1916; now,
in the first week of August, 1916, Italy suddenly launched against the
Gorizia bridgehead, the gateway into Austria between the sea and the
Julian Alps, which recalls in a grandiose fashion the Spartan position
at Thermopylae, the most considerable and the most successful military
effort in modern Italian history.

[Illustration: Austro-italian Campaigns, May to September, 1916. Lined
section shows ground gained by the Austrians in May and June, 1916.
Dotted section shows ground gained by Italians in August, 1916.]

On a front of thirty miles from the Alps to the Adriatic, their flanks
secured by the mountains and the sea, the Austrians had erected a
formidable system of trenches which closed the Italian road to Austria
and to Trieste, twenty miles to the south. (Vol. V, 288-290.) Monte
Sabotino on the north, Podgora Hill in the center, Monte San Michele
on the south at the edge of the Carso Plateau were the main features
of this position, and Gorizia lay in the cuplike valley of the Wippach
behind Podgora.

After some days of bombardment, first directed at the whole front and
then concentrated upon Sabotino and San Michele, the Italians swept
forward, took both hills, turned the Austrians out of Podgora and
Gorizia, took 15,000 prisoners and a vast booty of guns and munitions.
They had completed the first phase of their task by August 7, 1916. It
remained to be seen--and it remains to be seen now on August 15, 1916,
when these lines are written--whether they will get Trieste and force
the Austrians back from the whole position between the Adriatic and
the Alps. If they do, then an invasion of Austria on a wide front will
be inevitable; if they fail, they will have won a great local victory
and made a new draft upon Austrian man power.

Finally, in the Balkans a great Anglo-French-Serb army is standing
before Saloniki (Vol. V, 212-215), only waiting until Germany shall
have recalled her troops from the Peninsula and Austria summoned back
her contingents to strike the Bulgarians and strive to reopen the road
from the AEgean to Belgrade, thus cutting the railroad that binds
Berlin to Byzantium and the Osmanli to the Teuton. Similarly the
victorious Russians have passed Erzingan in Asia Minor (Vol. V, 337),
completed the conquest of Armenia, and are pushing on toward Sivas and
the Bagdad railroad. (Vol. V, 335-339.)

AS THE THIRD YEAR BEGINS

For the first time since the war broke out Germany and her a