AUSTRIAN OFFENSIVE FORESTALLED.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXII, Issue LXXII, 23 May 1917, Page 5

AUSTRIAN OFFENSIVE FORESTALLED.

THE ITALIANS GET IN FIRST

ENEMY LOSSES SO HEAVY

THAT ASSISTANCE SOUGHT FROM

GERMANY

(Received May 23, 8.45 a.m.)

LONDON, May 22%

The Daily Telegraph's Rome correspondent reports that prisoners state that General Boroevitch had prepared for a grand offensive. He obtained in April a number of divisions from the Russian front with new guns, and an offensive was contemplated between Monte Santo and the sea, the object li&ing to destroy the Carso salient, to •deliver Gorizia and recapture the whole Isonzo line as far as the Carso valley. General Boroevitch concentrated 1500 guns on a ten-mile front, with forty reserve batteries, and General Ludendorff visited the Trentino and advised the Gorizia offensive, wMch •was due to begin on May 20. Gemeral Cadorna's offensive, however, spoiled the plan, and the Austrian losses have been co heavy that General Boroevitch has asked Germany for assistance.