Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 January 1917 — TERRIBLE LOSSES IN CARSO BATTLE [ARTICLE]

TERRIBLE LOSSES IN CARSO BATTLE

War Correspondent Gives Thrill- v ing Description of the Fight HEROISM ON BOTH SIDES *• .X . V Surpassed AH Horrors Winter Half Been In Nine Months With Aus- \ tro-Hungarian Forces—Field Is Strewn With Dead. Zurich. —A thrilling description of the recent terrific battle on the Carso plateau from the pen of Joseph For gany. a war correspondent who viewed the gigantic struggle from the most j advanced Austro-Hungarian positions, has Just been published here. - “The eighth battlie on the Isonzo was the culmination of the - Italian campaign,” says Pogany. “1 have spent nine months on this front and witnessed the awful struggles around 1 Doberdo and -Gorlzla, hut the hell on the Carso plateau surpassed all hop* rors I had seen before. The Italian!., attacks in this latest and greatest battle were of almost incredible ferocity and the heroism displayed by both sides will live forever in history. “The new Italian offensive was welt planned and carried out with great skill and energy. On the comparatively short front of six miles Gen. Count Cadorua threw no less than 280,000 men Into battle, or 100,000 men more than he used In his September drive on a front of ten miles. Two full corps of Infantry, the Fourteenth and the Twenty-fourth, attacked on a front of only three and one-half miles, together with a corps of dismounted cavalry, while at the same time eight regiments stormed forward against Hill 144. Follows Joffre’s Methods. "In his great effort to break the Austro-Hungarian lines. General Cadorna used the methods of Joffre and Brussiloff. He prepared the storming attacks by a drum fire of bis artillery and when, after a terrible bombardment of 200 hours, the Austrian positions seemed to be pulverized, or at least badly shaken, he ordered a general attack. His infantry, with admirable dash and. courage, advanced In formations twenty lines deep under a withering fire from the heights. forts on the short front between Graco dl Merna and Novavas and Hills 144 and 208. From two sides the Italian waves rolled forward until they reached Jamiano. The Austrians soon found themselves flanked from two directions and their retreat was Impossible, as the Italians bad penetrated a full mile to their rear and threatened to cut. them off completely. “When the situation became extremely.critical for the Austrians two Tyrolean regiments launched a furious counter-attack. The Italians were caught inrthe flank.and fell In rows under the hail of Austrian shells and bullets. Nearly fifteen hundred men were cut off and had to surrender, “During the night the battle around Hills 144 and 208 and Novavas raged Incessantly. Italian re-enforcements arrived continually and when the morning came the right flank of the defenders- hung in the air and the the Italians. A counter-attack of Tyrolean regiments and Hungarian troops re-established the Anstrlan line, bnt tt was bent back three-quarters of a mile on a front of about two miles. “This was the whole result of 48 hours of the most bloody fighting of the present war. AH during the next day and the following night the I tab lans continued their storming attacks without a moment's pause. Their re-, serves seemed to be inexhaustible, but they made no further headway. “On the morning of the fourth day they gave up their efforts to break the Austro-Hungarian front. Only In the southern part of the’ Carso plateau - they attacked 12 hours longer. “In their latest attempt to reach. Trieste the Italians sacrificed at least. 100,000 men. lam positive that 60,000 of their officers and soldiers weret killed, wounded or taken prisonws in the sector between Lokvtca and HiU , 144 alone, but the losses of the Austrians were also very heavy. When the battle ceased the field was covered with dead. They are all holy, friend and foe,’ an Austrian general said to me t pointing tb heaps of corpses. us kneel pray for them.’