alian army, supported by a few battalions of first line troops and
gendarmes, crossed the mountain frontier. Soon the peaks resounded
with the popping of rifle fire and the louder detonations of the
Austrian mountain guns. Along the whole Trentino front that night a
hundred skirmishes drove back the Austrian outpost. Only a few
thousand men in all were engaged. The Italian cyclist sharpshooters
advanced swiftly up the steep mountain roads until greeted by musketry
fire. Then they sought shelter, pushing forward from rock to rock and
from tree to tree. Often the light infantry and Alpini foot soldiers
were able to skirt the enemy's posts and catch them in the rear.

By May 26, 1915, all Italy was thrilled by the news that all the lower
passes of the Dolomites were won and breaches made at Tonale Pass
along the northwest and in the Carnic and Julian Alps along the
northeast front. Among the points occupied were the Montozzo Pass,
9,585 feet high, Ponte Caffaro, running into southwestern Trentino,
the ridge of Monte Baldo, extending northward fifteen miles toward
Arco and Roverto in southern Trentino, some of the heights looking
westward toward Trento, all the valleys in the labyrinth of the
Dolomites, and several footholds in the Alps of Carinthia. The eastern
army was well inside Austrian territory, its left at Caporetto on the
Isonzo just under Monte Nero, its center looking down on Gorizia from
the heights between Indria and the Isonzo, and its right between
Cormons and Terzo. Losses on both sides were surprisingly small
considering the extent of territory covered by the fighting. The
Austrians, after slight resistance, withdrew into their fortresses and
waited behind their guns, grimly conscious that the real struggle was
still before them.

Then, through the holes pierced by the mountain troops, the Italian
engineers began to move forward their artillery and building
emplacements and constructing trenches. Skirmishing on the mountain
frontier continued until the end of May, 1915. By that time Italian
forces attacking Trentino had crossed the Lessini Mountains north of
Verona, captured the Austrian town of Ala on the Adige, and penetrated
nearly ten miles into Austrian territory. They held high ground on the
south commanding the forts of Roverto, and had begun to bring up their
heavy guns against this important stronghold. Roverto is one of a
number of strongly fortified places girdling Trent and commanding the
conv