General Count Luigi Cadorna (q.v.) was appointed commander-in-chief of the Italian armies in the field. with General Porro (q.v.) as his chief of staff. The Duke of the Abruzzi (q.v.) was placed in cotnmand of the High Sea Fleet; and his two brothers, the Duke of Aosta and the Count of Turin, held respectively the ranks of lieutenant-general and inspector general of the cavalry.
With an extensive coastline of over 4,000 miles to 'protect (including Sicily, Sardinia, Elba, etc.), Italy has numerous fortified places on the coasts and islands. Spezzia, the prin cipal naval port, stands near the head of a commodious bay, 56 miles southeast of Genoa by rail. Formidable batteries bristle on the hills that overlook the bay and the island of Pal meria, which guards the entrance. Here the large Italian warships are built, repaired and fitted out. Taranto, at the southeastern ex tremity of Italy, is an important naval base and arsenal. A fleet operating. from this base guards the entrance to the Adriatic. Ancona, on a promontory of the Adriatic, 127 miks southeast of Ravenna by rail, was formerly a government arsenal and contains shipbuilding yards and engineering works. Other fortified places are Genoa, Vado, Gaeta, Monte Argentaro and some worlcs in the Straits of Messina, while there are also bases at Naples and Venice for building and repairing ships.
The naval situation hi the Mediterranean underwent a marked change in May 1915. Dur ing the preceding month the French fleet had entered the Adriatic with the object of round ing up the Austrian fleet if it were at sea. Frenoh battleships steamed up on the Italian side and, crossing the Adriatic, approached Cattaro, the Austrian naval base, from the north, while cruisers and destroyers advanced up the eastern shores. This movement resulted in the discovery of only three enemy warcraft —the small cruiser Zenta and two destroyers. The two latter fled and the Zenta was sunk. A subsequent bombardment of Cattaro apparently produced small results. Blockading forces were meanwhile established in the Otranto Channel, and the enemy was thus cut off from all sea conununication with the outside world. The French fleet was still blockading this port when Italy entered the war, but it labored un der serious disadvantage owing to the distance from its nearest base. The disadvantage was somewhat modified, though not removed, when the British admiralty placed the naval estab lishtnent at Malta at the disposal of the French authorities for refitting and repairing their ships. The entrance of Italy as a belligerent, with bases closer to the scene of operations, suggested a reconsideration of the naval posi tion; and thencefonvard the Italian navy, sup ported by several British and French units, be came responsible for the blocicade.
Natural conditions in the Adriatic were overwhelmingly favorable to Austria-Hungary. This land-locked sea, approximately as long as the North Sea, has a mean breadth of about 100 miles. On the Italian side the water is shallow and for many miles southward of Venice there is no single port suitable for a naval base. On the Austrian side the Dalma tian coast and Trieste presented a series of deep-water s, fringed by a number of islands offe tricigl. shelter to torpedo craft and even larger ships engaged in cross-raiding. The Austrians took advantage of the geographical position when Italy entered the war. In ac cordance with a scheme that was evidently prepared in advance, units of the Austrian fleet, including battleships, began to terrorize the Italian population along the shores of the Adri atic, where the towns and villages were devoid of defenses against bombardment from the sea and by aircraft. The Italians, however, soon devised an effective reply. Close to the water side, a railroad runs all the way .down their coast Armored trains were speedxly equipped and manned by naval gunners; scouung opera tions by small- naval craft and aeroplanes pro vided a satisfactory check on these raids and forced the Austrian fleet to inactivity, confined within the shelter of elaborate minefields dom inated by powerful coast artillery and supported by flotillas of destroyers and subtnarines.
A more complicated problem presented itself on the halo-Austrian frontiers. Here was a huge rampart of natural and artificial strong holds winding a snalce-like course of 484 miles, a battle-front exceeding any other in the war for almost insuperable obstacles. All the dis advantages and handicaps of strategy, geog raphy and climate fell to the Italian side. Aus tna held the crests of the Alps, the heads of the principal valleys, all the Alpuie passes and all the crossings of the Isonzo. From Switzer land to the Julian Alps the frontier followed the crests of the hills at an elevation of 7,000 to 10,000 feet, while a mountainous zone sepa rated the frontier from the plains. Between the Julian Alps and the Adriatic there were no natural obstacles to prevent the advance of armies on a broad front. Thus Italy's northern front fell into three distinct sectors — the first of high mountains, forming the re-entrant an gle of the Trentino; the equally formidable wall of the Dolomites and the Carnic and Ju lian Alps, and the space on the east between the main Alpine chain and the Adriatic.