That is the Italian objective.

And they are excellently led. Cadorna is an old Roman, a man cast in
the big simple mould of antiquity, frugal in his tastes, clear in his
aims, with no thought outside his duty. Every one loves and trusts him.
Porro, the Chief of the Staff, who was good enough to explain the
strategical position to me, struck me as a man of great clearness of
vision, middle-sized, straight as a dart, with an eagle face grained
and coloured like an old walnut. The whole of the staff work is, as
experts assure me, moot excellently done.

So much for the general situation. Let me descend for a moment to my
own trivial adventures since leaving the British front. Of France I
hope to say more in the future, and so I will pass at a bound to Padua,
where it appeared that the Austrian front had politely advanced to meet
me, for I was wakened betimes in the morning by the dropping of bombs,
the rattle of anti-aircraft guns, and the distant rat-tat-tat of a
maxim high up in the air. I heard when I came down later that the
intruder had been driven away and that little damage had been done. The
work of the Austrian aeroplanes is, however, very aggressive behind the
Italian lines, for they have the great advantage that a row of fine
cities lies at their mercy, while the Italians can do nothing without
injuring their own kith and kin across the border. This dropping of
explosives on the chance of hitting one soldier among fifty victims
seems to me the most monstrous development of the whole war, and the
one which should be most sternly repressed in future international
legislation--if such a thing as international law still exists. The
Italian headquarter town, which I will call Nemini, was a particular
victim of these murderous attacks. I speak with some feeling, as not
only was the ceiling of my bedroom shattered some days before my