CARSO BATTLEFIELD

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 9, 10 July 1931, Page 7

CARSO BATTLEFIELD

WHERE ITALIAN DEAD LIE

REMARKABLE CEMETERY

BOME, 9th July. The Earl of Cavan, who was present at the funeral of the Duke of Aosta at the Bedipuglia Cemetery, on the Carao battlefield, says that this cemetery is remarkable, because there is not a single flower. The only decorations on 30,000 soldiers^ ■ graves are steel helmets, rifles, cannon, and empty shells, making it liko an uncleared battlefield.. • ■

During, the Great War heavy fighting took place on the Carso, a bare limestone plateau extending from the River Isouzo, near the north-western frontier of Italy, to the Gulf of Fiuirie. When hostilities began, the Austrians fortified themselves on the Carso, where they held out, despite repeated attacks, until 1916, when the position was taken, after terrible Italian losses. The operations were carried out by the Italian Third Army, under the command of the Duke of Aosta. In October, 1917, when the Austriana broke through the Italians were obliged to retreat from tho Carso, tho retreat being carried out in orderly fashion. Tho villages of the Carso, which Vere completely destroyed during the war, are now nearly all rebuilt, but the vast Redipuglia Cemc-> tery is a grim reminder of the carnage that took place on the plateau, and every year the.whole.of the area is visited by thousands of pilgrims. Tho Earl of Cavan, who attended the Duke of Aosta's funeral, was iii charge of tho Tenth Italian Army on the Piave front in 1918. From 1922 to 1926 he was Chief of tho Imperial General Staff.