THE FALL OF MONASTIR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16443, 20 January 1917, Page 8

THE FALL OF MONASTIR.

ITALIANS' GREAT MARCH. ATTACK IN A BLIZZARD. The war correspondent of the Secolo with the Italian forces at Monastir, telegraphs a despatch describing the part played by the Italian troops in the fall of the Macedonian capital and the conditions they found prevailing there. Starting out on the morning of November 11 from the base at Ekshisu, the Italian column accomplished a brilliant march of 65 miles across bleak mountain wastes in a tempest of blinding sleet, and on the evening of November 13 took up the positions assigned to them, stretching from Cradesnica, on the margin of the Monastir Plains, across Kisovo Hill and 8182-metre Mountain, as far as the ! sector occupied by the French west of Lake Prespa. General Sarrail warmly congratulated them later on having performed this feat twenty-four hours in advance of the period of grace allowed them. Though terribly fatigued, and altogether without shelter or any sort of food until the evening of the following day, they attacked and dislodged the Bulgarians from the formidable "Red Trenches" at daybreak. They then pro- ! ceeded to clear tho enemy from the famous ! Dente Peak south of Ostrac, and from tho towering crests west of Rahovo, amidst a raging blizzard, with the thermometer 18 degrees below freezing point.. Trey found all tho roads leading into I Monastir marked with bi-lingual signposts . in the Bulgarian and German tongues, two of the main arteries being named Slacken'eenetrasse and Prinz Borisstrasse, ! Although the retreating enemy had time to loot but few shops' stores, the utmost misery prevailed in Monastir. Bread, which was very scarco and of bad quality, was selling at 61b for ss. Sugar and coffee were three times as dear, while petroleum cost 16s a litre— l 3 pints— candles lOd each. Tho Bulgarians paid the tradespeople in nothing bat pieces of paper, which they said would be negotiable at the end of the war. The value of gold has so risen that a 20-franc piece— Bd— fetched 45 Bulgarian francs or 35 German marks (355).