nst the Italian positions
between Val Terragnolo and the upper Astico. After three days of
intense and uninterrupted artillery fire the Italians abandoned their
positions on Zugna Torta on May 18, 1916, but repulsed two attacks
against their positions further south. The Italians also abandoned
their line of resistance between Monte Soglio d'Aspio and retired upon
other prepared positions.

Zugna Torta, the ridge running down upon Rovereto, between Val
Lagarina and Vallarsa, was a dangerously exposed salient. The western
slopes were commanded by the fire of the Austrian artillery positions
at Biaena, north of More, on the western side of Val Lagarina, and the
rest of the position lay open to Ghello and Fenocchio, east of
Rovereto. The Italians had never been able to push forward their lines
on either side of this salient. Biaena blocked the way on the west,
and the advance east of Vallarsa was held up by the formidable group
of fortifications on the Folgaria Plateau. When the Austrians attacked
Zugna Torta, under cover of a converging artillery fire, the position
quickly became untenable.

On the same day the Austrians, for the first time since the beginning
of hostilities between Italy and Austria, crossed the Italian frontier
in the Lago di Garda region and established themselves on the
Costabella, a ridge of the Monte Baldo, between the lake and the
Lagarina Valley. At this point, where the Austrian offensive met with
the greatest success, the Italians were driven back four miles from
the positions on Austrian soil which they occupied at the opening of
the attack and which they had held early in the war.

The Austrian advance was well maintained on the following day, May 19,
1916, when the Italians were driven from their positions on the Col
Santo, almost directly to the west of Monte Maggio captured the day
before, between the Val di Terragnolo and the Vallarsa.

By that time the number of Italians taken prisoners by the Austrians
since May 15, 1916, had increased to 257 officers and 13,000 men and
the booty to 109 guns, including twelve howitzers, and sixty-eight
machine guns.

An Austrian dispatch forwarded at that time from Trent tells of the
violent fighting which was in progress in the zone of Monte Adamello
and the Tonale Pass and gives a description of the capture by the
Austrians of an unarmed mountain in this region.

The preparatory bombardment was begun at three o'clock in the
afternoon, the Italia