h, and this was the task I set myself to
toward the end of July. What made the task an almost prohibitive one was
the fact that the Austrian guns from Corte and Cherz--which we were in
no position to reduce to silence--were able to rake us unmercifully.
Every move we made during the next nine months was carried out under
their fire, and there is no use in denying that we suffered heavily. I
used no more men than I could possibly help using, and the Higher
Command was very generous in the matter of reserves, and even in
increasing the strength of the force at my disposal as we gradually got
more room to work in. By the end of October my original command of a
battalion had been increased largely.

[Sidenote: Austrians hold one side and summit.]

[Sidenote: Austrian position seems impregnable.]

"The Austrians made a brave and skilful defense, but the steady pressure
we were bringing to bear on them gradually forced them back up the
mountain. By the first week in November we were in possession of three
sides of the mountain, while the Austrians held the fourth side and--but
most important of all--the summit. The latter presented a sheer wall of
rock, more than 200 metres high, to us from any direction we were able
to approach it, and on the crest of this cliff--the only point exposed
to our artillery fire--the enemy had a cunningly concealed machine-gun
post served by fourteen men. Back and behind, under shelter in a rock
gallery, was a reserve of 200 men, who were expected to remain safely
under cover during a bombardment and then sally forth to any infantry
attack that might follow it. The handful in the machine-gun post, it was
calculated, would be sufficient, and more than sufficient, to keep us
from scaling the cliff before their reserves came up to support them;
and so they would have been if there had been _only_ an infantry attack
to reckon with. It failed to allow sufficiently, however, for the weight
of the artillery we were bringing up, and the skill of our gunners. The
apparent impregnability of the position was really its undoing.

[Sidenote: Machine-gun post key position.]

"This cunningly conceived plan of defense I had managed to get a pretty
accurate idea of--no matter how--and I laid my own plans accordingly.
All the guns I could get hold of I had emplaced in positions most
favorable for concentrating on the real key to the summit--the exposed
machine-gun post on the crown of the cliff--with the idea,