A royal decree was issued from Rome on 22 May 1915 ordering the general mobilization of the army and navy. A supplementary mobili zation order called up the third category of the service classes from 1885 to 1895 — men who had not received any military training. Eleven provinces were declared to be in a vstate of warp from the 23d, as well as the Adriatic coastlands, islands and all fortresses. All Austrian ships lying in Italian harbors were immediately sequestrated. War was de clared at midnight, and the step was followed by a prompt advance on the part of the Ital ians across the Austrian frontiers in southern Tyrol, Carnia and Friuli. It was soon appar ent that the main military effort would be made against the line of the Isonzo, which had been heavily fortified by the Austrians, and that while converging attacks would be initiated upon the Trentino, a determined effort would be made to seize all the crests of the Alps which had been left, after 1866, in Austrian hands. The lack of branch railroads made it necessary to concentrate the Austrian offensive at certain defined places, namely, Trent, Tarvis and Gorizia: conversely, an Italian offensive must aim at the same points — and at one more: the junction of the Pusterthal line at Franzen feste. If that point could be taken the com munications of the whole of the Trentino sa lient would be cut. But this was just the hard est point for the Italians to reach, as the whole complex system of the Dolomites lay to the south and east of it. Briefly put, General Ca dorna's plan was to hold on the north and push toward the east, Trieste, where the southern sector offered the best prospect for the devel opment of a big offensive. Here the natural obstacles were much less formidable. At 3.30 in the morning of 24 May 1915 the first act of war took place at Venice. The inhabitants were aroused by the booming of guns and screech ing of sirens. Austrian (or German) aero planes, flying at a great height, dropped bombs on the sleeping city, a storehouse of art treasures. Austnan battleships bombarded the Italian coast from Venice to Brindisi.
Austria at the moment was preoccupied with Galida, retrieving a long senes of disasters with the aid of German troops under Macken sen. Not unprepared for the Italian attack, Austria had long maintained a strong army on the southern front, composed principally of Landwehr and Landsturm, among the latter some levies of Tyrolese mountaineers. This army was commanded by the archduke Eugene and Gen. Conrad von Hoetzendorf. It was not until three-fourths of Galicia had been recon quered from the Russians that Austrian troops were withdrawn from that theatre and placed opposite the Italians. Within a few days after commencing operations the Italians had seized some important mountain positions in the Trentino as well as others toward Trieste; on 2 June they were crossing the Isonzo and establishing themselves on the slopes of Monte Nero, north of Tolmino. They won all the lower passes of the Dolomites and made breaches at the Tonale Pass and in the Carnic and Julian Alps. They occupied the Montozzo Pass (9,585 feet), Ponte Caffaro and Monte Baldo on the Trentino front, the Dolomite valleys and several footholds in the Carinthian Alps. On the east the Italians were on Aus trian soil almost up to the Isonzo. The moun tain troops of the Bersaglieri performed re markably strenuous feats in dragging heavy artillery to the tops of snow-covered peaks and driving Austrians from apparently impregnable positions. Italian destroyers shelled Monfal cone near the northern head of the Gulf of Tri este 31 May; it fell on 9 June and two days later the Italians had taken Gradisca. On 2 July a severe struggle began for the Carso Plateau. the highway toward Trieste. At the same time vigorous attacks were launched against Gonna on the Isonzo, along the banlcs of which the Italians maintained a strong pressure from Tolmino to the sea below Monfalcone. Simul taneously blows were delivered farther north, and Fort Malborgetto in the Carrie Alps was bombarded. The Austrian second line east of Gradisca was under fire by 30 July, while aerial raids harassed the railway to Trieste. But progress was slow and difficult, and it was not until 22 October that the Italians were able to tnake a substantial advance on the Isonzo sector, when over 5,000 prisoners were taken in a week. The crests along the Alpine front fell one by one to the Italians; some progress was made in the Trentino, but the subsequent opera tions were restricted to that and the Isonzo fronts until the end of the year, by which time there were nearly 500,000 Austrian troops chained down to a mere passive defensive.
During November the offensive continued, renewed repeatedly, until in .the first week in December a Scottish mist —neblria Inglese, the Italians called it — settled down and lay im movable over the front, and the Italians ad mitted reluctantly that the capture of Gorizia must wait. Some other important events had happened during the first months of Italy's war. Although Italy had not declared war on Turkey, hostiliues had been begun in Asia Minor agaipst the numerous and prosperous Italian colonies. The repatriation of Italian subjects was pre vented and their property was not respected. Italy declared war on Turloey 20 A.ug. 1915 and adhered to the Pact of London, 1 December the same year. On 2 October Bulgarian troops appeared on the Serbian frontier; on the 4th Russia sent an ultimatum to Bulgaria; on the 6th an Austro-German army invaded Serbia; Belgrade was occupied by them on the 9th; by the 18th Bulgaria was at was with Serbia, Russia, France, Italy and Great Britain. The Entente Allies' horoscope looked black indeed during the late summer of 1915. The Russians had been defeated in Galicia; Warsaw fell to the Germans on 4 August; Great Britain and France had suffered some 112,000 casualties on the Gallipoli Peninsula; Serbia, now overrun also by Bulgarian troops, was in a most des perate position. Treaty obligations bound Greece to come to the aid of Serbia against Bulgaria; when that assistance was asked for (11 October), it was refused. Serbia's only hope lay in the success of a possible counter move from Salonica, but there was only a small force of less than 15,000 French and British troops stationed there, in imminent danger of being themselves attacked by the'Greeks. The Allies could thus render no aid to Serbia. When Ilskub fell to the Bulgarians on 25 Oct. 1915, the doom of Serbia was practically sealed. By the middle of November that nation had nothing left to defend of its own territory, and the broken remnant of its army struggled pain fully through the mountains of Montenegro tcward Scutari and the port of San Giovanni di Medua on the Adriatic, while another column was in full retreat toward Durazzo. Two circumstances alone saved them from exterrnination, namely, that the Anstro-German forces did not heavily press the retreat, and that Essad Pasha (q.v.) in Albania had definitely de clared himself in alliance with the Entente Powers. Besides the Serbian troops the train of stragglers included many Serbian families, women, children and old men, toiling on foot over snow-clad mountains and through foaming torrents. Many died by the wayside. This was the situation which the Italian navy was called upon to face in the dark days of December 1915 — the feeding, clothing, disinfecting and healing of the survivors of an heroic little nation, sorne 200,000 all told. They had all to be conveyed across 40 miles of water sown with floating mines and open to submarine and destroyer attack, as well as aerial bombs. Be tween them, Italy, France and England supplied the necessaries of life. As only small ships could enter the harbors of Medua, Durazzo and Valona, marshes and rivers had to be bridged, but finally the refugees were safely carried to the genial dimate of Italy for recuperation. While the great task of rescue was in progress at Valona, troops were pushed up into the surrounding country and a strong detachment posted to guard the hills around the harbors of Medua and Durazzo. According to an eye witness, early in December there °began to trickle down the Montenegrin and Albanian heights the forerunners of such a flood of famished, dirt-engrained and pestilence-stricicen humanity as can seldom have been seen in the Christian era? From parties of twos and threes the stream swelled to hundreds and thousands. Day and night the naval and military. doctors, with soldiers, sailors and orderlies worked among the victims to alleviate their sufferings. Nor was this the only contribution of the Italian navy to the Entente cause during the early stages of its activities. Already in July it had converted the whole of the Adriatic into a close controlled military area like the North Sea; it had forced the Austrian navy to under take only furtive operations, carried out air raids, and* effected several landings on the opposite shore. Marines had been landed at Valona already in 1914, seven months before Italy entered the war.