100 Years Ago - Palestine and Italy

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/smashing-a-turkish-railway-s98lf6x92

June 1, 1917

Smashing a Turkish railway

Once again the Turks have been made to feel the full force of a British cavalry stroke. The Commander-in-Chief decided upon the destruction of the greater part of the railway line south-west of Beersheba and mounted troops of a desert column under Major-General Chauvel attacked more than 20 miles of line and destroyed it absolutely beyond repair. The Turks are short of railway material and had looked to this section of the line to furnish badly-needed material, but they will not find a sound rail or sleeper there.
Two columns moved out on their destroying mission. A camel corps went off on a 32-mile march to El Audja, a police post on the Turco-Egyptian frontier. They had previously destroyed the bridge, and spent yesterday smashing the whole railway westwards to Wadi El Abiad. Being well to the west of Beersheba, they had more time than the cavalry, and the explosions of the camel men were heard like a heavy artillery battle until late in the afternoon.
The task of smashing the railway between Asluj and Hadaj was entrusted to Field Engineers and Anzac and Imperial mounted troops, who have been specially trained in rapidly destroying railway line. These splendid soldiers moved south and east from dusk on Tuesday until dawn yesterday for more than 30 miles. They were delayed by the extreme darkness, and a dust storm made it difficult to see the tracks.
Some of the country is very difficult. One column had to march in the blackness of the night over a long stretch of limestone ridges with sharp, jagged edges. One demolition party arrived at Asluj at 6 o’clock, and the other at Hadaj at 7, working towards each other. By 10 o’clock they had destroyed 10 miles of line, including three bridges of 24 arches, with substantial stone and concrete pillars. So complete was the destruction that not one length of rail remained whole. Every bolt had its head knocked off.
It was not part of the scheme that the cavalry and camelry should join hands and the short section between their spheres of operations remains untouched, but the undestroyed portion is isolated and useless. While the engineers were blowing up the railway the cavalry got within five miles of Beersheba, destroyed the railway bridge, and drove off two Turkish cavalry brigades.



https://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-05-31/register/heroic-days-in-arras-battle-776l9d57q

May 31, 1917

Heroic days in Arras battle

The Battle of Arras began in April, and in the second month we have won only two new villages — Roeux and Bullecourt — while all the rest of the line has remained stationary. But the captures of Roeux and Bullecourt are enough to make the month glorious. In the light of the subsequent fighting it is possible to estimate at its true value the gallantry of the Scottish troops who forced the first entry into Roeux on April 23, and of the Australians who drove through the German defences east of Bullecourt on May 3. Neither place was really in our possession until May 12 or 13. At both the enemy threw against our positions masses of men in vastly greater numbers than we had there to hold them, and in neither has our foothold been shaken.
The Scotsmen, with very little artillery preparation, went clean through all the complicated defences of the chemical works. It is doubtful if any of the first wave of the attack reached the enemy’s positions, but the second wave passed through them into one machine-gun position after another, driving the enemy by sheer superiority in fighting power out of his labyrinth of tunnel and redoubt. If the officers were wounded the men went on just the same, and, led by a non-commissioned officer or by a private, or not led at all, they did things which on the map are plainly impossible today. English troops made good the ground which they had conquered and held off the first counter-attacks; then Scottish troops again took up the burden and staved off the desperate German assaults which continued until May 16.
The official communiqués have mentioned minor enemy attacks since then, and continually the German guns shell one part or another of the devoted area, but they have ceased to throw massed attacks against us, and the reason is plain. The German dead choked the trenches when we took them, each man lying with his pack upon his back, and still strew the slopes before us. There is a limit to the price which the Germans are willing to pay to win back lost positions, and in Roeux, with the command of the Scarpe Valley, there remains in our hands as fine a monument to British tenacity and pluck — even if today it is a ragged dustheap — as could be erected in marble or bronze.




https://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-05-30/register/advance-towards-trieste-tfvftmn8g

May 30, 1917

Advance towards Trieste

The Italian Army is within ten miles of Trieste, and its magnificent advance is the most encouraging feature of the present situation. The methodical progress of the Italian troops along the Carso plateau, from the River Vippacco to the sea, has plainly disconcerted the Austrians, while it has delighted the rest of the Allies. The infantry are less than a mile and a half from the seacoast village and castle of Duino, having crossed the River Timavo and captured the village of San Giovanni. Farther north they have pierced the formidable Flondar line, which the enemy believed to be almost impregnable. They are thus on the lower slopes of Mount Hermada, a great oblong bastion a thousand feet high and covered with guns.
The Austrians thought that Hermada blocked the coast route to Trieste, but they have been bitterly undeceived. A terrific fire has been poured upon the summit by the Italian heavy artillery, aided by the big British guns which have recently arrived on the Isonzo front. A number of British monitors have steamed into the Gulf of Trieste and have joined in the bombardment from an angle which the Austrians never foresaw. The monitors have also been battering the coast railway. The line is constructed high upon the slopes of the foothills and is clearly visible from the sea.
The indomitable ardour of the Italian infantry, the intensity of the artillery fire, and the unforeseen event of the monitors are all factors which have combined to produce in the Austrians a feeling of alarm. They are said to be hastily removing their guns from Hermada, and to be preparing defences farther back. It is a mistake, however, to suppose that Hermada is the only great obstacle which bars the coastline to Trieste. There are other heights which will certainly be held, and our Allies will probably have to fight every step of the way to the great seaport.
The precise extent of the Austrian casualties must remain a matter of conjecture, but there can be no dispute about the number of prisoners. In the last fortnight the Italians have taken on the Isonzo front alone 23,681 prisoners, including 604 officers, in addition to large numbers of guns and other war material. If the prisoners are so numerous, what must be the numbers of the killed and wounded?


https://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-05-29/register/into-action-at-the-gallop-0bszzpjkp

may 29, 1917

Into action at the gallop

Italian headquarters. Our Allies are on the slopes of Monte Hermada. Yesterday, as I watched the desperate resistance of the enemy, I saw what must be a rare sight in this slow horror of trenches and bombs and giant howitzers — field-guns going into action at the gallop under the enemy’s direct fire. For a moment it seemed impossible, and when the truth dawned it was hard not to cheer. Out they came, one by one, at discreet intervals, from a little wood near by. Walk, trot, gallop, hell for leather down the road where troglodyte men had faced one another at 30 yards’ distance for many weary months, coming out of their lairs at intervals to struggle with bomb and bayonet, and at the end to fall back sullenly to the same battered trenches.
Clatter, clatter, bump, and the first gun was over the main Italian trench. Another bump and the first-line Austrian trench was passed. The unwearying sappers had been busy during the night and where the trench lines crossed the road they had been roughly filled in. The first gun got safely to its new position before the Austrians were awake to what was happening, and the gun team came galloping back. Then the valley was filled with high-explosive shells, varied by occasional shrapnel.
A really heavy dose of shrapnel would have been much more useful, but at that moment nearly all the Austrian field-guns were in full retreat in this sector, and those on the left were fully occupied with their own immediate front. The road was never reached by the great shells, which exploded harmlessly upon the old trenches or in the open fields. But as the last gun was preparing to start, a 6in shell came straight into the little wood. When the smoke and dust had cleared, the gun team was still standing perfectly quiet and two minutes later the gun was bumping off to join its fellows.
For the greater part of the day the enemy was plastering this valley with big shells and even dropped four 42-centimetre shells upon spots which he fondly hoped would be full of Italian troops. None caused a single casualty, and the effect of the volcano spouts which dotted the valley was practically negligible. Throughout the day an endless stream of Italian supports pushed up to the front, but the Austrian signally failed to disturb the process.


https://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-05-27/register/76-killed-in-daylight-air-raid-tjjbksjwd

may 27, 1917

76 killed in daylight air raid

A south-east town, May 26. Seventeen German aeroplanes, flying at height, passed over at 20 minutes past 6 yesterday evening. Sixty bombs were dropped on the town, and unhappily 62 people are known to have been killed and many more are lying maimed and injured in the hospitals.
The attacking aircraft advanced on the town in perfect formation. There were three groups, each of five machines, and a scout or leader, and another flying alone in the rear. They had the air to themselves, and the bombardment was deliberate and thorough. They may have hoped to cause damage of a military character, although the height at which their discretion kept them gave them no certainty of hitting their objectives. The plan seems to have been to drop bombs along a broad line and to trust to luck. No military damage resulted, but in the heart of the town, shops and houses were wrecked and pitiful casualties caused among the civil population.
Six o’clock on Friday evening is a popular shopping hour, particularly among the poorer people. A busy thoroughfare was thronged with women buying food for the weekend. It was an evening of golden sunshine and blue skies. Mothers had brought out their children. At a greengrocery store with an open front a bomb, or more probably an aerial torpedo, burst and caused an appalling loss of life. The victims had practically no warning. The droning of aeroplane engines had been heard but as our own machines often circle over the town the noise had not aroused misgivings. When a bomb dropped half a mile away not even a majority of the people in the street could seek shelter. Shop assistants crouched behind counters, a few fled into cellars, but the terrific explosion which came within seconds mowed down nearly 70 defenceless children and adults. Thirteen women, six men, and seven children were killed instantaneously, and 42 others were injured. The street was a shambles. Little ones left without their mothers were blown to pieces, a butcher’s shop collapsed and customers and assistants were buried in the ruins. In front of the greengrocery store a crater had opened, and some of the women and children caught by the explosion had disappeared. The shop itself was completely wrecked. Over an area a hundred yards in length not a building escaped the explosion.