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With British Guns in Italy - A Tribute to Italian Achievement by Hugh Dalton
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senses.

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The Isonzo Front is divided into two parts by the Vippacco river, which
flows roughly from east to west and joins the Isonzo at Peteano. Of
these two parts the northern is three times as long as the southern. The
northern part was held by the Italian Second Army, under General
Capello, the southern by the Italian Third Army, under the Duke of
Aosta. In the north the Isonzo runs through a deep ravine, with Monte
Nero rising on its eastern side. Monte Nero is some 6800 feet high. The
Alpini took it by a marvellous feat of mountain warfare in the first
year of the war. South of Monte Nero, also on the east bank of the
river, lies the town of Tolmino, the object of many fierce Italian
assaults, but not yet taken. Here the Isonzo bends south-westward and
continues to flow through a deep ravine past Canale and Plava, with the
Bainsizza Plateau rising on its eastern bank. This Plateau is of a
general height of about 2400 feet, and is continued south-eastward by
the Ternova Plateau, rising to a general height of about 2200 feet.
Bending again towards the south-east, the Isonzo flows out into the
Plain of Gorizia. Here stand Monte Sabotino and Monte Santo, the western
and eastern pillars of this gateway leading into the lower lands. East
of Monte Santo, along the southern edge of the Plateau, stand Monte San
Gabriele and Monte San Daniele. Here the Plateau falls precipitously
down to the Vippacco valley, only the long brown foothill of San Marco
breaking the drop.

Gorizia has scattered suburbs: Salcano to the north, in the very mouth
of the gorge, the fashionable suburb in days before the war; Podgora to
the west, on the other side of the Isonzo, industrial. The Isonzo Front
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