ITALIAN RETREAT.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 December 1917, Page 7

ITALIAN RETREAT.

WHOLE FORCES ALMOST LOSTHEKOKJ li£Ali<jUAßl>S. BRITISH SAVE THEIR GUNS. (From G. Ward Price, Times' Correspondent). \yith the Italian Army, Nov. 1. The story of the great Italian retirement which I am now setting out to tell in full for the first time, as far aa it can be told even now, is one of the most extraordinary chapters in the history ol this extraordinary war. Its possible consequences for our good or for our evil surpass in their magnitude those of any military movement in history. Italy's own existence as a free nation, England's connection with her great forces fighting outside Europe, and, indeed, the whole victory of the Allied cause, which is no less than the victory of humane ana liberal civilisation., over reactionary barbarism, have been Btaked on these very incidents, of which I have been an eye-witness during the last five days.

The seriousness of the situation cannot possibly be over-estimated, but I hope that this straight-forward version of what happened may do something to strengthen the resolution of which our nation never had more urgent need than now, and may to some extent reassure those whose fears have been exaggerated by the secrecy which the military ■needs have thrown over the events of this memorable week. OPENING *OF THE ATTAOK. General Cadorna's mention of fighting at pTaces such as San Danile del Uriuli, close up to the Tagliamento River, sets one free to tell the story of what happened until the time the Italian Army reached that stage of their retreat. As I have already related, the enemy offensive began in force in the valley of the Isonzo between Plezzo and Tolmino at 2 in the morning of October 2ii. There was a heavy bombardment for two hours, after which the enemy advanced up the river bed frpm their bridge-head position of Santa Lucia. The Italians had two lines of defence across the Isonzo Valley at this point, of which the principal one was known as the Piec line. By some means which the General Staff is at present unable to explain, this line was carried, apparently without the Italian' forces there resisting with any degree of efficiency. One can only conclude that the German peace propaganda, which had undoubtedly made headway among certain Italian contingents, had corrupted the loyalty of certain detachments at this point. Anyhow the whole of the valley (from Plezzo to Tolmino fell into the hands of the enemy and all the Italian positions : beyond the river on Monte Nero and other mountains were cut off and surrounded. A gap had been thus opened in the heart of the Italian defences, and though the reserves were hurried up the enemy were already in possession of a scries of easy valley roads east of the Isonzo leading down into the plain, where Udine, the centre of their whole supply system, was situated.

There is no favorable second line to be held on this sector front, aa the ground slopes invariably downhill towards the Italian rear. So tlie whole of the Italian Second Army on the Middle Ison/.o was forced to retire and, by so doing, exposed the flank of the Italian Third Army, which lay to the south of it along the Carso front. It thus became imperative that the Third Army also should withdraw, or else be cut off find surrounded. General Cadorna accordingly gave the order for their retirement, but it was not until 11 o'clock on the night of Saturday that the infantry of this army left their trenches, and they retired in such adequate order that in the absence of means of transport the men themselves manned the drag' ropes of the guns and Ti'auled them from their rocky emplacements on the Carso and back to safety behind the Tagliamento Eiver, 30 miles to rearward. THE HEAVY GUNS. The heavier guns could not be shifted in this way, and some had to be abandoned. Before they left them, however, the Italians put them out of working condition, and Ihere the smashed cannon will remain in their upland emplacements on the stony desert of the Carso, a monument for many years to come of the great war, for it will be worth no one's while to move them. It was not till the enemy was already engaged with the Italian rearguai'd on the Torre river, only three or four miles east of Udine, that the outflanked Italians on the Carso withdrew. Had f\eir retirement been delayed for a single hour they would have fallen into the enemy's hands without hope of escape. In this great tract of territory not only all the ground they had won in two and a half years of the war, but also half of the rich province of Friuli besides was lost. As I made my way bad; the whole sky was constantly flashing with the glare of explosions, and ammunition to a large amount went up in dense smoke and vivid flame,. UNBELIEVABLE SUDDENNESS. Its unbelievable suddenness was the Bupreme characteristic of the AustroGerinan success. On the morning of Oc-\ tober 24 the Italian Army was a highly organised force fighting on enemy territory. It was deeply and laboriously entrenched. It had thousands of guns of every calibre. Its rearward services were extraordinarily well composed. Three thousand five hundred miles of excellent new roads witnessed to the skill of its military engineers. Bridges, railways, cable ways, vvells, aqueducts, whole towns of semi-permanent buildings, and all the immense industrial equipment of war existed behind the Italian front to a degree of completion which it had taken 30 months to achieve. , And now in as many hours the Italian Army was forced to abandon all it had gained by the sacrifices and labors of two and a half years. For the strategy of the enemy's attack was so conceived thit the utmost speed was necessary in the retirement if the greater part of .the Italian forces were not to be cut off. There waa no time for gradual withdrawal. Confusion was Inevitable. All the troops of every arm and branoh of the service, as many as was humanely possible of the heavy guns, all the countless military institutions and establishments, with their accumulated stores and reserves, had to be moved immediately, and moved quickly and far. What could not be moved immediately had to be destroyed—and was destroyed. Last Sunday I went the round of all tl'f English batteries remaining on the Italian front, and one ol the things that |iil:uo ; t every officer I spoke to remarked [upon was the great amount of registering being done by the Austrian guns. 'Next day I heard that a big Austrian

attack was considered imminent by the Italian General Staff; that new Austrian and German divisions had arrived on the Isonzo front and were being held in reserve, trusting in the immobility which winter would bring a'bout on the Russian front ' THE GERMANS PROPAGANDA. In connection with the referenup of General Cadorna iu his communique to ■'the lack of resistance of a part of the Italian Second Army," so as to save from unjust condemnation the other sections of the Italian forces which were not involved in it, it must be rememibered that German propaganda has long been working hard in Italy. Money of undoubted German origin 1 and in large amounts has been found on the promoters of trouble in the interior of the country, and among the Army at the front peace propaganda, maintained beyond dispute from the same source, had for months, past been urging the soldiers to refuse to go on fighting, and asBuring them that the quickest way to peace was by surrendering. One unit at dawn found the Germans already on their wire entaglements. The two Italian lines barring the passage up the Isonzo Valley towards Plezzo were carried, and by 7 a.m. the whole of this ravine right behind the Italian first line of defence on Monte Nero wa3 full of Germans. Meanwhile other violent attacks were being made on Luico, for instance, on the Italian side of this valley, and on Mount Globocak, which was retaken in decisive fashion by Bersaglieri. But here one comes to the dark part' of this story, which must nevertheless be told if what happened is to be understood. It is necessary to explain that at 2 a.m. on October 24 a great attack began. The first German drive was from the bridgehead at Santa Lucia, south of Tolmifio, up the Isonzo Valley towards Plezzo. There was a most violent bombardment from 2 a.m. till 4 a.m., special gas shells, among others, being used which obliged the troops to take cover. Fog and rain helped the enemy to advance secretly without being heard or seen. When the bombardment stopped after two hours the Italians believed that it was just a lull, since in duration it had seemed inadequate as a preparation for a big attack. They were hardly on their guard, therefore, when suddenly, straining their eyes they saw the enemy storming forward. ITALIANS GIVE WAY. Next day again one heard that enemy divisions were concentrated on the ffont between Plezzo and Gorizia, and then a German attack was launched. The Italian troops in this section seem to have been especially affected by the propaganda, and ha<l, moreover, remained for six months in this sector, which was a quiet one. And so when the test of battle came these troops failed. Some of the battalions left their posts and made off without their arms or equipment. Other parts of the army on Monte Nero, at Saga, and Glcvbocak were fighting gallantly, but this undermined section of the Italian wall of defence gave way, and all the rest was in vain—the enemy was through. As the left wing of the Italian centre was thus driven in it 'became imperative to evacuate the whole of the Bainsizza plateau, the most advanced part of the Italian line, and to fall back beyond the Isonzo. Once well across the Isonzo the Aus-tro-Germaus I>eg&n to pour down the valley roads towards Cividale and IJdine. On Friday mforning (signal companies were already taking down the military telephone wires in the streets of the town, an omen of imminent evacuation. The shops had hardly opened. People Btood about under the quaint old stone arcades or gathered talking anxiously in groups beneath the pillar bearing the figure of the ancient lion of Saint Mark in the central square. Austrian and newly arrived German aeroplanes were continually trying all day to reach Udine, and throngs of townspeople began to besiege the railway station. SAVING THE GUNS. The news was bad when I reached the group headquarters. Orders were given to make every effort to get the guns across the bridge, a tractor towing three at a time and immediately going back for more. An Italian staff officer drove up to say that preparations must be made for blowing up the guns if necessary. It began to seem improbable that they could all be saved. As darkness fell the scene of dense congestion on the road became denser still under tlhe bright moon. Slowly making my way through the traffic, I got back to the bridge and found three guns already across it, pulled by overburdened traitors and man-handled" desperately round sharp corners by men, who had already had two hard days and nights of firing as fast as the guns could be reloaded. They were now starting on a inarch whose hardships they will remember as long as they live, but which led to every single gun" being saved from capture, though as the last but one to go was being hitched on to the tractor the very last one of all was still firing with no other gun in action between it and the enemy. Getting a lift in an English motor-car, 1 drove back towards Gradisca. All at once the pale green of a moonlight sky in which a faint trace of twilight stiil lingered leapt into a fierce yellow glow, and from behind came the dull, rolling roar of a great ammunition dump exploding. A coppery light hung above ns, and, outlined against it, tall pyres of heavy smoke swelled slowly upwards. From that time onwards until dawn the flare and crash of these explosions were continual. In the lurid, light the laces of tile retreating soldiers on the close-packed road had an unearthly look, rlie night was like an eruption or a tmstave Dore conception of the 'Day 0 f Judgment. Soon houses and sheds'and depots and stores of various kinds were Crackling j n t 0 fl anleß B n roun d until the whole circle of the sky was ablaze with the reflected glare, and all the while, the enemy's guns thudded incessantly behind. Always westward with the blocked roads, crowding into worse confusion as one ivent.

The rest were at their wits' end for lack of transport to move their, equiphicnt and stores, anil for a time feari;d the train might not turn up at the rendezvous, but it did arrive about X a.m.—a long string of open trucks with a few closed vans. In one of the latter l round a place just as the train started. IS MILES IX 31 HOURS. In 31 hours (after which I left it and went forward on'foot) that train covered 15 miles; and as it crawled spasmodically along it passed through some' extraordinary scenes. i The worst rigors were endured hy a party from the British hospital at Versa, four miles west of Gradisoa. The lorries for evacuation of t'he hospital did not come so it was decided to try to reach the railway by marching. The actual stretcher cases in the hospital were put in ambulance wagons of the British Red Cross and brought right back. These Red Cross units did admirable and well organised work throughout the retreat.

keeping together, evacuating the sink and wounded, and picking up in the most efficient way the dead-beat and those injured in tlie crnah on the roads. But the less seriously wounded cases of the British hospital at Versa, ana the convalescents had to set) out/ on foot ia the dark and the rain. When they reached the railway they found no train available, but the lines blocked instead v;ith every kind of rolling stock, full inside and out with soldiers and refugees. Some of this hospital party lias not yet reported itself, but rumors of parts of it having been seen at different places keep on arriving, and there is every hope that it will all eventually straggle in. TRAMPING ALL NIGHT. When the damp cold daw a broke' on the Sunday morning on which we entrained with part of Che British contingent, it found us held up on the Hue as part of a procession of stationary trains that stretched out of sight Past us on either side of the train plodded on endless stream of soldiers of si) arms. Some of them said that they bad been in the first line trenches in front of Hermada, on the Oarso, the night before and had been tramping all nigirt. There were fleeing townspeople and' peasantry who staggered paiofuily over the rough ballast of the railway tracks. PAUKSD ROADS. Parallel with the railway line there run a road which, like every other that led back towards the Tagl&mento, was black with men and horses and guns and wagons. It would have been humanly impossible to keep formation in such a .press. Those on foot slipped forward as best they could, in and out among the tangle of carts. When they were too tired they climbed up on any vehicle un which there was still room.

From the stragglers flowing past our standing train we head the burning of Palmanova the night before. It had been set on fire accidentally by flames from burning dumps. Part of the picturesque little town, whhdi stands within a double girdle of walls, has been destroyed. Rumors about the arrival of- French reinforcements spread up the line, and are held to account for the block of trains ahea<l of us, but some one going a mile or two forward to reconnoitre comes back with a report that the leading trains of the string have run out of coal and water. New names begin to take on urgent significance—Portogruaro, Latisana—the names of places that had hitherto belonged only to that vague district back of the rear to which one never gave a thought. The British officers in whose cattletruck I was sat about on their baggage; eating dry bread and carefully rationed sardines, and discussed the probability of 'being cut off before we reached the bridge across the Tagliamento at Latisana. Direct pursuit along the line was held unlikely, but how could one tell that Austrian armored motor-cars or cavalry were not pushing on through Udine to cut ua off from the river?

Finally I decided to leave the train and walk on with two officers who were going ahead to look for food, and in half an hour we reached the town of Tditisana, where are two bridges, railway and road, side "by side, which form one of the three crossings of the Tagliamento. now in flood. The town was packed with troops, and we found part of our British marching contingent. They were very hungry, but very serene. FRENCH GUNS LOOT. While I was there a battery of French guns came through. I spoke to their officer. The French, lie said, had lost their guns, but they had fought them until the German actually stormed the emplacement* with the bayonet. The townspeople were hastily leaving, but a woman wiiom I asked for a glass of water took me into her house and insisted, amid the confusion of packing, on bringing me wine. They were going in an hour, she said, in lier husband's cart. Much they would have to leave. She cried as she pointed to the photographs on the wall that illustrated her happy family life in Pasta. Her little girl clung, tight-clasped in her Chubby hand, to a cage in which fluttered two frightened canaries.

Meanwhile for two days more the great retreat went on. The first detachments that passed ate out all the military food depots along the line of march; the next were fed by the generosity of the villagers, before whose doors they passed; the next were reduced to no one knows what resources kept alive for four days the detachments which were last, the rearguard of all, except for the cavalry who were sent out with their own supplies to form the covering curtain behind the whole retirement. Many died doubtless. But hundreds of thousands of them did get back behind the Tagliamento somehow, and now with every day are straightening themselves out again and forming into an' organised army once more. KEEPING BACK THE ENEMY. Several circumstances combined to keep the Austro-German forces from following on more closely in pursuit or cutting in from the north across the line of the retreating army. One was that the rivers across their path, like the Isonzo, and Torre, were in flood, and the bridges, of course, blown up. Moreover, the whole ground over which the Third Army had to retire is,marshy, and torrential rain made the roads the only possible means of advance. It also' kept back the enemy's aeroplanes from bombing the dense-packed columns which were creeping westward.

But on Tusday morning a cry rail down tlie line that the Austrian cavalry wore upon them, and but' for the decision and energy of the Italian ofueers a dangerous rush would have been made for the bridge, which would probably have broken it down and would certainly have pushed the guns over the side into the ditch. But the Italian artillery colonel under whose orders the guns had been up at the front drew his revolver and fired in the air over the pressing mass of soldiers and civilians. In this way he cheeked them for a moment, and then, with sharp phrases, ordered them to let the guns pass. So the eleven guns got over the river into temporary safety. A few moments later Austrian aeroplanes appeared, and, flying low over the serried road, dropped bombs ami firad their machine-guns. They did remarkably little real damage. One British Bed Cross car was honeycombed with bullet-holes and a few gunners were slightly wounded by borrfbß, AUSTRIAN" TRACHERY. _ Another attack upon the road of the Italians 'was carried out at Codroipo. A gap had been made between the Italian Second Army and the Third, which was falling hack in superior order to the south. Into this gap, I am told, the Austrians pushed forward detachments of troops dressed in Italian uniforms which mingled unnoticed with the retreating Army, and then suddenly opened lire right and left with macTiine-guns. At the same time Austrian field guns mounted in armored motor-ears began shelling from the rear. Bwwsr to the mirth the Genuaaa mkL

Austriai\B reached the Tagliainento sooner, X have already relatod'tbeir attempt to rush the bridge at Gemona. Attacks by them were also driven off at San Daniele, in the Friuli, and west of Pal*, manova. The Italian cavalry acted with ospeeial gallantry in these engagements and took" a number of prisoner#, who, were in a hungry and wearied condition,,, showing it has been almost as great a* strain on tlie enemy <to advance aa on the Italians to retire.' The usefulness of the -cavalry, an am which in Italy is especially shown.