erging routes to this center of the Austrian defensive. Other
lesser fortresses in this girdle are Laredo on the Chiese, Levico on
the Brenta, and Riva at the head of Lake Garda. Upon these the
Italians closed in, and there they consolidated their positions
awaiting the support of the first-line troops advancing in heavy
detachments, and of their artillery.

While Italy struck the first blow on land, the first offensive
operation of the Italo-Austrian conflict by sea came from Austria.
This was an extensive raid on Italy's Adriatic coast. Its object was
to delay the Italian concentration by attacking vital points on the
littoral railway from Brindisi to the north.

[Illustration: The Coasts of Italy and Austria, Showing the Naval Raid
May, 1915.]

The Austrian fleet began its attack early on the morning of Monday,
May 24, 1915. The ships engaged were a squadron from Pola, consisting
of two battleships, four cruisers, and eighteen destroyers, strongly
supported by aircraft. The assault extended from Brindisi to Venice,
and covered a large extent of coast territory hard to defend. At
Venice the Austrian air raiders dropped bombs into the arsenal and the
oil tanks and balloon sheds on the Lido. The priceless relics of art
and architecture, all that remained to recall the city's proud
position as ruler of the Adriatic, were uninjured, but the attack from
the air caused an outcry from the nations of the Entente almost equal
to that which rang through the world when the Germans shelled the
cathedral at Rheims and destroyed Louvain. The Austrians replied that
the attack was a serious military operation, and by no means the
wanton outrage their enemies had tried to make it appear.

The Austrian naval raid lasted barely two hours, but in that time the
cruiser _Novara_ and several destroyers attacked Porto Corsini, north
of Ravenna, in a vain effort to destroy the Italian torpedo base; the
cruiser _St. Georg_ shelled the railway station and bridges at Rimini;
the battleship _Zrinyi_ attacked Sinigaglia, and wrecked the railway
station and bridge; south of Ancona the battleship _Radetzky_
destroyed a bridge over the River Potenza. In the south the cruisers
_Helgoland_ and _Admiral Spaun_ with destroyers shelled a railway
bridge and station and several signal stations in the neighborhood of
Manfredonia and Viesti, and caused some damage in small coast towns.
The raid was well planned and swiftly executed, and it accomplished
m