New Britain herald., 1917-11-14
FIERCE FIGHTING ALONG THE RIVER
Aviator Makes Daring Flight Over
 Devastated City Of Undine
INTER-ALLIED COUNCIL

Death" the Bridges at Sacilc polce-
 nigo, Santa Lucia, San Giovanni md
 Other Places.
 1'a"an Headquarters in Italy. Nov.
 Ahe Plave line still holds in the 1Aa1n against heavy and continuous artillery fire from the eastern bank and the efforts of the Austro- Germans " cross the stream. These efforts nave not taken the proportions of , eeheral movement, but several batta; 1ons crossed the river on pontoons near Aenson. The Italian artillery con. centrated its fire on the raidinc nar. 'ies' either destroying them in mid- stream or pushing them back on the riVef bank. The fighting here was desperate and sanguinary. Men who nave returned from the batteries along the Piave say the German fire IS extremely heavy but from guns ot medium caliber
 OnleL attention is now directed to- Ward the eastern sector of the Tren tino front. where it runs across the Aslaso plateau to upper Piave river. me enemy is making demonstrations there which are either a diversion or 0 preluoe to a heavy attack With the evident purpose of getting down into the valley toward Bassano and tho plains below, thus separating the Ital- Ian army on the Trentino from that on the Piave.
 Reports indicate that the enemy is operating on four main fronts. Gen. ROrNQVt0 a hn Gen. von Buelow is on the upper Piave, Gen. Korbatin is in the east ern Trentino and Gen. Conrad in the western Trentino. This gives von Buelow the task of trying to force tho center while Borcevio and Conrad press in the Piave and Trentino wing. The number of troops under the Aus tro-German commanders is not known.
 An Italian aviator who made ono or the last flights over Udine after 1t was evacuated says the city was dam aged but little. He saw several large fires at separated points, and the hope Is expressed that neither of them was the City hall of Udine, which is Q handsome monument of Venetian ar- chitecture resembling the Doses pal ace.
 The inter-Auicd council is ronsd cring measures for the odeouutc pro lection of Venice.
 A section of Italian armored motor cars. each of which mounts three quick-f1rers in the turrets, is just back from one of the most thrilling ex- periences of the war. The duty to which these cars was assigned was to hold the bridges from the Tagliamen- to to the Piave rivers until the cav airy rear-guards had passed across, and then to burn the bridges behind them. The commander and num- Der of his men were seen by the cor respondent at their camp where they recounted their experience as though they were every day occurrences. Huge cars resembling tanks stood about at the camp showing the scars received in the recent ordeal. They have heavily armored bodies. There is a steel door. and for observation pur- poses two small openings are provid- ed. The two turrets above revolves, the upper one having one quick-f1rer, the lower two.
 The orders were to "hold 10 the death'' the bridges at Sacile, Polceni- go, Santa Lucia and San Giovanni un- til the Bersagleri and cavalry had crossed. That they succeeded Is shown by the fact that all the rear guards made their way over the l bridges, that all the bridges were burned and that the section returned leaving only one damaged machine l with the enemy, although eighteen of l the forty cars were in such crippled 1 condition that 1t was necessary to abandon them after the bridges were l burned.
 The machines were divided 'en be- | ing stationed at each of the four bridgeheads. After seeing their own rear guards safely across they await cd the approach of the enemy ad- vance guards, even staying in some l cases until their cars were sur rounded by hostile patrols. which were then moved down by the bat teries of quick firers.
 At the San Giovanni bridge one midway across the bridge. Elrly in the morning it was ordered to sur | r~Hder by d German car which bore the imperial crest and carried {; Ger 1 man captain and two lieutenants. Tn- stead of surrendering. two Italian captains and four eunners suddenly opened the steel door and sprang out with carhines. The German captain ard one Lieutenant were killed. The other lieutenant and the. German car were captured and brought back.