A FORMIDABLE FORTRESS.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 May 1917, Page 5

A FORMIDABLE FORTRESS.

PROTECTING TRIESTE. AUSTRIANS WITHDRAW GUNS. MONITORS BATTERING TRIESTE. Received May 29, 1.30 a.in/ iLomlon, May 23. Tlio Italian newspapers, commenting on the success of the offensive on the right wing, point out taht the Italians have reached the foot of Mt. Hermada, 1000 ft. high, a Gibraltar-like rock with abrupt slopes, and with four castle-liko summits holding scores of guns. This is the last considerable Obstacle defending Trieste. The frontal defences of Hermada having fallen, the Italians! are working north and south, and the investment of, Hermada is almost complete. The British batteries are hammering the fortress with increasing intensity, Hcr j mada resembling an erupting volcano. The Austrian guns suddenly ccascil at one stage, and the Italian aeroplanes reported that the Austrians were withdrawing many of the guna from Hermada to Trieste.

Other reports state that British monitors have practically obliterated the western suburbs of Trieste, containing the military establishments. (Mount Hermada is juafc over a thousand feet high, and dominates the surrounding country for miles. It is the most formidable obstacle opposing tlio progress of the Italians along the coast road to Trieste, from which city they are now sJparated by a distanoe of thirteen miles.)