WITH THE BRITISH IN ITALY

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 215, 30 May 1918, Page 5

WITH THE BRITISH IN ITALY

THE TURNING OF THE TIDE

GENERAL PLUMER'S REPORT

In a dispatch dated Miircff 5 last, and Sow passed hy the War Officn for publication, General .Sir Herbert I'lmnor, commanding tho British* Forces in Italy, reviews the events from tlio ( datc of his arrival at I lie Italian front in. November, last till early in March, by which time the general situation in Italy had been greatly improved. He says:

The instructions I received on proceeding to tftp.ly were:

(a) To tajjo command of the British Forco then in course of transit to Italy;

(b) To report, on tho general situation and the number of troops required for tho task before us.

I found on arrival, that the general situation was coHniiily disquieting. Tho Italian Army had j list received a very severe blow, from which it was bound to require time to recover and reorganise, and although every "effort was being \wm\-. to dispatch the French and British Forces to the tlienlrn 'of.'operations, it was obvious, owing to tho limited railway facilities, that somo time must elapse before these forces could be regarded as a material factor. Reconnaissances were made at once to arrange fov their employment according to (lie nnmbor available and (he development of the situation. The Italian retreat had been arrested on the River Piave, but it was uncertain whether they would hold Ihis line, and in the first instance it was arranged that in conjunction with the French two of onr divisions should move forward on arrival to tho hills north and '6outh of Vicenza , , where a stand could certainly have bson made. The forward march was well carried out. The marches were necessarily long, as time was. or might have fen, all important. The troops'everywhere'met with nil enthusiastic Teception from the inhabitants. Their Line of Defence, By tho time we had reached tho above position the general situation had improved, and wo accordingly made an oilier in conjunction with the French to take over sectors in the foothills of the Asiago Plateau, which would have placed ■us.in a strategically sound position to j withstand attack either from the north \ or north-east. At this stage, however, snow was imminent, and it was considered by the Italian High Command that, our troops would suffer considerable losses and hardships from tho cold in the hills, especially as they were unaccustomed to euch warfare, and there were many difficulties in 'providing the special mountain equipment necessary, and it was suggestr.l that we should instead take over the Montello sector with the French on our left, to which we agreed. Tho Montello ' Bector is a feature by itself, and an important one. It acts as a hinge to tho whole Italian line, joining as.it does that portion facing north from Mount Toinba to laVo Garda, with the defensive lino of the River Piavo covering Venice, which was held by the Third Italian Army. There is no doubt but that tho entry of French and British troops into the lino at this time had an | excellent moral effect, and it enabled th» ■Italians to withdraw troops to train and reorganise.

There were at this time several German divisions east of the River Piave, antf it was quite iikely Hint an attack to force that river and capture Venice was in contemplation. We took over the line on December, and at once got to work to organise the defences in depth,, Iteoping as largo a reserve as was possible in hand in case of unforeseen eventualities occurring in other portions of the. line. Suck did occur, as the er.emy commenced to develop local attacks on tho Grappa and Asingo sectors, first in ono and then in the other, assisted undoubtedly by German batteries, '.these attacks fell principally .on the First and Fourth Italian Armies, who fought well, and though , they had a good number of • casualties themselves they inflicted heavy losses on the enemy. An Anxious Month, December was an anxious month. Local attacks grew more frequent and more severe, and though the progress made was not great arid Italian counter-attacks were constantly made, yet the danger of a break through into the plains undoubtedly increased. The general impession conveyed by these attacks was that the Austrians were being encouraged to persevere with their attacks in the hope of getting down into the plains for the winter, and that the Gorman divisions were being kept in reserve with tho intention of .concentrating them at short Botice to force home an attack should opportunity offer. Bear lines of defence were constructed under our supervision, nnd as lime passed and preparations became more forward, the geucvnl atmosphere of security improved. -This was increased by the attempt of the Italians: to Tecapture Mount Asolone on December 22, which resulted in the southern slopes being again in Italian hands. The following day, however, tho pendulum again swung to the Asiftgo, as the enemy captured Mount Jfelago and Col Hosso. The Italians retook tho former by counterattack. Christmas Day found us, therefore, with tho situation both on"-'the Grappa and Asiago serious, the latter the more so, but the Italians, though suffering from prolonged strain and cold, were offering a stubborn resistance.

Offensive Activilies. From this Timo the situation gradually improved. The French carried out a brilliant attack on December 30 in the Mount Tombu sector, resulting in the capture- of over 1500 Austrian prisoners. British artillery assisted in this operation. During all this period we "had carried out continuous patrol work across tho River I'iave ami much successful counter-battery work. The Pinvo is a very serious obstacle, especially at this season of tho year, the breadfli opposite the British front being considerably over 1000 yards, and the current: H knots. Every form of raft and boat has been used, but wading has proved | tho most successful, but the icy cold water made the difficulties even greater. Jn finite of this theire has never been any lack of volunteers, both officers and men, for these enterprises. On January 1 our biggest raid was _ carried out by the Middlesex Regiment. This was a most difficult and well-plnnued operation, which bad for its objective tho capture and surrounding of several buildings held ■by tho enemy to a depth of 2000 yards inland, provided a surprise could bo effected. Two hundred ami fifty men werp passed across by wading and somo prisoners were captured, but, unfortun. atcly, the alarm whs given by a party of 50 of the enemy that was encountered in rm advance post, and the progress inland had, therefore, in accordance with orders, to be curtailed. The recrnssinj; of the river was successfully effected, and our casualties were very few. An operation of this nature requires much forethought and arrangement, even to wrapping overy man in hot blnnkel.s immediately on emerging from tho icy water. The Third Italian Army also opened tho year well by clearing tho Austrian* from i.he west bank of the I'iave about Zcnsoii. This was followed on January 11 by the attack of the Fourth Italian Army on Mount Asolone, which, t>l though not entirely successful, resulted in capturing over 400 Austrian prisoners.

Outlook Steadily Improves, The situation had by this time bo far improved that I offered to take over another sector of defence on my right in order to assist the Italians. This was agreed to, ami was completed by , January 23. On this day and the following ths First Italian Army carried out successful operation , ; in the Co! Del llosso--Mount Val Bella front, on tho Asingo plateau. The infantry attacked with great spirit, and captured some 2500 Austrian prisoner?. British artillery tnnk part in tho above operation. Since the beginning of February the weather had become bad. a considerable amount of snow has fallen, and visibility has been poor, which has interfered, considerably .with air and artillery work. It is certainly the ense that tho general situation on the Italian, front has gradually

but steadily improved during tho four mouths which have elapsed since tlie British Force was sent there, and, although wo' have not taken part in any rui ions lighting, 1. tniiik wo can fairly claim ,'o have liiid somo share in this improvement. 'J'lio work of the BJT.C. under Briga-dier-General W'ebb-liov-T-n during tho period under review liai. 'sen quite brilliant. From tho'moment of arrival they made their, presoiico felt, and very euu. overcame tho dillicullk's of tho uioimtains. They have taken part in all operations, and rendered mucli distance to the Italiau in the air. Tney have carried out ft large /lumber of successful raids on enemy aerodromes, railway junctions, etc., and huvo during; the period described destroyed sixtyfo\ir hostile machines, a largo proportion of which were Gevman, and irino balloons, our losses to the enemy during the period being twelve machines and three bniloone, n record which epenks for itself. The artillery has rendered very useful service. Our gunners soon became accustomed to tho altered conditions, aud carried out many successful destructive) shiKle. A comparison of the photographs of hostile battery positions when our artillery entered tho Hue with the posi- , tioits now occupied shows that the enemy batteries have been successfully forced back almost throughout tho whole front. Somo British artillery assisted both in French and Italian operations, and a frequent interchange of British ajvd Italian batteries was made, together with counter battery staff officers, in order that experience- of each other's methods might be gained. Every effort was maae to illustrate the value of counter-battery work, the value of which we had learned by experience in France, but which the Italians had not hitherto fully appreciated. ■ The Italians were only .too ansiousto profit by any experience we could give them, and this was done not only by frequent interchange of visits of commanders and staffs to the various sectors of defence, but 'by the establishment of schools of instruction at which a large number of Italian officers actually underwent the courses. About 100 Italian officers attended the courses at the various 6chools, together with Eome French officers. Similarly British officers underwent courses at French and Italian schools.

Cordial Relations Established. The conduct of the troops has been excellent. They have been very well received everywhere, and have themselves Bet the high standard expected of them. I cannot speak too highly of the kindness we have received from the Italian authorities, with whom wo established most cordial Telations.. Everything possible was done to help iis. The provision, employment and maintenance of tho Force has entailed a considerable amount of work between the Allied staffs, and this had been conducted throughout in complete harmony. I feel that the close alliance and interchange of ideas and methods between the three Allied forces cannot fail to have produced beneficial resulte.