ing some different object, could not raise the suspicion that the
troops there collected were destined for the purpose really in view.

[Sidenote: Unlike modern warfare.]

"It often happens in the mountains that the only passages favorable to
our plans are interrupted by narrow defiles. In such cases we must avoid
letting the enemy know our real purpose, and must undertake diversions,
dividing our forces into small bodies. This method, which would be
dangerous in any other sort of country, is indispensable in the
mountains, and is the whole science of this kind of warfare, provided
that the general who uses it always has the means to reconcentrate his
forces when necessary."

Bourcet's conclusion is that in such a campaign the offensive has great
advantages over the defensive. It will always possess the initiative;
and if it prepares its blow with sufficient secrecy and strikes swiftly,
the enemy, whose troops are necessarily scattered along the whole line
menaced, can never be ready to meet the attack.

[Sidenote: Generals understand each other's strategy.]

To-day, the only trouble about this beautifully tricky system of
strategy is that the defending general would pay no attention to it. The
Austrian general staff, for instance, knew that the Italians would try
to smash through the frontier defenses of the Dual Empire, and that the
natural avenues of attack were up the valley of the Adige, along the
railway through Pontebba and Malborghetto, or between Malborghetto and
the sea. The Austrians have enough men and guns to defend all these
routes and all the tortuous pathways in between. So all they had to do
was plant themselves on their chosen ground along the whole carefully
fortified mountain line, and wait for the Italians to attack wherever
they pleased.

"It is only by marching and countermarching," Bourcet said, "that we can
hope to deceive the enemy and induce him to weaken himself in certain
positions in order to strengthen himself in others."

[Sidenote: The enemy cannot be outflanked.]

But this cannot be done in the mountain fighting in the Alps to-day. The
Italians might march and countermarch as much as they pleased, but there
is no possible way of turning the enemy out of his position by
outflanking him. It is a case of frontal attack, with every valley
blocked and every peak a fortress.

[Sidenote: Italy's great objectives.]

The Italians campaign has two principal objectives--Trent and Gorizi