THE ITALIAN FRONT.

Otago Witness, Issue 3338, 6 March 1918, Page 15

THE ITALIAN FRONT.

Italian official.: A patrol northward of Col del Rosso captured two llin trench mortars. Our aviators dropped six tons of bombs on several military objectives. The Italian frontier has been closed Evidence is growing that an Austrian offensive is preparing on the Italian front. The enemy are broadening the roads and installing many aerial cable cars for the transport of war material along the mountains. Mr Ward Price says that the new sector which the British have taken over along the Piave River is separated from tho enemy by 2000 yards of wide river-bed, with expanses of shingle and occasionally patches of low scrub, in which streams flow amid a multitude of sandbanks. The whole will be well filled with water in spring when the snow melts. Tho Corriere d'ltalia states that Hungarians have replaced all German troops on the Italian front. These Germans have been sent to France. The Vienna Zeit (Liberal), discussing the possibility of 750.000 Americans being sent to tho Italian front in 1918. points out that Austria can provide only 200,000 new troops. Tho Zeit emphasises the fact that tho Entente Ptnvers hopelessly outclass Austria in aerial warfare, which is exrvected to dominate the operations and also the movement of Austrian armies in mountainous country, whereas there is a network of railways behind tho Italians.