ITALY'S GREATEST BATTLE

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 49, 27 August 1917, Page 7

ITALY'S GREATEST BATTLE

AUSTRIANS FEAR AN ENVELOPMENT ENEMY MASSACRED AT SRO ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND OUT OF ACTION (Bl TELESSAPH.—TOITED PBESB ASSOCIATION.— OOPTBIOHT.)' (AVSTRALIAN-NEW ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION.) (Received August'27, 9.30 a.m.) .* ■ LONDON, 26th August. The Italians have captured fresh positions all along the front. The Austrians abandoned others, fearing an envelopment. HOME, 26th August. The Austrian lines over sixty kilometres are crumbling, ■ and the Italians are marching to a definite objective. It is estimated that fully a hundred thousand Austrians are already out of action. The Idea Nazionale says the people of Trieste went frantic over the sound of the Carso battle and the bombardment, and violently rebelled. \ Soldiers fired on the crowds, killing hundreds. Mr. Perceval Gibson says : The Austrians were badly disorganised by the violence of the frontal attack, and are trying to stave off the paralysing blow at Hermada Hill. British guns assisted in reducing the formidable lines at Selo and Castanavizza, where machine guns .bristled every six yards. A whole page would be insufficient to catalogue the Italian booty taken at Selo. The tenacious grenadiers, though dropping with fatigue during the three days' battle, bombed their way through stone-heaps which were formerly houses at Selo. The defenders were mostly Hungarians, whose bloodily massacred corpses were lying thickly in the streets and poisoning the air. EOME, 24th August. The Austrians assert that the Italians have 9000 guns on a front of about fifty-six miles. / . . The entire Austrian line of defence and in some places the second and third lines have been broken. Night fighting is occurring in many sectors, under powerful oeavch.ligh.ts. The condition of the prisoners testifies to the Austrians' inferior equipment. Many of them are half famished. Marshal Conrad von Hoetzendorff has assumed command on the Carso. Geneudl Wurra has been wounded or recalled. The Austrians brought up fresh divisions, including large numbers of sailors. The'fighting at Hermada is of the fiercest description. Thousands- of projectiles are splintering th'e rocks and shattering the caverns, and hundreds of aeroplanes are dropping bombs. Twenty thousand Austrians have been without water and food for five days in the rocky inferno.

MILAN, 24th August. Enemy correspondents at the front agree that the battle has been the most desperate yet fought on the Italian front. Prisoners say that reserves are pouring in from all quarters. The Italians captured large stores, guns, and ammunition at Selo. The Austrians tried to remove them, but the Italian gunners shot the horses. Then the gunners tried to remove them by band, but the barrage cut them off, and nearly all were taken prisoner. The Italian air supremacy remains unchallenged, and the sky swarms, with Italian machines, while scarcely an Austrian is to be seen on the Italian side of the fighting line.. .-. . . i ■ ■ ... ......