ITALY'S WAR

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12175, 26 November 1917, Page 2

ITALY'S WAR

THE PIAVE BATTLE. ENEMY THRUSTS FAIL. A. and N.Z. Cable Association and Reuter. LONDON, November 24. An Italian official message states:— Powerful enemy thrusts between the Asiago plateau and the Brenta failed. Our artillery stopped enemy attempts to cross the Piave in boats. We repulsed an attack south ward of Loftimia, in Albania. ENEMY'S EFFORTS TO BREAK LINE.

SURPRISED BY ITALIAN COUNTER-ATTACKS.

A. and N.Z. Cable Association and Reuter,

LONDON, November 24

An Italian semi-official message, describing enemy attempts to break through between the Brenta and tha Piave on November 21 and 22 says: Most of the enemy masses on Thursday exerted pressure on Monte Tomba and Monte Monfenera, six Austro-German regiments attempting to encircle the right wing and dislodge the Italians on the right bank of the Piave. Tho struggle was most violent until night, and continues with varying fortune hi attacks and counter-attacks. The enemy losses are severe. Our prisoners state that the enemy was surprised at! the vehemence of our counter-at-tacks.

ENEMY'S PLAN OF ACTION

VENICE PLAIN THE OBJECTIVE,

LONDON, November 23. Mr Perceval Gibbon, writing from Italy, states that the enemy is concentrating upon an effort to capture Monte Tomba, advance across the Piave between the Fener and Widor villages, a.nd then blast a road to the Venice pfladn. Tho enemy's aj-uillery consists of large numbers of six-inch guns mounted on motor lorries. The pressure in this sector has never relaxed. A great crucial battle is developing in the triangle between Cornelia, Monte Tomba and the Piave River. The fighting on the lower Piave crystalfeed into defence on the line of the Sile with the Venetian Lagoon beyond. The country here is below sea-level and flooded. Naval guns on rafts occupy the lagoons. One hit an Austrian bridge at Grisloera at 16,000 yards. When the bridge was rebuilt a monitor smashed it with a twelveinch shell.

THE BRITISH COMMAND,

SIR H. C. PLUMER APPOINTED

A. and N.Z. Cable Association and Reuter,

LONDON. November 24

An official message states:—General Sir H. C. Plumer has been appointed to command the British forces in Italy. Lieutenant-General W. P. Marshall will command the forces in Mesopotamia. (General Sir H. C. 0. Plumer was born in 1857. He served in the Soudan war of 1884, commanded a mounted rifl e corps in South Africa in 1896, during the Matabele rebellion and won his first great reputation in the field as commander of the Rhodesian Field Force in the South African war of 1899-1902, in which he was the first British soldier to cross the enemy frontier. In 1902 he became Major-General, and in 1908, Lieu tenant-General. In 1904-5 he was Q.M.G. to the forces and Third Military Member of the Army Council. In 1911-14 he was G.O.C. Northern Command. In April, 1915, he assumed command of the Second Army, which foughti the second _ battle of Ypres, and has since remained on tlvj left flank of the British front in the west.)