tactical dead-lock. Trench warfare had petrified movement, except in
laborious shifting of a few hundred yards at a time, hardly perceptible
on a small-scale map. The day of sweeping advances, of sudden
retirements, was over. At a reasonable distance behind that unbudging
wall of trenches you were as secure from personal displacement by the
war as if you were at the other end of Italy; indeed, no earlier than
the beginning of this month of October some people had arrived with
their families at Udine from other parts of the country to carry on
trades connected with the life of the army.

[Sidenote: General Cadorna praises the British batteries.]

I myself set foot in Udine for the first time on October 20. I was going
back to the Macedonian front, where for two years I had been the
official correspondent of the British Army, and I had asked the War
Office to authorize me to visit on the way the British batteries which
since April had been cooperating with the Italian Army on the Isonzo.
General Cadorna had given them high praise in a message to the British
Government after the fighting in which they had taken part in May, and I
thought it would be interesting to see British and Italian troops side
by side in the field for the first time.

[Sidenote: Visits to the Italian front yield important information.]

Visitors to the Italian front used to find most convenient arrangements
made to give them a rapid idea of conditions there. Lying almost
entirely among mountains, the line presented unusual opportunities for
survey from dominating heights, and there were many places where, at
leisure and in virtual safety, one could watch the Austrian
intrenchments from close range. Fast cars took you up to these