. Battlefields of the World War, western and southern fronts; a study in military geography . 7—Defensive position on western margin of the Carso north of Monfal-cone. The barren aspect of the limestone country is apparent, and stone breast-works and shelters replace trenches and underground dugouts. (Italian officialphotograph.) They may end in passageways connecting with the vast labyrinthof underground caves and galleries. Over the surface rise manylow hills and an occasional mass of more imposing dimensions,like the Monte San Michele (PI. X, A). Nature thus providedready to hand innumerabl
. Battlefields of the World War, western and southern fronts; a study in military geography . 7—Defensive position on western margin of the Carso north of Monfal-cone. The barren aspect of the limestone country is apparent, and stone breast-works and shelters replace trenches and underground dugouts. (Italian officialphotograph.) They may end in passageways connecting with the vast labyrinthof underground caves and galleries. Over the surface rise manylow hills and an occasional mass of more imposing dimensions,like the Monte San Michele (PI. X, A). Nature thus providedready to hand innumerable concealed sites for heavy artillery,machine-gun emplacements, observation stations, and secureunderground retreats for vast numbers of troops. And whatNature offered, the Austrians had accepted and improved by longyears of elaborate fortification. Trenches had been cut in thesolid rock, elaborate systems of galleries and tunnels had beenexcavated, gun emplacements had been prepared in pits quarriedfor the purpose, and the whole system connected by covered 556 BATTLEFIELD OF THE ISONZO. £-1 GJ fe £ THE KARST PLATEAUS 557 communication trenches and supplied by water pumped up tothe thirsty surface and distributed by pipe lines. The western end of the plateau is cut off from the main Carsoby a deep trench, plainly visible on the map, called the Vallone(Fig. 142). Thus even should the Italians cross the Isonzo bar-rier, scale the rocky walls of the plateau and conquer Monte SanMichele and the rest of the western upland (sometimes called theDoberdo plateau), their further progress would be disputed atthe deep, wide trench just described. South of the formidable Carso bastion is the coastal corridorleading to Trieste. So narrow is the depression that it couldhardly be called a curtain in the terminology of fortifications,although it can be effectively swept by flanking fire from the bas-tion walls. These are broken and terraced on the southwesternside, and an outlying strip
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectworldwar19141918
