The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1917-11-30
BRAVE ITALY


Of all who have sent their sons to be-
come one with America. in the great melt
ing pot, which is fusing SO many national
tiles into common mold, no purer ore has
been afforded than that of Italy, and today
not only do the hearts of the Americans
who once knew Italy as their home thrill
to the brave deeds of the Italian army, but
the entire American nation joins in deep
sense of pride at the splendid achievement
of the brave men who have SO staunchly
withstood the forces of the enemy and have
held the Huns at bay.
On the exposed front of the Brenta and
Piave river, where the pressure has been
greatest and the losses heaviest, the toll
of death has been well nigh incredible,
but now apparently the peril of the Italian
troops guarding the Piave line and the hill
country in northern Italy against the Teu-
tonic allies is at an end, since large num-
bers of British and French reinforcepnents
have arrived upon the scene, after days of
anxious waiting, in which the Italians
have borne the brunt of terrific fighting on
both fronts and kept back the enemy from
a further invasion of the Venetian plain.
Although faced Everywhere by superior
numbers of men and gun power, the Ital-
ians have valiantly defended every foot of
ground in the hills and along the Piave,
in the former region having taken the Of
fensive against the invaders, and pushed
them back from strategic points of vantage
they had gained.
During the eight days that the rein
forcements of French and British were
coming to the rescue, it was estimated
that the odds were four or five to one. A
major general in command of the most ex-
posed front, to an Associated Press cor
respondent, summed up the condition of
the battle-ground which made the struggle
particularly trying. First, he said there
was that terrible strain of endurance with
the temperature at nights at about four
teen above zero, Fahrenheit. This extreme
cold was made worse, he said because the
men were without any kind of shelter,
everything having been swept away in the
terrific artillery action and the constant
shifting of position. There were no
trenches or dug-outs which ordinarily give
some shelter and there was no water from
unfailing source. They were on the bar
rem ground of foothills, covered with rocks
and stones. The ground was without habi-
tation or the slightest natural facilities
usually required by fighting troops.
Still more serious conditions resulted
from the fact that many commands had
very few officers, the continuous fighting
having SO depleted the leaders, making it
necessary for new men to be constantly
called upon to lead large forces, and for
sub-ofhcers to direct superior commands.
The terrible losses among the troops re-
quired constant reforming of companies,
regiments, brigades and divisions. but the
general said that the spirit of the men
never abated in all the terrific slaughter
during the long days when they fought
doggedly and gloriously, awaiting the
coming of the allies.
1t is this spirit which will win the war;
this stern setting of the face against the
enemy, this entire conservation of life to
liberty. The German soldier is splendid
machine. He has been trained from early
childhood to obey, to follow blindly. He is
ncrsistent and amenable to command, on
the whole. But he has not within his
heart the spirit that animates the units
which compose the armies of the allies.
1he German is fighting that the Kaiser
nay retain his throne and German Kultur