COLLAPSE OF AUSTRIA

On October 24, 1918, indications that a new Allied offensive was about to be started on the Italian front were officially confirmed. An intense artillery fire broke out that morning at dawn along the Italian line. The fire was especially violent in the region of Monte Grappa. Brisk infantry actions occurred on the highlands of the Seven Communes, the Italian troops obtaining considerable success.

At the same time French sections attacked the enemy positions at Monte Sisomel, forcing the defenders to give way and capturing three officers and about 800 men. British troops attacked the Austrian positions south of Asiago and captured six officers and about 300 men.

Violent actions were being carried on by the Italian troops south of Assa and north of Monte Val Bella. A considerable number of enemy troops were captured during this operation.

It soon became evident that this was to be an offensive, carefully prepared and planned on a large scale, but no one then dreamed of the final results it was destined to have, though military officials in Washington apparently had high hopes from the very beginning. They were quoted in newspapers as early as the second day of the offensive as stating that the place selected for the attack indicated that the present operations might be preliminary steps to a major offensive. If the high ground between the Brenta and Piave Rivers were carried in sufficient force, it was believed that it might be possible for the Italian army, supported by French and British units and artillery, and possibly by American troops, to reach the valley of the upper Piave and outflank the whole Austrian position on the lower stretches of the river, running from the Monte Grappa Plateau to the sea. Immediate withdrawal of the Austrian forces on this line would appear to be the certain result of any striking Italian success on the lines under assault.

The Piave forms a great loop, flowing down toward the plateau from the northeast, then swinging sharply southeast to reach the sea. West of the Monte Grappa Heights, that deflect the river's course, the Brenta flows down from the northwest and bends sharply south about the eastern face of the rugged plateau. It was in the territory between the two rivers that the new attack had been launched.

Aside from its military significance, the operation in Italy was being watched closely by officials as a test of the spirit of the Austrian army. Reports of disorders and disaffections in the Dual Monarchy had been persistent for months, and it was regarded as quite within the range of possibility that the war weariness at home would show itself decisively at the front. In that case, it was felt, the early capitulation of Germany's chief ally might be expected.

The second day's news, indeed, supported these high hopes.

Bitter fighting occurred during the morning of October 25, 1918, in the Monte Grappa region. Parties of Italian troops resolutely attacked some portions of the formidable enemy positions and succeeded in wresting from him and maintaining possession of the important supporting points in the western and southern area of the massif. They established themselves on the northern bank of the Ornic Torrent in the Alano Basin. The enemy, who offered stubborn resistance, suffered considerable losses.

A few small islands were occupied at Grave di Papodopoli, in the Piave River. The hostile garrisons were captured. In the Posina-Altico sector and in the Assa Valley enemy advanced posts were destroyed. On the Asiago Plateau, Italian and Allied patrols carried out a small surprise attack with success. The total number of prisoners captured from midnight of October 23 to midnight of October 24, 1918, was four officers and 2,791 men of other ranks.

Again on October 26, 1918, in the region northwest of the Monte Grappa massif, fighting began at dawn and continued the whole day on the terrain carried by the Italians on the preceding day. The struggle was fierce and with varying fortune, but finally the stubbornness of the Fourth Italian Army overcame the desperate attacks of the enemy and the Italian positions were maintained and extended at some points. The Aosta Brigade, with remarkable Élan, took Monte Valderoa, to the northwest of Monte Spinoncia.

Aeroplanes bombed and dispersed columns of troops and transports in the Augana Valley, the Cismon Valley, and the Arten Basin. During that day forty-seven officers and 2,002 of other ranks were captured.

The Pesaro Brigade and the Eighteenth and Twenty-third Assault Detachments carried out the difficult conquest of Monte Pertica, which had been formidably fortified by the enemy.

The attack of the Tenth Italian Army across the Piave in the area of the island of Grave di Papodopoli commenced at 6.40 a. m., October 7, 1918. The Italian troops on the right met with strong resistance. After heavy fighting, this resistance was overcome and the advance successfully commenced. On the right of the Eleventh Italian Corps, commanded by General Paolino, British troops advanced east of the river and reached the line from the neighborhood of Roncadelle to a point halfway to Cimadolino and St. Pelo di Piave, where they came in touch with the Fourteenth British Corps, under Lieutenant General Sir U. Babington, who had captured Tezze and Borgo Malamotte. Later in the day the Italians, in conjunction with Allied contingents, crossed the Piave River by force of arms, engaging in bitter battles the enemy, who strove desperately to bar the way.

Between the slopes and heights of Valdobbiadene and the mouth of the Soligo Torrent Italian infantry assault troops had passed, during the night, under violent fire to the left bank of the river, broken into the enemy's front lines, and carried them. Supported by the fire of the artillery on the right bank, they gained ground and repulsed enemy counterattacks throughout the day.

To the south the Tenth Army, taking advantage of the successes of the British at Grave di Papodopoli, compelled the enemy to retire, and repulsed two counterattacks in the direction of Borgo Malanotte and Roncadelle. The prisoners taken during the day aggregated more than 9,000. Fifty-one guns were captured. Allied aircraft, with extreme daring, again attacked the enemy troops from low altitudes.

In local fighting on Monte Grappa 150 prisoners were taken. The enemy heavily attacked on Monte Pertica and obtained a foothold in the Italian positions, although at great sacrifices. Later the Italian infantry, in severe fighting, drove out the enemy and regained the lost positions. By the end of the day the line of the Tenth Army was reported to run south of Stabinzzos, Polo di Piaveborgo, Zanettiborgo, Malanotte, Lasegac, and Tonon.

The next day the battle was continued with equal success by the Italians and their allies. The Twelfth Army took the heights of Valdobbiadene. French infantry captured in assault Mont Pionar. The plain of Sernaglia was occupied. Italian troops carried the heights of Colfosco and had entered Susegana. Advance guards pushed to the left of the Monticono. On the left bank of the Ornic River the Italians had occupied the village of Alano di Piave, taking several hundred prisoners. Aeroplanes daringly carried supplies to advanced troops on the left bank of the Piave.

On the same day it also became officially known that Americans were standing on reserve behind the British and Italian forces now driving across the Piave.

The news, according to a Washington dispatch to the New York "Times," was considered significant not because of the size of the American contingent in Italy or the direct effect it might have on the battle, but because it indicated that the Italian drive was a definite part of the great offensive that was rapidly bringing complete defeat to the Central Powers. So far as official announcements showed there were but two regiments of infantry and necessary auxiliary troops in the American force in Italy. These units and any others that may have been sent probably were expected to operate as a part of one of the Italian or British organizations when the time had come to throw them into the line. The same practice was followed in France, where two Italian divisions had been employed at various times on the front as units of a French army corps.

The sending of American troops to Italy was not with the idea of adding military strength but to demonstrate the unity of command and purpose on all fronts. For that reason the force detached by General Pershing for this purpose was believed not to have exceeded a brigade of infantry at most. The artillery support contributed by the Allies to the Italian front was largely British. Some American air units were in Italy and had participated in the work at the front.

It became known on October 28, 1918, that American troops were fighting in Italy. On that day the offensive extended southward from the middle Piave. A third army had entered the struggle. On the front from the Brenta to the sea three-quarters of the Italian army were fighting in union with a French division and the 332d American Infantry Regiment.

Between the Brenta and Piave Rivers the bitterness of the resistance and the aggressiveness of the enemy, supported by fresh reserves had, for six days, given the struggle particular fierceness. East of the Piave the enemy was yielding to Italian troops' pressure and the Italian troops were overcoming successive lines.

In the Grappa region the Italian Fourth Army gained advantages. In the region of Pertice and Col del Orso, the Twelfth Army had reached the outskirts of the village of Quero, taken Sequisine, and earned Monte Cesen.

The Eighth Army occupied the defile of Follina and reached Vittorio. There was fighting north of Conegliano. The Italian Tenth Army was beyond the Conegliano-Oderzo road. The Third Army had crossed the Piave to San Dona Piave and east of Zenson. The prisoners captured so far numbered 802 officers and 32,198 men. Of guns several hundred had been taken.

On October 30, 1918, the Italian and Allied armies were continuing to rapidly advance after the retreating enemy, who attempted in vain to retard them. Heads of columns had reached Serravalle, Orsago, Gajarine, and Oderzo. Cavalry divisions were advancing in the plains and some squadrons entered Sacile.

In overcoming strong resistance between the Piave and the Monticano, the Third Army fought brilliantly. The river crossing at Ponti di Piave was carried in a fierce action. The enemy was obliged to evacuate Asiago, which was promptly occupied.

During the rush of the advance it had been impossible to keep count of the thousands of prisoners and many guns. Besides the populations of towns and villages, there had been liberated numbers of Italian prisoners who had been in Austrian hands.

The success of the Italian forces was rapidly assuming great proportions. The routed enemy was retreating east of the Piave, unable to withstand the close pressure of Allied troops on the mountain front. In the Venetian plains and the Alpine foothills the Italian armies were irresistibly directed on the objectives assigned to them. Hostile masses were thronging into the mountain valleys or attempting to reach the crossings on the Tagliamento. Prisoners, guns, material, stores, and depots almost intact, were being left in Italian hands.

The Twelfth Army had completed its possession of the massif of Cison and was now fighting to carry the gorge of Quero. The Eighth Army had captured the spur between the Follina Basin and the Piave Valley. Other forces had occupied the defile of Serravalle and were advancing toward the high plain of Cansiglio and toward Pordenone. Czecho-Slovaks had been in the action throughout the entire week.

In the Grappa region the attack was renewed in the morning. Col Caprile, Col Bonatto, Asolone, Monte Prassaolan, the Solarolo salient, and Monte Spinocia had been carried. On the Asiago Plateau the harassed enemy maintained an aggressive fire. By then it had been ascertained that the prisoners taken exceeded 50,000. More than 300 guns had been counted.

The advance of the Tenth Army, with which British and American troops were fighting, continued without check throughout the day. British cavalry detachments, in close touch with Italian cavalry, had reached the western outskirts of Sacile. Troops of the Fourteenth British Corps had reached the Livenza River at Francenigo. Farther south the Eleventh Italian Corps had occupied Oderzo. This advance had been gained throughout practically the entire length of the objective assigned to the Earl of Cavan, British Commander on the Piave, by General Diaz when plans were first formed early in October, 1918. The energy and determination of the infantry had been beyond all praise.

The difficulties of bridging the Piave led at first to an inevitable shortness of supplies. In spite of lack of food and sleep and in the face of constant fighting the Thirty-seventh Italian Division and the Seventh and Twenty-third British Divisions had advanced without relief to their final objective. British and Italian troops operating on the Asiago Plateau entered Camporovere (northeast of Asiago) and captured the heights of Mocatz. The number of prisoners taken by the Tenth Army alone had increased to more than 12,000.

The battle continued to expand. The enemy maintained intact his resistance from Stelvio to the Astico, but he was vacillating on the Asiago Plateau and in full retreat along the remainder of the front. He was protected more by interruptions in the roads than by his rear guards, who were irresistibly overwhelmed. Italian batteries, brought forward quickly with captured enemy artillery, were intensely shelling the adversary, firing to the extreme extent of their range. Cavalry divisions, having destroyed the enemy resistance on the Livenza and reestablished crossings, were marching toward the Tagliamento.

The Sixth Army, on October 31, 1918, entered into action with a brilliant advance by the Ancona Brigade at the end of the Brenta Valley, and in the morning it attacked the adversary along the whole front. On the Grappa, under the impetus of the Fourth Army's thrust, the enemy front had collapsed. It was impossible to estimate the prisoners coming down the mountain in flocks. All the hostile artillery here was captured. The Italians forced the gorge of Quero, passed beyond the spur east of Monteresen, and were advancing in the Piave Valley. Overcoming the enemy rear guards at the Passo di St. Buldo, Italian troops were descending into the Piave Valley toward Belluno. Other parties were engaged in fighting in the hollow of Fadalto, which was still occupied by the enemy. Cavalry and cyclists, following the road to the foothills, were opening the way to Aviano.

By the end of the day the Fourth Army was master of the Fonzaso Valley. The Bologna Brigade entered Feltre that night.

The Twelfth Army, having gone through the Quero defile from the mountains, was joining up on the Piave course with the Eighth Army. The latter had descended the valley of the Piave to the south of Belluno, and had detachments engaged in the Fadalto Valley, which light columns were encircling by way of Farra d'Alpago.

The right wing of the front of the Third Army had been prolonged toward the coast by a marine regiment, which had occupied all the intricate coastal zone, which the enemy in part flooded. A patrol of sailors had reached Caorile. The Third Army by nightfall had reached the Livenza. Advanced guards entered Motta di Livenza and Torre di Mosto. British infantry and mounted troops occupied Sacile. The troops of the Tenth Army reached the line of the Livenza from that place as far south as Brugnera. The number of prisoners was continually increasing, and the various armies captured more than 700 guns. The booty taken was immense, its value being estimated in billions of lire.

As the Italian army prosecuted its victorious advance, most deplorable evidence was coming to light of atrocities by the enemy during the period of invasion. In Italy, as in France, the fury of the barbarians was intense against things and persons. Such fury was witnessed not only by Italian soldiers, but by representatives of the Italian and Allied press accompanying advancing columns. Everywhere there were tokens of willful, useless destruction and brutal robberies. Terrified eyewitnesses narrated horrible scenes. The Italian Government, the military authorities, and the Allies stated that they would not fail to carry out rigorous inquiry regarding abominations committed, of which the enemy must give an account. Italians found in freed zones were in a terrible state. They lacked everything because the enemy during a year of occupation had destroyed, burned, sacked, and carried off everything.

The utter collapse of the Austrian forces and the fierceness of the fighting are well illustrated by a special dispatch sent under date of October 31, 1918, from Italian headquarters east of the Piave and published in the New York "Times" the following day. It said:

"At many points east of the Piave there are so many Austrian prisoners that they block the roads over which they are being marched to the rear. The Venetian plain immediately east of the Piave is a scene of desolation. Houses and villages have been ruined by shell fire. When the advancing Italians reached Sacile they were received as saviors, and the women and children of the town fell on their knees before them. During a recent influenza epidemic in the town the Austrians are said to have brutally rejected appeals from mothers for food for their sick children.

"Every bridge in the path of the advancing Allies has been the scene of fighting. One railroad bridge near Conegliano was lost and retaken thirty times. In the storming of Monte Cismon, which gives to the Allies command of the valleys of the Brenta and Cismon—and the domination of the Brenta virtually means possession of the Trentino—an Austrian battery of six guns which had been shelling the city of Bassano was captured. The morning before it was taken fifty persons were killed in Bassano."

By November 1, 1918, more than 1,000 square miles of Italy's invaded provinces had been reconquered, but the greatest importance of the daring movement conceived by General Diaz was his success in separating the Austrian army occupying the Monte Grappa and Trentino regions from that on the Venetian plains. At the same time he was threatening the Austrian contingents holding the section southeast of the Piave, which, it was expected, would be enveloped or cut off by the Italians advancing toward Pordenone.

Allied troops had reached the Gringo, five miles north of Monte Lisser. They had cut off the retreat of the Austrians in Trentino, except over mule paths in the mountains. On the Asiago Plateau the Sixth Army and two Allied divisions carried formidable positions which the Austrians had held for many months. Monte Mosciavi, Monte Baldo, Monte Longara, La Meletia di Gallio, Sasso Rosso, Monte Spitz, and Lambara were taken. Three thousand prisoners and 232 guns were captured on the Asiago Plateau alone.

Enemy resistance at Fidalto defile was overcome by Italian troops who entered Belluno. The Third Cavalry Division reached the plains north of Pordenone. The Second Cavalry was fighting hostile rear guards in Meduna. The infantry of the Tenth and Third Armies passed the Livenza River between Sacile and San Stino.

East of the Brenta the pursuit continued. On the Asiago Plateau the enemy was resisting to gain time for the masses in the rear to retire, but the troops of the Sixth Army crossed by force of arms the pass between Rotzo and Roana, carrying in a bitter struggle Monte Cimone and Monte Lisser, and were advancing in the valley of the Nos.

The Fourth Army occupied the heights north of the hollow of Fonzaso, and pushed forward columns into the Sugana Valley. The old frontier was passed in the evening. Alpine groups, having crossed the Piave with improvised means in the neighborhood of Busche, spread out in the area between Feltre and San Giustina. Italian troops who the day before won in heavy fighting at the Passo di Boldo the hollow of Fadalto were going up the Cordevole Valley. They had passed beyond Ponte nelle Alpi and were marching toward Longarone.

On the plains an Italian cavalry division under the Count of Turin, having overcome the resistance of the enemy at Castello d'Aviano, Roveredo-in-Piano, San Martino, and San Quirino, occupied Pordenone and passed the Cellima-Meduna. Italian and Allied aviators were complete masters of the air and continued without pause their daring activities. An Italian airship bombarded the railway stations in the Sugana Valley at night.

It was not possible to calculate the number of guns abandoned on the lines of battle, now distant from the fighting fronts, and on the roads. More than 1,600 had been counted so far. More than 80,000 prisoners had been counted. Italian soldiers had liberated also several thousand prisoners from captivity.

British troops of the Tenth Army crossed the Livenza River between Motta and Sacile and established a bridgehead east of that stream. The Northamptonshire Yeomanry Regiment captured twelve mountain guns and fifteen machine guns. The Forty-eighth Division, operating on the Asiago Plateau, was reported to have advanced its line two kilometers northward, but was meeting with machine-gun resistance in the neighborhood of Monte Interrotto.

The First Army on November 2, 1918, captured Monte Majo and attacked Passo della Borcola. In the Posina sector Italian troops took Monte Cimone, on the Tonezzo Plateau, and, after ascending the Assa Valley, occupied Lastebasse.

On the Asiago Plateau the Allies captured a great number of prisoners and guns. Still the advance continued. There were lively rear-guard combats west of Castelnuovo, in the Sugana Valley, and at Ponte della Serra, in the Cismon Valley. In the Cordevole Valley Italian advance guards reached Mis. Italian cavalry occupied Spilimbergo and Pordenone, and the fighting reached the east bank of the Tagliamento, across which patrols had been thrown.

In the plains the heads of the Italian columns reached the line of Azzanodecimo, Portogruaro, Concordia, and Sagittaria.

On the same day Allied troops broke through the enemy's fortifications at Celadel. The Tonale Pass was forced and the Val Arsa taken from Col Santa to the north of Pasubio. The advance was continuing irresistibly on the Tonezza, the Asiago Plateau, in the Sugana Valley, the valleys of Cismon and Cordevole, and along the Piave and on the plains.

On the Tagliamento, cavalry, supported by mounted batteries, Bersaglieri, and cyclists, was winning bitter combats against the adversary, who, surprised on his side of the river, was fighting with great stubbornness. The Second Brigade, with the regiments from Genoa and Italian and Allied airmen, brilliantly maintained exceptional activity. The total of prisoners had reached 100,000 and the guns captured more than 2,000.

The bridging of the Livenza River was being rapidly carried out by British troops, some of whom were well east of that river. The number of prisoners captured by the Tenth Army alone could not at that time be accurately given, but it was known to be considerably over 15,000, with 150 guns. Of these more than 10,000 prisoners and more than 100 guns had been captured by the Fourteenth British Corps. The booty taken at Sacile included among the vast amount of other material an ordnance workshop complete and a pontoon park. In their operations on the Asiago Plateau the Forty-eighth British Division captured nearly 200 prisoners. The British air force continued throughout the day to bomb the dense masses of retiring Austrians with visibly good results.

In the meantime Austria-Hungary had appealed for an armistice on October 29, 1918. After careful deliberations on the part of the Allies, during the process of which the Italian forces had continued their victorious advance without abatement, the terms on which the Allies had agreed were submitted to the Austrians, who accepted them on November 3, 1918, and hostilities were suspended on November 4, 1918, at 3 p. m. Germany had now lost her route to the East, and if she continued the war must fight single-handed on the western front.

Before the armistice became operative the Italian columns, having passed every obstacle and overcome every resistance, had advanced with great impetus and had firmly established themselves behind the enemy in the Adige Valley, closing the openings of all the roads convergent to it. The Seventh Army, by rapidly taking the region to the west of the Adige, became master of the Passo della Mendola, and had pushed patrols on the river in the direction of Bolzani, The First Army, which, with the advance made on November 3, 1918, by its Twenty-ninth Corps, had crowned its brilliant maneuver for the taking of Trento, occupied Monticelli, dominating the confluence of the Adige Noce. Early in the afternoon of November 4, 1918, the headquarters of this army were established at Trento.

The landing at Trieste began at 11 o'clock a. m., November 3, 1918. The first to land was a battalion of the Royal Italian Marines, which was received by the population assembled on the embankments with great jubilation. The city was bedecked with Italian flags, and in a short time Bersaglieri were marching through its streets, enthusiastically acclaimed by the population.

From then on the Italians extended their successes toward the south along the Dalmatian coast. Within a few days Austria-Hungary lost all her ports and her end as a maritime power seemed assured.

Lissa was occupied by naval forces on the same day. On November 4, 1918, Italian vessels occupied Abbazia, Rovigno, and Parenzo on the Istrian coast, the neighboring island of Lussin, and, in the middle Adriatic, Lagosta, Meleda, and Curzola. Other ships entered the port of Fiume. Small parties of sailors landed at Riva.

Thus the liberation of "Italia Irredenta" was practically completed.