The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1917-12-24
BRITISH REPORT

London, December 23.-"Under cover
of a heavy artillery barraEe," says to-
days report from Field Marshal Haig's
headquarters, "the enemy yesterday aft
ernoon made local attack against
our positions in the ncighborhood of
Ypres-Staden railway and succeeded in
driving in our advanced posts for "a
short distance ON n front of ZOO yards.
"Early this morning the enemy raid
ed a British post east of Epehy. a few
men are missing.
sour fire drove off another enemy
attempt to raid our positions in the
neighborhood of the Menin road"
| With the French Armies in North
! ern Italy, Saturday, December Elm
expectedly baked in their march to-
ward the plain by the loss of the Monte
Asolone positions, within "a hours after
| they had captured them, the Austro-
German forces are concentrating
heavily, according to all available rer
ports, north and northeast of this im4
pors4nt approach to dominating Monte
lGranpa.
i A new and unprecedentedly vigorous
| is expected soon, not only at Grappa
Itself but on the Asiago plateau and
possibly the lower Piave. where enemy
| troop concentrations also are recorded.
| corded.
Although expert opinion appears to
| be approaching unanimity that the
1 Austrians have given up hope or
breaking through the Italian line at
mr. So 9e
great retreat, all available informa-
| tion indicates the enemy wants to
achieve another big success by cap-
turing all peaks commanding the plain.
and would vastly prefer a position at
| the northern limit of the plain, at least
where climatic conditions would favor
his troops while possession OF the
peaks would enable him to control the
territory for miles in front Of them
ITALIAN DEFENSE STRONG
| Even cursory visit to the Grappa
sector, however, is sufficient to reveal
jconvincingly how very far the enemy
is from achieving these detectives and
| how formidable the Italian positions
are, backed UP by a rejuvenated army,
thoroughly reorganiZed and re-equip-
| ped and whose spirit was shown by
the counter attack which recaptured
the great Asolone positions. Immedi-
ately after the regaining of the Aso-
| lone heights the correspondent found
| it possible to proceed to vantage
point slightly south and west of Crap
| pa which at the time was being vici-
ously bombarded with shrapnel by the
| enemy who had lost it few hours be-
| fore. Had the enemy been able to hold
it and conquered Monte Conston, be-
! tween it and Monte Grappa, which lat
! ter is the enemy's objective as the
| entire range this key position would
have been seriously menaced.
ENEMY PROGRESS DIFFICULT
i Their rebuff at this important point.
however, keeps the Austro-German
lance from the plain they are seeking
but makes their progress toward 1t
extremely difficult now that the
weather conditions are rapidly increas-
| ing in severity.
A single day spent with the Italian
forces in this mountain section serves
| to show convincingly what a stupend-
Gus task the Austro- German invad-
| ers have. While German shrapnel was
viciously peppering the lost Asolone
heights, countless light and heavy
| Italian batteries. honeycombng and
dotting the two adjoining mountains.
were hammering the enemy unceas-
! ingly. Every path in the mountainside
disgorged troops working under tho
so-called rotation syst&m by which tho
enemy men in the first lines, after serv-
! ing there for some days, fall back into
the reserve, being relieved by reserves
and then gradually working their way
forward to the first line again.
TROOPS ARE CHEERFUL
At many points lay piles of ammuni-
a NJ aud
almost impossible by reason of the
batteries that were making their ass
cent more slowly with their horse
power than the automobiles. Masses
Of troops lay waiting to relieve the
first line fighters. troops obviously
cheerful, we'll fed and confident that
the reconqest of great part of tina
Asolone positions had Hrought to
fnal halt the Austra IAN progress
toward the plAin
| The concentration the Asiago
plateu and along lower Piavc.
WHY perhaps Numerically less impor-
tant than those In the Grappa region.
| are admittedly for the same purpose.
according to the admissions OF prisoi-c;
4 ers. who say the condition of their
troops is terrible and they must at all
costs secure a line on the plain and
control the Brenta and Piave valleys
so that they will not have to endure
the winter In the mountains
/ I'VE must secure these things az
necessary, were the words in which
I one Austrian summed Up the situation.
The prisoners virtually without ex-
4oxa rro on hat .x1<7 -