THE ITALIAN FRONT.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLVIII, Issue 4580, 8 June 1917, Page 5

THE ITALIAN FRONT.

| Australian and \ An Italian official report s * at ® s : \ Smifhward of Jamiano fighting is los> intense We slightly withdrew on , Se nca- line fronting Flonka.r to more . tactically advantageous^ positions. . A DREADfUL BATTLE. I CORRESPONDENT GRIM NAR- j It A LIVE. j Australian and Association, j (Beceivrf Jnne^saoj-m >. The Daily Chronicle’s correspond-, ent on the Carso front describes tho desperate Austrian counter-attacks oil j the 3rd. He says the Austrians foi. . several days plastered the new Ital-j ran positions with shells of all call j SSsTyMe the Mans were •tcrerMh-l ly striving to dig shelters n strong slopes. Then the Austrian,,, j m the darkness, launched two Hun-, garian batteries ol specially-tiaine L, storming troops to clear tae way lor j their main attacking forces. An lta- ; lian staff officer describes them as the best troops yet encountered. Ihey were big men in tho prime or lire, and they fought desperately. Ihey, forced tlieir way into the salient with; the assistance of a tremendous barrage, and the Italians, threatened on . both, flanks, fell back. The Austrian I supports then began to ascend the slopes to the salient, but never got there. The Italian gunners have learnt nnicli in the last few months,, and a curtain of fire shut in the, stormei's as into a chamber. Then dramatically, as the famous Romans of the Tiber Brigade, with all Romes historic traditions inspiring them, the Italians swept into the breach. The Hungarian stormers fought like trapped beasts, and a desperate bayonet and grenade battle raged while the rival artillery stormed with shellon both sides. A thousand dead lie in the sun awaiting burial. They are part of the terrible harvest of the; last sixty hours, in which the enemy j is conservatively stated to have lost 85,000 troops. * j