DEFENCE OF THE PIAVE.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 January 1918, Page 5

DEFENCE OF THE PIAVE.

MONITOR'S PINE SHOOTING. ENEMY BRIDGES DESTROYED. The right Wing of the Italian Army's fro&t begin* in the mountains and ends m the mud, says a correspondent of the London Morning Post. At Monte Tomba, where the line reaches the Middlfe Rave, the Italian positions lie along steep slopes high above the plain, but at the mouth of the river they are so much bfelow sealevel that it is hard to say whether their defenders are afloat or ashore. The "trenches" are fortified dykes stretching between great tracts of inundated fields, and they are held by marines, who are really seamen dressed in uniform sailorlike in cut but soldier-grey in color. , Three bridges across the Lower Piave which the enemy was using for supplying hia troops in the delta between the two channels of the river mouth were on November 29 destroyed by a British monitor with big gun fire of remarkable accuracy. The range was 18,000 yards—loi miles— Wid the three bridges which were the target lay 200 yards apart. One was a stone bridge, which the Austrians had repaired; the other two were three yards wide. On tjiese alight marks the monitor's guns Sfive direct hits out of seven shots, very first shot was on the target, Ud the pontoon bridges were hit at each end, one of them being so effectively cut to two that the aeroplane observer reported that the middle part of it had floated away downstream. A shell v.-as also, dropped right into the stone bridge. Smaller guns, mounted on rafts, which aira towfd in pairs by launches, are scat,t«red about the waterways nearer to tu front. i Sardly a day passes without enemy aeroplanes making an attack upon the Italian observation balloons. Two contrived to get within striking range by an ingenious trick. They approached, firing at each other, and.going through all the manoeuvres of an aeroplane duel. Until they had come close enough for the shape of the enemy machines to be clearly seen the Italian look-outs naturally mistook them for an Austrian aeroplane being attacked by an Italian. Tho enemy machines were able in this way to get close to the observation balloon without bejng molested. Then the strategem was discovered, and the balloon began to bo (Illicitly hauled down. It would have been saved if the winding-gear had not jammed, with the result that the encmy oirmsn were able to set fire to it.