ino and to storm Sei Busi.
This hill of Sei Busi witnessed some of the most sanguinary fighting
of the whole series of engagements. On a single day it was won, lost
and won again by the Italians, both sides bringing up strong
reenforcements and concentrating against the summit all the artillery
within range. Over the crest of San Michele which dominated a large
part of the tableland the battle surged for many days.

On July 27, 1915, the Italians, attacking with bombs and bayonets were
able to occupy the summit, but could not establish themselves there in
the face of the enemy's bombardment. The lower slopes they were able
to hold behind their sandbag intrenchments, but the crest, swept by
the enemy's heavy artillery and offering no shelter, was absolutely
untenable. In all this fighting artillery played the major role. The
Italians charged that Archduke Eugene, realizing that any infantry
advance against this terrific gunfire was a certain sacrifice of men,
placed in his van regiments of men from the Italian-speaking provinces
and from Old Serbia and Croatia. In this position these troops were
exposed to fire from their own batteries with the knowledge that any
attempt at treachery meant annihilation by their own guns in the rear.
No figures as to the number of men from the "unredeemed" provinces
forced to fight against their kinsmen on the frontier are obtainable.
Italian writers, however, maintain that during the first months of the
war Austrian infantrymen of Latin and Slav origin were sacrificed by
the hundred thousand around Gorizia and Trento.

Like other great drives of the Allies on the French front, the Italian
offensive on the chain of forts guarding Gorizia failed to break the
enemy's resistance. The fighting, however, seasoned the untried troops
of General Cadorna and won them praise even from the veterans of
General Boroevics and from Boroevics himself. "I cannot refrain from
saying," declared the Austrian General in an interview published in a
Hungarian newspaper, "that the bravery of the Italian regiments was
almost incredible, for even if certain regiments lost all their
officers, this did not deter them from advancing with the greatest
contempt for death."

CHAPTER LXVIII

FIGHTING IN THE ALPS--ITALIAN SUCCESSES

Leaving the situation on the Isonzo where it rested at the close of
July, 1915, in a condition virtually of stalemate, we return to the
still more picturesque struggle in the Alp