Manawatu Evening Standard. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1917. THE AUSTRO-GERMAN THRUST ON THE ISONZO.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLII, Issue 10118, 27 October 1917, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1917. THE AUSTRO-GERMAN THRUST ON THE ISONZO.

Decisive results may be looked for as a result of tin: big battle which is reported to lie raging on the Isonzo trout, the immediate object being possession of the Baiusizza plateau, should the Italians prove successful in the task they have essayed. The uniform suecess of the Italian offensive, along the Isonzo, encourages the hope that General Cadorna's forces, reinforced as they have been by British and French troops and with the heavy British artillery, which is said to he superior to anything possessed by tin; enemy, may happily achieve the greatest victory of the.long 'and arduous campaign in which our Italian Allies have been engaged. They are, however, opposed by a formidable army—the greatest yet brought against them—correspondents on the- Italian trout stating that Austria is attacking with almost her whole army, combined with important German units, and with several hundred additional guns. Twenty new Austrian divisions have been pressed into the fighting line, and it almost seems as if, like the gambler at the last throw of the dice, Austria is staking her all upon the blow she is aiming at the Italians. Since May, when the Italians began their forward movement, with the bombardment on the Oarso front to smash up the Austrian defences, and crossed the Isonzo river, capturing Bombrcz, Zagura, Zagomila, .Mount Kuk and Duido, on the

road to Trieste, the pressure upon the Austrian forces has been almost overwhelming, and the Austrian commanders have appealed again and again to Berlin tor reinforcements. Germany has apparently realised the peril at last, and, with the Austrians, her troops arc fighting with their hacks to the wall. German official messages claim substantial gains lor their forces, and a large haul of prisoners, including a divisional commander and his staff, and the claim is, to a certain extent, confirmed by the Italian message which states that ''the enemy penetrated our advance lines on the loft bank of the lsonzo, arid crossed the rivers of Saint Maria and Saint Lucia. But the Germans have certainly magnified whatever successes they may have obtained; and, with

millions of men in the fighting IbM, it would bo strange if the ebb and flow Of battle did not give the enemy troops an advantage hero and there. . Later , messages speak of an enthusiastic scone in Lho Italian Chamber of Deputies, when the Minister of War announced that the Germans had joined the Ai stri'ans in a heavy onslaught on tno Italian armies, for which the latter wore fully prepared. In the August offensive tlio Italian losses were, tne .Minister said, particularly, small, and he showed no uneasiness in regaicl l 0 the result.of the present conflict. A GREAT FIGHTING RECORD. The Italian Minister of War might well feel optimistic, in view of the great fighting record the Italian armies have achieved since May 19 Inst, when Hill 652. on Monte Vodice, was captured from the enemy. Extending their position thence, they broke into the Austrian lines east of Goi'ilM, I'ecaptured positions penetrated Ivy the Austrians in the Travignoio Valley; I broke through the Austrian lines from Gastagnan'asa to the sea, capturing Boscom&lo, Jamiano and the strong heights east of Pietrarossa and Bngni; advanced in the San Marco, Monte Santo and Vodico areas; captured fortified heights north of Jamiano and gained ground south of Jamiano to the sea; captured ft strong network ot trenches from the mouth of the Timavo river to a point east of Jamiano; took the heights between Flondar and Medcazza and the trenches around Castagnavizza; smashed through the AustroHungarian positions between Jamiano and the Gulf Df Trieste, driving across the Monfalcone-Duino railroad to MeUcaMn. and carried the heights at the 'head of the Palliova Valley; crossed the Timavo estuary and occupied ban Giovanni: defeated the Austrians in their attack north of the Tonale ridge, on the northern side of Monte L nail, and in the Rocolana Valley : defeated an Austrian attempt to regain the heights in the Vodice area; drove the Austrians from advanced positions on the western slopes of San Marco; repulsed massed attacks south of Gorizia from Dosso Faiti to the sea, taking advanced positions in the sector between Castagnavizza and Jamiano; began a new offensive on the Asiago plateau and seized Monte Ortigara ( and the Agnello pass; carried Corno Cavento in the eastern Trentino; captured Austrian positions on Monte Ortigara: exploded a mine in the Yol-Lagazroi-Am-pcaiso sector, under the spur ot Lagazroi Piccolo, and destroyed the Austrian garrison; advanced on the Carso and occupied Dalino, and wound up with their smashing defeat of the Austrians in August, when they captured Monte Santo and fourteen other strongly torti- ■ tied mountains, inflicting losses ot at , least 1(10,01)0 men on the enemy, besides capturing a great number o guns, large stocks of ammunition and other booty. So great was the victory that the Austrians began seriously considering the advisability ot ovacuati in« Trieste, and. should their present offensive fail, they must inevitably do . so. Naturally, the Italians are elated by their success, the long record ot which is unbroken since May except by the one claim, on the part of the Austrians, that they made- successful attacks near Jamiano and deteated Italian attacks between the Vipacco \ alley and the sea.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE GERMAN MOVEMENT. If the Germans have, as claimed, really crossed the Isonzo, they have done so from Tolinino, well to the north of the Bainsizza Plateau upon which the fighting has been proceeding in more or less desultory fashion since August. The manoeuvre is certainly intended as a turning movement, the object of which would be to force the Italians to retire from Hie plateau. As applied to Bainsizza, the term "plateau," however, is, accord in;; to u Staff correspondent of the New Vork Times, writing in Current History, it misnomer. ''Tin; retreat of the Austrians across the Bainsizza plateau was," he says, "almost a flight," and was apparently undertaken "because they could not believe tho Italians would have the courage to try it. There is nothing of a tableland in its composition. It is a vast, terribly rocky ground, with hills at least a thousand feet high and corresponding valleys. It is a plateau only in comparison to the peaks surrounding it." But it is over country of this character that the Italians have been fighting, and have won so many of their successes, driving the Austrians from the elevated situaations upon which they were entrenched, and, with the experience they have gained and their magnificent courage, displayed under circumstances that would make the stoutest heart quail, the Italians may well be regarded as more than a match for the Germans, who are lighting over such country probably for the first time, while their continuous successes against the Austrians evince their marked superiority over the latter. We may, therefore, hopefully look forward to further good news from the Italian front, and pray for the success of the Allied forces operating in that remarkable theatre of tho war.