uch of its purpose. The Italian fleet was taken by surprise, and the
marauders were back in safety at Pola by six o'clock in the morning,
unharmed.

While Italian Alpine troops were driving in the Austrian outposts on
the frontiers of Trentino and the Tyrol, General Cadorna advanced his
main infantry force, the Third Army, across the Friuli Plain through
Udine, Palmanova, and St. Georgio toward the Isonzo. Here the covering
troops on May 24 and 25 had captured nearly all the small towns and
villages between the frontier and the river from Caporetto in the
north just below Monte Nero to Belvedere in the south on the Gulf of
Trieste. Cadorna feared lest his opponent, General von Hofer, would
launch his main attack from Gorizia against the Italian city of
Palmanova, fourteen miles to the west. But Von Hofer, so it developed,
had a subtler plan of campaign than a direct attack through Gorizia.
What he did was to place a strong force on the mountain of Korada
between the Isonzo and the Judrio. This height commanded the middle
course of the Isonzo, and it had been transformed into a network of
permanent trenches, protected by strong wire entanglements.

The Austrian general believed that by the time the Italians could
bring up their heavy artillery and begin to smash the entanglements
with their field guns, supports could be pushed across the river.
Realizing that Korada must be captured, if at all, by dash and
surprise, the Italian brigadier in charge of the attack gathered a
herd of fierce bulls, which are numerous in that part of Venetia, and
penned them in a hollow out of sight of the enemy, while his artillery
began to bombard the hostile trenches. When the animals were wrought
to a frenzy of rage and fear by the noise of the guns, they were let
loose and driven up the mountain against the Austrian positions. Their
charge broke through many strands of the wire entanglements, and
before the last of them fell dead under the Austrian rifle fire,
Italian troops with fixed bayonets had crowded through the gaps in the
wires and captured the position.

By the end of May, 1915, the Third Army had reached the Isonzo River,
but had not crossed. Its advance was slow and cautious. Operations
were hampered by the heavy rains, which caused the river to overflow
its banks and added greatly to the difficulties put in the path of the
advancing army by the Austrians, who, as they withdrew, left not a
bridge behind them.

Grado, a fis