Thursday 7 June 2018

Italy 1917-18: Austria’s last offensive


Italy 1917-18: Austria's last offensive
This week's chapter examines the fall of the Boselli government, Oct 1917, the Orlando ministry, political situation and Italian morale, Austria, the chief enemy, anxiety about Allied policy, the situation in spring 1918, the controversy between Italy and the Yugoslavs, the London Agreement and Italian claims, the Pact of Corfu, the Pact of Rome and its meaning, the military situation at the end of 1917, some minor successes, bombs on Venice and Padua, the Austrian offensive in June 1918, failure in the north, Austrians cross the Piave and are defeated, the importance of the Italian victory
The Austrian losses in the double battle were calculated by the Italians at from 180,000 to 200,000 men, and it is probable that the figure is close to the truth. The Italian losses were 80,000. Hardly another single week throughout the long struggle of the war saw more bloodshed than the week which put an end to the last Austrian hopes of a victorious peace


 

Italy's ordeal — Venice threatened
If the Austro-Germans succeed in crossing the Piave there is no longer any natural barrier between them and Venice

Italy’s ordeal — Venice threatened

The Italian forces have fallen back to the right (western) bank of the Piave and the artillery has entered into action. Before leaving Conegliano (five miles east of the Piave) Arditi shock troops made a fine defence in the streets, and between Conegliano and the Piave counter-attacked firmly, while at the same time the cavalry charged, advancing on the enemy on both flanks. Then before the enemy had recovered the Arditi and the cavalry passed undisturbed over the Pritla bridge, which was immediately blown up. The conduct of the rearguard troops, which have fought without intermission from Udine to the Piave, has won the admiration of the whole Army.
Yesterday the Austro-Germans were closing round Conegliano. It is not to be expected that Conegliano, though protected on the north by hills, will be able to delay the enemy much longer. The troops left there are tough and have done all possible to prolong resistance, to the extent, even, of barricading the streets. They must inevitably fall back or find their line of retreat cut. They must retire across the River Piave by the great new bridge, and Italy must then stand face to face with her second and her greater crisis.
Her first crisis came on that morning when the Germans passed through the gap at Caporetto on to Italian soil. Udine and the Friuli fell into their hands then, and a limb of the country was gone. But today, with the arrival of Austro-Germans on the Piave, a greater peril may have to be faced.
If the Austro-Germans succeed in crossing the Piave there is no longer any natural barrier between them and Venice, and it would be as if the hair of Italy had been torn from her brows. Strategically it would mean that Austria had practically gained naval preponderance in the Upper Adriatic. A good omen is that the skies have repented of their favouritism. Rain has been falling, which will swell the river. It is a pity it did not fall sooner, but the Piave, like the Tagliamento, rises quickly. It also resembles the Tagliamento in those banks of gravel which lie in its bed but are covered when the river is high. Besides the bridge on the Conegliano road other important bridges were on the road to Oderzo and at Vidor, just after the river leaves the mountains, near where the poet Browning lived at Asolo.


 

All-night bombing of Venice
Venice is only a few minutes' flight from the Austrian lines, and the raiders evidently have a bomb dump close behind their trenches

All-night bombing of Venice

Last night saw the greatest air raid of the 45 that Venice has endured. It lasted eight hours and there was not an interval of more than half an hour during all that time of brilliant moonlight in which bombs were not falling on the city. Three hundred were thrown in all, 38 houses were smashed, the Royal Palace struck, a home for old men and women blown to pieces, and three churches damaged — St John and St Paul, St Simeon the Less, and St John Chrysostom, in the last of which an altar with one of Cellini’s last landscapes was wrecked. About 15 civilians were wounded, including two women, seriously. Only one man was killed, thanks to the promptness with which the Venetians now take shelter in refuges and also to the fact that only some 60,000 of the normal population of 160,000 remain.
The same machines returned again and again, bringing fresh cargoes of bombs through the night. Venice is only a few minutes’ flight from the Austrian lines, and the raiders evidently have a bomb dump close behind their trenches. The journey both ways and the taking on board of more bombs seem to require about 25 minutes, which was the average length of the intervals.
As several aeroplanes took part in the raid, the sinister drone of the approaching propellers across the lagoon and the shattering crash of bursting bombs recurred almost every ten minutes. Scattering bombs over inhabited towns is a brutal business anywhere, but in Venice it is sacrilege. For here it is practically impossible to drop bombs without destroying or injuring beyond repair beautiful buildings. The Austrians, and recently their German allies, have thrown in all about a thousand high-explosive bombs upon the city with a cynical disregard of whether they might strike the Doge’s Palace, a tiny shop, or, by an outside chance, some building which could plausibly have some vague military use.
As it is Venice will never lose the scars which the Vandals have made. The Scalzi Church on the Grand Canal was destroyed months ago with its frescoed roof by Tiepolo: a white stone five yards from the doors of St Mark’s records where another bomb just failed to smash those gorgeous golden Byzantine mosaics which no covering with timbers and sandbags can protect, and which cannot be carried to a place of safety.


 

The Italian victory
It is Italian generalship and Italian valour which have hurled back the invaders and have liberated the peninsula from the deadly menace which hung over it for eight terrible days

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