troops could maneuver, and the raising of guns up steep precipices was
extremely difficult. The Italians slowly succeeded in gaining ground,
and established a chain of posts around the heights so that often one
would see guns and barbed wire entrenchments at a height of more than
ten thousand feet among the crevasses of the glaciers. The Alpini
performed wonderful feats of physical endurance, but the plains of
Lombardy were still safe.




CHAPTER III

GLORIOUS GALLIPOLI


If ever the true mettle and temper of a people were tried and
exemplified in the crucible of battle, that battle was the naval and
land engagement embracing Gallipoli and the Dardanelles and the people
so tested, the British race. Separated in point of time but united in
its general plan, the engagements present a picture of heroism founded
upon strategic mistakes; of such perseverance and dogged determination
against overwhelming natural and artificial odds as even the pages of
supreme British bravery cannot parallel. The immortal charge of the
Light Brigade was of a piece with Gallipoli, but it was merely a battle
fragment and its glorious record was written in blood within the scope
of a comparatively few inspired minutes. In the mine-strewn Dardanelles
and upon the sun-baked, blood-drenched rocky slopes of Gallipoli, death
always partnered every sailor and soldier. As at Balaklava, virtually
everyone knew that some one had blundered, but the army and the navy as