AGONY OF ITALY.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 January 1918, Page 3

AGONY OF ITALY.

TERRORS OF THE PLIGHT. FJSAK-STKICKKX KKHUKEES AND AUJMY IN UIiTKUAT. The retreat from the Friulian Plains will be counted one of the nio.it iulciu.c moments of huiimn agony (wrote a Hpccial correspondent of the Sydney Sun 011 November !j). Civilians were quick in scenting the danger. Enemy aeroplanes were over them like hawks, swooping, bombing, terrorising. The roar of guns far exceeded anything they had heard before. Soldiers drifting back from the mountains, first singly, then in large numbers, told excitedly of countless Germans. The Mayors of Undine and Cividale, chief cities of the plains, had reassuring proclamations posted on the walls, but these served only to clinch the civilians 7 determination. They began to creep westwards on Friday, two days after the Germans had smashed the Italians' line. More than a week had passed, and they are still creeping on, yard by yard, with every road congested, and every track pounded into mud by thousands of feet. Tin* rain was torrential, so 'heavy and hard that it seemed to be striking blows for tlie Austrian*. A bitter and angry Wind blew in the emigrants' faces.

FLIGHT CHANGES TO PANIC. Ahove all. the physical hardships—the weariness, hunger, chills and wounds—was the most cutting of all human pains, that of a terrible drend. The Germans anil Austrians travelled always quicker than the refugees. They grew steadily nearer. Motor cycle machine-gunners would elude the Italian cavalry, and shoot down a mixed line of soldiers, women and children. Aeroplanes came in the spasms of calm weather, and dropped bombs. There were rumors and threats, and sometimes shells. Towns and villages behind were burning.. Ammunition dumps exploded like gigantic displays of fireworks. The Italians had fired their stores of food and clothing, and these burned with a low, smouldering haze. The crowds sometimes lost all sense of security and scattered madly. Vehicles Were abandoned, and there were wild flights across country. As in air raids, the lawless instinct of people became uppermost. Anger, passion, and fear swayed them. These last two days, before the Germans reached the Tagliamento were like nothing seen in this war. Mr. Ward Price compares the scene to a Gustave Dore conception of the Dav of Judgment. There were women with children in their arms and others weeping because they had lost their babies in the confusion. There were fashionable women in fur cloaks, plodding along in thin shoes over the stonv and muddy way. There were scores of thousands of soldiers, walking wearily, as (hough nothing mattered —slogging 011 like patient pilgrims, dreading everv halt because of the pain of starting, hating everv step because of sorely swollen feet. The white faces flitted bv, like -the foam of flooded rivers, and everywhere the dominant note was one of intense travail.

| A MOVINC CHAOS. The vehicles were heaped with strange impedimenta Little bovs stuck obstinately to little dogs. Dogs, and even cats, were to be seen perched on military waggons. in one case a soldier, who seemed to have great difficulty in keeping his cloak around his shoulder, was found to lie sheltering a tiny puppy. The pastoralists had tried to bring their cows, and so confused was the military control that these clustered the roads for many miles. Extraordinary contrasts were seen. Girls walked in wooden Vlogs, and held tight to little bags holding what they—like many Italians —prized dearly, thin, high-heeled boots. People ate lavishly of what they bad lirought, discarding tins of food—and later going hungry. At one village Austrian aeroplanes swooped low and bombed the columns. At the same time from a small church near bv a bevy of pretty young girls in white dresses came out after their first Communion.

People crossed the Tagliamento : hy [the railway bridge, which has no floor, owept that of sleepers and rails. The swollen river ran menacingly beneath. Other;; crossed by a wooden Ibridge built by Xapoleon when he passed there against Charles of Austria'. A third bridge was the scene of an appalling incident, for the Austrians were close behind, and :i eoluinn rushed it, and many fell into the stream beneath.' Constantly the cry would run down that the German cavalry had come, and senior Italian officers would fire their revolvers abovW the heads of t'he people to quieten them. There would be a cheek, but the seething mass of soldiers antl civilians would press forward again, the agony would be intense until the old creeping, halting gait was resumed.

SAVING THE GUN'S. | _ S The saving 01 the British guns was a heroic feat. An Italian staff officer rode to the batteries, and ordered that they should be destroyed if they could not he j'nrought back. The men set to work gallantly to save them. AT! these guns are of til's heavy howitzer type. Tractors were few. Account., are conflicting, but it seems that only one engine could he spared for the 40 British gups. It pulied (hem to the road three at a time, and the last was still firing when the second last Was removed, with nothing between it and the Austrian!. The men yoked themselves to the guns, and throughout a four days' march of 40 miles were always helping the horses with them. They had no sleep, and little food. Their wounded they tied to the guns, and their sick they had to leave. Motf than once a gnu would slip into the ditch, and the men would have to fight for a clearing of the crowds whilst they with their last strength pulled in out." The Tagliamento was crossed by the narrowest margin. The British 'Headquarters Staff was given a train, which was one of the last to >cavc Udine. As it steamed from the station Austrian machine-gunners ar- * rived and spattered it with bullets until an Italian rearguard scattered them. ■Sixty trains were st.ill choking the sid- | ings about TMinc, and apparently were lost, THE ROUTED ARMV. The Duke of Aostn. saved tln> bulk of Tiis Carso army, but 150,000 laid down their arms before the Tagliamento. They were cut ofV by a clever German movement down the east bank, which joined with, the Austrians advancing through Gorizia. Of course, the .Italians had suffered severely in moral. A brave but volatile people, illiterate, they had to pav the price for the faithlessness of a few. They could not recover. The mood of defeat, was upon them. Many hundreds of thousands got across the Tagliamento. and there had three days' respite hefore the Germans forced a northern -passage. But think of what, these Italian soldiers had become. Thev hud boen through a nerve-wracking or-

deal, they had hfid two, three, or four days' marching in bitter weather without sleep, and even without' 'food; thefir clothes were destroyed, t.hev were without ammunition, and their personnel was confused and mixed. They were troopb needing a fortnight's complete rest and reorganisation ,not fit for another heavy battle. They 'had few guns and shells wero short.