4 ft. 2 in., with bayonet 5 ft. 2 in. It weighs without bayonet 8 lbs. 6 ozs. The muzzle velocity is 2,296 f.s., and it is sighted up to 2,200 yards. The cavalry carbine, which is also used by cyclists, is similar in construction, taking the same cartridge, but it is just under 3 ft. in length without bayonet and weighs a little under 7 lbs. The length with bayonet fixed is 4 ft. 2 in. yards.

It is sighted to 1,640

Active army and Mobile Militia were both armed with the 1891 pattern rifle, but the Territorial Militia, for the most part at least, had the old Vetterli-Vitali pattern, 1870-1887, which carries four rounds in a fixed magazine. This rifle has a calibre of 407 in., and is sighted to 2,000 yards. It weighs 9 lbs. The swordbayonet is over 2 ft. in length.

It is difficult at present to write with any sort of accuracy about the Italian artillery. The outbreak of the Great War found a process of re-armament going on, but this process had come on the top of a previous process that had never been completed. Thirteen or fourteen years earlier it was decided to replace the old 7 cm. field-gun by an improved Krupp Q.F. 75 mm. gun, but 1914 saw this re-arma

ment unfinished (there were only about 100 batteries armed with the quick-firer), and a new re-armament begun. The 75 mm. Deport gun, 1911 pattern, had been adopted. It is impossible to say how many batteries of this gun had been completed, but it was a very large number, and the artillery had been accustoming themselves to its use for many months.

The same may be said of heavy artillery, which the experience of the war had shown to

Inset: a heavy gun.

be so important. When the war broke out Italy had no adequate siege train (parco d'assedio). Her heaviest mobile weapons were 210 mm. howitzers (8.2 in.), and 149 mm. guns. All that can be said here is that the deficiencies were fully repaired, and that Italy was not likely to suffer from lack of medium or large calibre guns.

A word should be said about the mountain artillery, of which there were 39 batteries. The gun was an efficient weapon, but the men and the mules were remarkable. An Italian mountain battery could go anywhere.

All information regarding the latest types of aeroplane and dirigible being used or constructed for military purposes had been suppressed by the authorities. Airships (type P, gas capacity 4,500 m.c., speed 50 km. an hour) had been used by the Italian Army for a number of years. This type did good service in Tripoli. A larger model of similar design (type M, gas capacity 12,000 m.c., motors 400 h.p., speed over 70 km. an hour) had been employed with success in time of peace. The aeroplane service had already been well tested. Italy was the first country to use aeroplanes in war, and the experience gained in Tripoli gave a great impulse to military aviation. Unfortunately, lack of money prevented many of the developments that were studied and put forward by experts, but the winter of 1914 saw a great increase in the Italian Flying Corps. And Italians are notably quick and skilful at flying.

The uniform of the whole army was of a serviceable grey colour. The headgear formed the readiest means of distinction. Infantry of the line, artillery and engineers wore a soft kepi. The shiny black hat of the Bersaglieri, with its drooping cocks' feathers, is well known, but in war time the hat is covered with grey cloth. The Alpini wore a grey felt hat with a high crown, a small brim turned up at the back and down at the front, and a black eagle's feather at the side. The Customs Guards wore a similar hat. Of the cavalry, the first four regiments wore a helmet, the others a bushy. In war time both helmet and busby were covered with grey cloth.

Not very much was known in England of the Italian Army. The picturesque figure of the Bersaglieri was familiar, and the illustrated

papers soon made known the appearance of the Alpini. Italian cavalry officers had done great things at Olympia, and some people knew that the Italian cavalryman is very good across country. But the Army as a whole had been handicapped in people's estimation by the fatal memory of Adowa, where the Italian forces met with real disaster, and by the slowness of the Tripoli campaign, where the soldiers, for political reasons, were not allowed to do what they were able and anxious to do.

The Bersaglieri were known for their cocks' feathers. Their wonderful marching capacity was less familiar even to military men. They were all picked men, of splendid physique, though not big. Their ordinary marching rate is four miles an hour, with a pace of 34 in. They double at a rate which works out at about nine minutes to the mile, and they practise the double relentlessly. On manœuvres they sometimes cover 40 miles in a day, and in Tripolitania the 11th Bersaglieri accomplished two wonderful desert marches of 50 miles in 26 hours and 33 miles in 19 hours. The first march was made necessary owing to a well being found dry. The second was carried out, for the greater part of the distance, in a sandstorm. The Alpini are perhaps the finest mountain troops in the world. Their physique is magnificent, and their skill and endurance in mountainous country marvellous.

These were picked troops, and in the end one must always come back to the infantry of the line. First it should be said that the physique of the Italian nation had improved out of all knowledge in the last twenty years. Perhaps military training had had a good deal to do with bringing about the change, though it was not the only factor. Increased national prosperity had meant more and better food and improved conditions all round. The material was far better than it used to be. As a result the Italian Army showed a very high level of physique. The Italian soldier is not big, but he is tough and sound and a hard worker. He is not smart, sometimes he seems even slack. But he is keen and cheerful and obedient to command. The officers do not seem to insist upon a rigid discipline, but they get out of their men what they want, and the relations between officers and men are excellent.

A

FTER the offensive of the British at Neuve Chapelle and the counteroffensive of the Germans at St. Eloi a time of comparative inaction ensued. But it was only a preliminary period of preparation for a renewal of the gigantic struggle for supremacy between La Bassée and the sea which had commenced in the second half of October and the first half of November 1914, and which has already been described. As before, the aim of the German commanders was, operating north of the Lys, to cross the Comines-Ypres, Yperlee and Yser Canals, take Ypres, seize the whole of the ridge of the Mont-des-Cats, south of that battered city, and, advancing across the plains to the west, capture Dunkirk, Calais and Boulogne.

While the Germans were bent on a rapid offensive north of the Lys, the Allies, who since the first Battle of Ypres had been heavily reinforced both in men and material, proposed on their part to advance south of the Lys on Lille from two sides. Sir John French was to storm the Aubers ridge and turn from the north the German salient at La Bassée, while the French between the western environs of this village and the town of Arras were to endeavour to recover the region of Lens and to threaten La Bassée from the west and south. So long as the salient formed by the latter was occupied by the Germans, they could strike Vol. V.-Part 54.

at the point where the British Army joined the main French Army, and if from La Bassée they broke through to Boulogne, they would cut off the whole of the British forces, and the French and Belgian Armies between Ypres and the sea about Nieuport. On the other hand, the isolation of La Bassée and the capture of the Aubers ridge would render the German hold on Lille precarious, and, if the Kaiser lost Lille, the Allies might begin the task of driving the Germans out of Belgium.

In this chapter will be described the operations north of the Lys to the sea between March 16 and May 17. By the latter date the repeated attacks made by the Germans had reduced them to temporary impotence, and the second battle of Ypres may be said to have ended. The Germans at a frightful cost had gained some ground, but they had failed to achieve their object. Ypres still remained in the possession of the Allies and, to all intents and purposes, the Germans were as far from Calais, Dunkirk and Boulogne as they were on the days of Neuve Chapelle and St. Eloi.

It was on March 14 that the British retook St. Eloi and parried the German blow at Ypres from the south. The remainder of the month and the first half of April were spent by the opposing armies in comparative inactivity. The aircraft on both sides executed raids and reconnaissances. On March 18 a Zeppelin