atural sequence was a
deadlock. The most the infantry could do was to drive the enemy's
troops from summits valuable as observation points in the service of
the heavy artillery.

Thus the official reports issued by the Austrian and Italian staff
headquarters reiterated the names of peaks hitherto unknown to the
traveler and tourist mountaineer, peaks which became of immense
importance now, not so much on account of their height as because they
commanded the best views of the surrounding territory. One of these
was Freikofel. The Alpini captured it early in the war with scarcely a
struggle and then for weeks the Austrians sacrificed regiments and
even brigades in vain attempts to recover it.

The loss of Freikofel by the Austrians was followed, on June 24, 1915,
by the loss of Cresta Verde, and then in the first week of July the
Italians captured the important observation peak of Zellenkofel. This
mountain was held by the Austrians with a force of only forty men, but
in view of its extraordinary position this squad was considered
sufficient. The slopes below them were swept by a battery of their
mountain guns, in telephonic communication with the more distant
howitzer battery upon which it could call for assistance if necessity
arose, and a large infantry reserve was stationed in the wooded valley
below. But one night twenty-nine Alpini crept up the almost sheer
precipice a thousand feet high that separated them from the Austrian
defenders. They carried ropes and a machine gun and just as the moon
rose they attained the summit, set up their Maxim and opened fire.
Every man in the observation station was shot down.

Then followed a desperate fight with the Austrian mountain battery on
the reverse slope. But thanks to their machine gun the Italians were
able to break up the enemy's charge and as day broke they captured the
Austrians' guns and drove the men who served them down the mountain.
When the Austrian reserves arrived the Italians had intrenched
themselves on the southern slope and were able to make use of the
captured guns. The attacks of the reserves were repulsed and the
Italians held the mountain.

CHAPTER LXIX

MORE MOUNTAIN FIGHTING--RESULTS OF FIRST CAMPAIGN

At the western end of the rugged battle front, the Italian mountain
troops, after the first advance, were less successful than the troops
of Cadorna in the Carnic and Julian Alps. Here the fighting
mountaineers of Tyrol redeemed their rep