ITALY.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 June 1917, Page 5

ITALY.

BATTLE OF MOUNT FAITE. A DRAMATIC EPISODE. HUNGARIANS LIKE TRAPPED BEASTS. ITALIANS HOUR OP TRIUMPH. Received June 7, 8.50 p.m. London. June 6. The Daily Chronicle's correspondent on the Carso front describes the desperate Austrian counter-attack on Mont Frilo, on I June' 3. He says tlio Ausirians for several days plastered the new Italian positions with shells of all calibres, while the Italians were feverishly striving to ' dig shelters on the stony slopes. Then the Australia, in the darkness, launched two Hungarian battalions specinlly 1 trained as storming troops to clear the ; way for the main attacking forces. 1 Italian staff officers describe them as the best troops they had yet encountered—big men in the prime of life, who fought desperately and forced their way . into the salient, wifji the assistance ot ■ a tremendous barraee. The Italians, • threatened on both flanks, fell back, and ' the Austrian supports began to ascend ■ the slopes to the salient, but they never • got there. Tho Italian gunners have • learnt much during the last few months, ! and their fire shut in the stormers as > into a chamber. Then ensued a drama- ' tic episode of tho war, which will bo ■ as famous as that of the Romans of the Tiber. The brigades,, with all Home's I historic traditions inspiring them, swept i into the breach. Thef Hungarian stormL ers fought like trapped leasts, desperate : and implacable, nvith bayonet and gren- > ade. The battle raged while the rival ■ artilleries stormed with shell. On* both ■ sides thousands of dead lie in the sun, awaiting burial. Thoy are part of the •;errible~harvest of the last sixty hours, wherein the enemy, by a conservative estimate, lost 36J000. ITALIANS RE-ARRANGE LINE. Received June 7, 5.5 p.m. London, June C. An Italian official report states: Southward of Jamiano the fighting was less intense. We slightly withdrew our new line fronting Flondar to a more tactically advantageous position. . ..- •. ft