THE ITALIAN CAMPAIGN.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 3 October 1917, Page 3

THE ITALIAN CAMPAIGN.

INCESSANT STRUGGLE. LOOSENING AUSTRIANS GRIP. LONDON September 14. Mr. J. M. Jeffries, the Daily Mail correspondent, writes: The struggle at San Gabrielle continues hereby, unfinchingly, and incessantly. It seems

hard to imagine that any troops in this awful hell are able to escape universal death from the exploding shells. Vast explosions have stripped the whole top bare. It is slapped and battered and torn all day and night by every engine of artillery ever devised. Ever since the fall of Mount Santo, San Gabrielle, has been the scene of fearful fighting The Italians, advancing up the awful slopes, meet and drive back the Austrians, who emerge like dragons, from caverns. The culminating, tremendous JtaEian rattaek was made with flames, the jets 40 yards long, and the enemy defended

with bombs. Then followed a frightful spectacle. Thunder roared, lightning flashed, the mountain top wms wreathed in flames and huge pillars of smoke. As the storm subsided flame jets, quivering high in the darkness, revealed that the Italians had won a position near the summit. The battle has since raged incessantly. The human element still survives in unearthly struggles Italians,

silhouetted against the shyline, are seen diving fearlessly into caverns, where subterranean fights are frequent The Austro resistance is now concentrated on the so-called Range of Saints a portentous, barren spur—Santa Catterina and San Daniele, 1700 ft. high,

and San Gabrielle. From the whole of the terrible heights gassed men trickle down like blood. The slopes are covered with corpses, and resound with

the groans of the wounded. The Times correspondent on the Italian front, says: The mettle of both sides is tried to the utmost. The Austrians arc. still hanging on grimly, but the splendid Italians are loosening The enemy’s grip finger by finger. The Austrian resistance is so dogged that General Capello stopped a long column of worn-out prisoners and spoke a few words of soldierly praise to them. The enemy losses have been appalling.

After the line wag broken the Aussecured a very limited local success, but the Italians arc finally established on the only line that is fit for jumping off for the next push.

on the only line that is fit for jumping Further north on the Carso proper ■the Austrian coun'ter-offensivo *am,e to complete disaster without settingfoot in the advanced Italian posts. It come again and again, though repeatedly broken with the most sanguinary losses. Once the defenders went out to meet them, concealing their machine-guns in the lond straight communication trench, on which the Austrians were advancing. The guns fired at a range of five yards and bowled over the wretched attackers like nine-pins till the trench was filled with a long swathe of corpses. A whole regiment was destroyed. British batteries continue to cooperate splendidly on the Carso. They have received the special thanks of the Italian command. An officer said, “Wo are truly proud to have such men with such guns ’ ’ Reuter’s correspondent states that bad weather is interfering with operations on the Italian front. Storms have transformed the streams into torrents and the plains into lakes of mud, while mist and fog prevent visibility. Nevertheless, the bombardment and daring air-raids continue.