New Britain herald., 1917-11-20
EASTERN VENETIA OVERRUN z
 BY FIGHTING AUSTRIANS
Emperor Charles and King Ferdinand Pay a Visit to Battle Fronts
CORRESPONDENT SEES
 THE DUKE OF AOSTA

THE DUKE OF AOSTA Americans Leaving Petrograd and
 Moscow by Way of Siberia Because
 of the Unsettled Conditions Existing
 in Those Citics-Submarine Sinks
 After Torpedoing Vessel. Col. Con-
 graduates His Wonderful Troops. Italian Headquarters in NortherN Italy, Nov. 1S-(By the Associated Press) )-Information is trickling acroAA he Piavc from the Italians in eAS4a crn Venetia, now overrun by tha enemy. According to these reports. : Emperor Charles of Austria Hungary l has visited Gorizia and Udine and . King Ferdinand of Bulgaria has passed through Gradisca and Palma l nova.
 The garrison at Udine. the formeA 1 Italian headquarters is said to b. made up of Turkish soldiers, who aFAsi using the church of Santa Maria a4 one of their barracks. On the cita- | < five flags, Austrian, German, BulBa@1 rian, Turkish and Greek. The last flag represents the Greek division
 which went over to the BulgarianAS at Kavala and Fort Rupel and which some reports put among the enemy
 divisions operating on the Italian
 front.
 Early in September, 1916, the
 fourth Greek army corps, with head-
 quarters at kavala surrendered to
 the Bulgarians. It's strength was re-
 ported to be 25,OOO men, and these
 were later transported to Germany.d
 Correspondent Visits.
 The correspondent made a tour
 along the Piave battlefront visiting
 Benson, Fagare and the Sega mill
 where desperate fighting has occurred
 and saw the Duke of Aosta. com-A
 mander of the third army guarding
 the Piave line, whose men hurled the
 Austrians into the river and e-estab-
 lished the solidity of the Piavc front
 At the moment the duke was issuing
 an address to his army congratulating them on their glorious achievement. An officer from general staff heads quarters accompanied the cOrrespon- l dent and. although the headquarters 1 of the third army was reached at ana l carly hour the duke was coming out i to proceed along the front. He held in his hand q war map which he con- ! suited with his aides before givinE directions for the route to be travelled.
 It was a striking picture as the duke stood there studying the map. 1 He is tall of athletic build with gray | hair and moustache and face bronzeJ by exposure. He wore the service uni -,s form of high command with boots, spurs and great coat edged with l black fur. He acknowledged cordially the salutes of the correspondence party and colonel of his staff ex- pla1ned conditions along the line. Everywhere, the colonel said the 1 enemy had been thrown back, except at the brink of the river at Benson where a few men were huddled in the bushes, unable to go forward or back ward, and were being slowly cut to < pieces. At Fagare, Follina and the Sega mill the rout of the enemy wai \ complete being accomplished in fear- full hand hand fighting on Friday night and Saturday. This confirmed previous information and gave added assurance of pernanency of the efa 2 forts obtained.
 The officer procured a copy of the dukes address to his men. It saw in part:
 ''Soldiers of the Third Army: Tho enemy has attempted to yass our des lenses on the Piave, but his audacity has met with defeat before vouI heroic lines and he is driven back leaving in our hands great numbeu of prisoners and machine guns. My soldiers, your commander greets YOU at the moment of this glorious ex- ploit, and conveys to you the grate- ful acknowledgm gment of the country, With you rests the victory. With all our hearts we join our efforts for th5 country, for liberty X
 The tour along the front took the party to the very centers of the hard < est fighting and along the edge Of the inundated regions. where tha countryside was transformed sudden ly into vast inland sea. Approach ing the battlefront the party passed the brigade mentioned by Gen. Diaz, the commander-in-ch chief for it's furious assault at Benson. It was just back from the front line, and the men still wore helmets. They were sturdy country boys and marched along seemingly unconscious of their glory.
 At the barracks they were count ing Austrian rifles and guns. The line of captured machine guns looked E like a collection of huge black grass hoppers. The bayonets were detach- able bowie knives with two-edged blades. 4a ga elieri bridage which carried the day.