THE ITALIAN CAMPAIGN.

Clutha Leader, Volume XLII, Issue 84, 28 April 1916, Page 6

THE ITALIAN CAMPAIGN.

THE 60LDILANA POSITIONS. HOW TIIIOY WKKK DIvSTROYIvD. LONDON, April :M. The Daily Chronicle's Milan correspondent says that the destruction of the Austrian positions on the Coldilana was a Herculean task. It involved four months of preparation and the bringing of a gallery 2;j()ft long through solid rock. This was begun on Christmas Day. The engineers toiled incessantly night and day. Early in March a noise was going on, and they started a coun-ter-tunnel. The Italians 'hurriedly laid their mines, using 1(1 ions of gelatine and dynamite, and blocking in the charge, wit-li a formidable shield of thick armoured steel in order to prevent the destruction of the tunnel. Forty soldiers volunteered for the. duty, and waited in readiness to rush the position after the explosion. The mountain was shaken as if by a terrific earthquake, and there was a hellish roar. The soldiers dashed through the tunnel and found the enemy positions shattered. There were heaps of corpses among the ddbris. The survivors surrendered.