where in the whole theatre of the
Great War was there a line better adapted by nature and equipped by
man for purposes of defensive warfare. The Austrian Archduke Eugene,
who was in charge of the Italian operations, revealed his plan of
campaign during the first few days after the beginning of hostilities.
His aim was to risk nothing until Field Marshal von Mackensen had
finished his operations in Galicia, where Austria's best troops were
fighting with their German allies. To meet the Italians he had only
the Landsturm and a few reserve divisions, but these were considered
enough. The archduke resolved to hold the crests of the passes along
the Trentino frontier and the line of the Carnic Alps, withdrawing his
outposts before the enemy's advance. On the Isonzo he would abandon
the country west of the river line and make his stand on a fortified
line to the east which touched the Isonzo only at Gorizia, where the
Austrians held the bridgehead on the western bank.

It has been pointed out in preceding pages that not a little of
Italy's delay in entering the war, and of the tortuous diplomatic
negotiations which for several months kept the outside in doubt as to
her ultimate intentions, was due to the state of military
unpreparedness confronting the country in the summer of 1914. But by
May, 1915, the country had had nine months in which to get ready.
Moreover, she had been able to profit by the lessons of the war. When
Italy started to get ready there was no waste motion, although the
task to be accomplished entailed enormous labor and expense.

CHAPTER LXIV

STRENGTH OF ITALIAN ARMY AND NAVY

At the head of the Italian army and navy was the king, Victor
Emmanuel, a monarch whose gallantry and simplicity had made him a
popular idol. Popularity with the people meant also popularity with
the army. The chief of the General Staff was General Count Luigi
Cadorna. At the outbreak of the war General Cadorna was sixty-five
years old. As a young man he had seen service under his father,
Rafaele Cadorna, who, in September 1870, led an army into papal
territory and blew in the Porta Pia. He had been a corps commander at
Genoa. In 1914 he had succeeded General Pollio as chief of the General
Staff.

Cadorna was the Von Hindenburg of Italy. As the German commander had
studied the bogs of East Prussia, so he had devoted a large part of
his life to becoming familiar with the broken line of Italy's northern
frontier. He was