamcllo, Mon-aro the Italian Alps, a Feat Undreamed of by Hannibal or Napoleon in. Their Wildest Imaginings of Conquest; Great Cannon Tahcn a Sheer Climb of Fifteen Miles From the ct front. 'Adamello, which Virgil ; A Better Understanding. The press bureau, although not long formed, has already justified itself, it is stated, in the better understanding by France and England of the ter rific difficulties under which the Ital ian army works '.in mountain terri tory, where :it takes weeks to move large bodies of. troops or put artillery into new positions, and where the taking of a single mountain involves the patient effort and staunch heroism of months of hard fighting. The numbers frequently referred to in official military bulletins, in connection with operations at places the names of which are not t mentioned, , : TIIE July Roar of Cannon Above the Clouds; Soldiers Frequently Encounter, Them as They Toil Their Way to Vantage Points Along thh Snoiv Encrusted Preci pice; Hoiv the Warriors Dragged Heavy Guns Front the Valleys to tlie Point Where They Are Noiti Thundering Death to Italy9 s Enemies. : Story of Campaigning on the Highest Spot' Which Has Ever Witnessed the Clash of Armed Men. ARMY, Noises of Avalanches, Are Not Frightened by the ; A Correspondent's Graphic OF Birds in the Mountain Re' gions, Accustomed to the ; Valleys Bcloiv to Thunder Death to the Austrian Foe; TT E ADQUARTERS 1X ITALIAN i roop allaiat 9. '. ; crowned "King of the Italian Alp?," is the most elevated spot in the world .where war has ever been waged. Through the courtesy of the Ital ian general staff, which is desirous Jhat the world outsido of Italy should know the hardships of this unprece the Adamcllo region, but repeat themof tho Italian dented campaign, tho correspondent selves on of the Associated Press was the first front, or over a line of 275 miles of civilian allowcil to witness tho fight mountain chains going from the ing on this colossal mountain, which Swiss frontier down to the banks of Is 11,500 feet high and covered with tho Isonzo river, from which can be seen the "bitter" blue of the AdriaIterant snows. Tho correspondent yaw the moun- tic, as the poet D'Annunzio described tain swarming with thousands of it. Along this line titanic struggles 'Alpine soldiers singing, alert, eager, take place daily, of which.' I he outside world never hears. It took five days Crossing glaciers, challenging charging tho enemy with for the correspondent to slowly climb fixed bayonets all above the clouds. the Adamello crest and in this period There tho correspondent witnessed the Italians succeeded in blowing off Ihe action of heavy artillery, a bat- the top of another mountain called tery of which fired from tho high-r- st Coldi Lana, which suddenly burst into point in the world where artillery the air with its defenders, who were had ever been placed or from which on their side trying to explode a mine It had ever been fired. It seemed which would blow to pieces the Italalmost a miracle that sucli big guns ian troops. One of the curious facts connected could have been transported in two months of hard labor from a distance with this mountain front is that have the song birds deserted it. cf fifteen miles in one of the valleys below. Over 200 men had been re"If I were to writo home that quired for the dragging of a single every night I go to sleep listening to one of the pieces, and at ono stage of the boom of cannon I would be readithe work an avalanche had swooped ly believed, but if I added that often down from the mountain sides and I lie awake for hours' listening to the twallowed up the cannon and de- liquid trill of friendly nightingales in the nearby woods, my statement voured forty of the men. The professional mountain climber would be taken for a soldier's yarn," never attempted to reach tho top of said an artillery officer late one 'Adamello, but in summer the view of night as he and the correspondent the surrounding Alps with Mont stopped on their way across a wooded Blanc, tho Jungfrau, and Monte little valley to listen to a nightin Kosa ia the distance is considered the gale's song. "That song is not an best in Europe. Winter and summer, exception," he explained. "I have, the fighting there is under conditions crossed this valley about this time of night for weeks on my way to my that prevail only in the arctic There Austrians and Italians quarters, and that bird is always meet ia silent death grip, their deaths singing, no matter how violent the and their deeds all but unrecorded artillery noises." Birds Are Unafraid. save in dry army annals, given but a brief line ia tho terse bulletins of In the epper mountain districts the General Cndorca. correspondent noted that the skyAn Unprecedented Feat. larks held to their usual haunts with While the Austrian and Italian can- the same tenacity as tho nightingales non rumbled lazily, exchanging rude in the lower country, flying high in courtesies, or seeking to dislodge ava- tho air nntil they went out of sight lanches to better destroy and hamper above the snowy peaks, apparently the enemy, awakening echoes that undisturbed by the whizzing of the leaped from dozens of miles up and shells that went through the air hunIown tho abrupt peaks, the genial dreds of feet abovo the soldiers. Thk explanation was advanced by? Italian colonel accompanying the correspondent remarked that in no other an officer of the Alpini who had been war had such fighting ever been, that many years in the mountains. "These neither the armies of Hannibal nor birds are used to the noises peculiar to the mountain?, such as caused by aesar nor Napoleon ever dared in su;h work, that their armies the cracking of avalanches, the rolling which did go over mountains not half of boulders from the peaks into the the height, were hardly larger than a vallevs. and as artillery fire here regiment of Alpine troops as today makes a noise rot so very different organized, that above all they did not from these others, the birds are not v inter in the mountains nor deal with frightened away." From here the correspondent re heavy artillery, nor drag up to these pound by pound, plank by turned by devious footpaths, on the j. lank, piece by piece, their food, their backs of the older soldiers of the red little donkeys, Mipplics and the puns and ammuni- serve, on on railway airlines that bridge the tion. TLc-conditi-nare not limited to j valleys, to the lower country, where two-thir- no sucH hilltops or monntains bav the same height, the numbers ar never the same,' at least in the sam range of mountains, and they diffei so as to indicate the heights of dif- - : .4 1v M . ds f r : - " . , .'.' ' : ' ,.--: .' ., ; - Y - 'V'-- . ' - .4,5 4 Auove is snowix a group A "V.V:::'& 01 im-- : manuel s Boldiers enjoying a brief respite from the labor of carry ing armament np the mountain side; In the center the silhouetted figures on the field of snow at ava-tancb- es, the top of Adamello the "king of the Alps"; below how the sol- I idiers dragged heavy cannon up a sheer fifteen miles from the val- ley beneath. no-whe- re re-rion- s. ca-pi- re fa.-tness- es sure-foote- e s 1 the fighting is better known, along the Isonzo river, where hills are hardly more than a thousand feet in height, where thej drop to 500, 300 feet, before tho line slides off into the Adriatic. That the new effort of the Italians to advance will be unhandicapped by the difficulties of a year ago, when not only men but small arms and cannon were lacking, may" be appreciated by the fact that now the army is equipped with numerous heavy cannon, new artillery, manufactured in g w'.fQW3DaM.y,iljaraQllMMrtHH kWMiWi"Ww"""'' . ; ; . - .. - . r' " , Italy. Tho correspondent saw these guns at work towards Monte Kuk and Monte San Michele, the hitherto impregnable hills held by the Austrians and again and again taken by the Italian soldiers at tremendous sacrifices, only to be compelled to surrender each time the crests of the hills because of the lack of heavy artillery to. silence the heavy Austrian cannon. The Italian censorship has been i;; smmvmmmKmm sift U r I re- organized and vastly improved, particularly from a newspaper point of view. Little censorship is now exercised over mail matter coming or going to ally countries, such as France or England, but every mailed letter or package going to or coming from the United States and Switzerland is opened and read. The censors, however, are sometimes courteous enough to notify a person sending suspected, matter that it is being held for explanation. In the case of cable messages, the censor tries his best to let them go through, either holding the message for a time before sending it or else cutting out objectionable information, sending tho message in the new form, and then notifying the sender what portions have been eliminated. Spy Mania Abating. One of the reasons for the more favorable attitude of the Italian cen- - UJ L;?-.svii.- ' ................ v. " ; -- : , x v ... ...k." t .'aS . . v 1 s, I sorship is an abatement of the spy mania and the realization that this class of information is not as harmful as was formerly supposed. Another reason has ; been the influence of certain officers, patriotic journalists and business men who feel that Italy has not been fully understood in this war and that correspondence both of private individuals and newspaper "'men visiting or living in the country would, if not too severely censored, let the outside world know the truth about conditions and the ; reasons for Italy's war. A direct result of this attitude has been the establishment recently at the headquarters of the army, of a press bureau. One of the first steps taken by the officers in charge was to secure permission for both ally and neutral journalists to visit the army f ront and see the fruits of Italy's effort to organize a splendid new arrny. Previous to the existence of this bureau but' very few civilians had been allowed on the Italian front. The impression had gotten abroad that Itaby ' , , " has given rise to the popular impression that the number is used in order to withhold exact information as to the geography of the operations. As a matter of fact, and particularly in mountain operations, the use of a number conveys the most exact and accurate information. Every hilltop and mountain in Europe has long been identified by a number. This number is not an arbitrary one. It is the exact height in meters (one meter is .'9.:7 inches) of the hilltop or mountain above the sea level. As . ferent sections of the side of the sami mountain. While these numbers are of the utmost importance in military operations, inasmuch as they indicate the heights and distances in particular to artillery officers, they have been long determined by other than the" geographical branch of the general staff of armies. They are found in every detailed map of a given territory and therefore come under the head of information accessible to sts, plnrsieians, miners, engi- neers and mountain climbers. i |