All this time the most determined struggle was going on for the possession of Monte San Gabriele, which changed hands a number of times. Both on August 30 and 31, 1917, very brisk fighting occurred on the northern slopes of Monte San Gabriele and east of Goritz, where the Austrians with repeated violent counterattacks attempted to drive back the Italians. They were repulsed with heavy losses. On the Carso, in the Brestovizza Valley, the Italians carried other elements of trenches.
The total number of prisoners taken from the beginning of the Italian offensive to the end of August, 1917, had risen to 720 officers and 26,582 men.
Trieste, too, was continuously a point of attraction to the Italians. Hardly a day passed without an attack being made on it by Italian airmen.
Throughout the next few days the fighting continued without abatement. Again Monte San Gabriele was the center of it. Following the Italian success of August 30, 1917, the Austrians had attempted a number of times to regain their positions there. But the Italians held on and continued their preparations for further attacks. The final storming of this important and desperately contested position was described by the London "Times" correspondent, attached to Italian headquarters, in part as follows:
"The attack came on the morning of September 3, 1917, when the Italians went forward in three columns. One column attacked straight along the crest, one worked along the northeastern slope, while the third advanced on the right, where the first precipitous fall of the ridge meets the steep slope that comes up from Salcano past the jutting spurs of Hill 343 and Santa Caterina. The left-hand column was held up southeast of Hill 552 by a rocky bastion that juts out eastward from the main massif, but it kept the Austrians in this sector very busy and diverted their attention from the flank and center columns. The right-hand column got well forward and performed the same service for the other flank of the main attack, which was brilliantly successful.
"Nothing could stop the center column, which was made up of volunteer storming troops. These broke down all resistance. They stormed the machine-gun positions, careless of loss, and reached the caverns, where the Austrian reserves were caught like rats. In less than an hour the Italians were in possession of the main peak.