. Battlefields of the World War, western and southern fronts; a study in military geography . ian plain on the east, just as they form thesimilar western protection for the Slavonic lands of the Save low-land. In the World War it was as inevitable that the Italiansshould seek to breach this barrier and burst into the Slav prov-inces of Austria beyond, as it was1^ that Austria should strenuouslydefend this back door to Vienna. From time immemorial one of the principal gateways intoItaly has been the Pear Tree Pass,1 a low gap in the limestoneplateau near Adelsberg by which passage from the Save
. Battlefields of the World War, western and southern fronts; a study in military geography . ian plain on the east, just as they form thesimilar western protection for the Slavonic lands of the Save low-land. In the World War it was as inevitable that the Italiansshould seek to breach this barrier and burst into the Slav prov-inces of Austria beyond, as it was1^ that Austria should strenuouslydefend this back door to Vienna. From time immemorial one of the principal gateways intoItaly has been the Pear Tree Pass,1 a low gap in the limestoneplateau near Adelsberg by which passage from the Save basin tothe Piedmont plain was easily effected. A well-known route ofearly migrations, it was later crossed by a Roman road con-necting the Adriatic Sea with the navigable Save-Danubesystem. This most harmful door left open by Nature tochastise the faults of Italy offered the shortest and lowest transit 1 E. C. Semple: The Barrier Boundary of the Mediterranean Basin and ItsNorthern Breaches As Factors in History, Annals Assoc. Amer. Geogrs., Vol. 5,191S. PP- 27-59- STRATEGIC POSITION 543. Fig. 140—Generalized sketch map of the Battlefield of the Isonzo. See also thegeneral map of the Italian theater of war (Fig. 119), the sketch map of the IsonzoRiver front (Fig. 142), and the block diagram of the Isonzo battlefield (PI. VIII). route from the interior to the Mediterranean basin to be found inthe whole 1,300 mile stretch of mountains between the Bosporus 544 BATTLEFIELD OF THE ISONZO and the Rhone valley, and lay between two natural thoroughfares,the Piedmont plain of Italy and the level expanse of the Danubeplain. It is not strange, therefore, that barbarian hordes fromthe Danube basin poured through it repeatedly to overrun thelevel lands of sunny Italy. day road and railway fromboth Trieste and Fiume on the Adriatic cross the Pear Tree Passto Laibach on the Save River. Farther north another railwayfrom Trieste ascends the Isonzo valley to the vicinity of Tolmino,the
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectworldwar19141918
