THE ITALIAN CAMPAIGN

New Zealand Times, Volume XL, Issue 9076, 22 June 1915, Page 5

THE ITALIAN CAMPAIGN

FURIOUS FIGHTING WITH BAYONETS & RIFLE BUTTS

x By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright. * HOME, June 20.

Details of the Alpmi’s attack on the northern slopes of Monte Nero, , Where the Austrians are being constant!? reinforced, show that the ground' was so difficult that the Italian staff decided to advance at night in absolute Silence. It was hoped by climbing almost perpendicular rocks to attack the enemy from two sides. , , ' _ . _.,■ ; . ' Xho Alpini were armed with rifles and bombs. Some took off their boots and wrapped their feet, in rags in order to cl.mb up the crags quietly. ■ By dawn the column was operating on the Viata counterscarp, and another nortH-we'st of monte JPotoce. Meanwhile the Alpmi were within two yards of the enemy before they were detected. They leaped into the trenches, and a furious hand-to-hand fight with bayonets and the butts of rifles'followed. • The Italians then took the second line of trenches. The incident of the Hungarian attack followed, and was repulsed, as already cabled. , . , ■ , Simultaneously two Italian columns mad© a night attack on the Monte Kozliak front. They got within two hundred yards of the Austrian trenches before they were detected. r The Alpini, without a moment's hesitation, dashed m and forced the astonished Austrians to retreat. They pursued them with a fire of stones and hand grenades, while the second column struck the Austrian rear and cut off its retreat, . ~, , . * , . > Six hundred Austrians were taken prisoner and three hundred were left on the field wounded. The Italian losses were slight. AN AUSTRIAN RUSE THAT DID NOT WORK ••Times” and Sydney "bun” Service*. (Received June 21, 6 p.m.) ' _ _ ■ , ROME, June 21. Official. ‘‘The Austrians delivered a manifesto to the Italian soldiers by means of balloons promising them ten crowns tor every rifle, five hundred for every’ maohine'gun. and two thousand for every cannon or aeroplane, sur- . ‘When the Italians crossed the Isonzo to attack Tolmino, were lust over the river when an Austrian .shell destroyed the bridge. . The Bersaglieri were confronted with an apparently impregnable first.line of trenches They bad decided to assail them and to sell their lives as dearly as Possible when the Alpini signalled from a mountain crest that the Austrian trenches were only imitations, lined with puppets dressed as Austrians and arzgpd with wooden guns,* BATTLE FOR THE HEIGHTS OF PLAVA ROME, June 20. Official —Details are given of the battle for the heights on the .left hank of the Isonzo, commanding Plava. Plava is at the bottom of a pass', shut m by steep wooded slopes, with a swift and deep river Our troops by great and courageous efforts, threw pontoons across at night, and attacked at dlwn on the 16th, in the Tace of terrible difficulties, including deep networks of stout barbed wire reinforced with iron bars and numerous hidden heavy guns The Italians, after repeated assaults with the cold steel, debouched in the evening on the border of the first position. All counter-attacks were dW Worried the heights on the 17th, but the enemy concentrated a violent artillery and machine gun fire on us, and repeatedly sent fresh troops. These wdre decimated, and wore finally repulsed With the bayonet. Our losses were serious, but the results were FLOATING BATTERIES USED ROME, June 20. The delta of the Isonzo is impracticable for warships owing to the shal10WnThe°naval silenced the batteries at Duino by means of floating batteries similar to those used at Alexandria in 1882.