South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1917-12-17
Determined Men
Man Huge Guns
On Pave Front

ON THE LOWER PAVE RIVER,
NORTHERN ITALY. Saturday, Dec.
15.-Countless square miles OF des-
olate marsh land, interspersed and
cut into numberless Islands by slug
gish lagoons and land inundated to
the depth Of several feet. line after
line of stationary batters of guns of
from three to fifteen inches in cali
bre and deep. muddy trenches filled
with men determined tina, the en-
envy shall not advance any further
such are the impressive and APP
parently well nigh unassailable de-
lenses Of Venice.
The character Of the warfare all
along the lower Piave line and par
ticularly the methods employed 10
defend the queen of the seas" from
the Austro German invasions I'M
doubtedly are unique even in this
war OF novelties. Nature has placed
a barrier in the path of the invader
apparently more insurmountable
even than the mountains across
which the enemy has fought his way
and these natural obstacles have
been fortified as probably has no
other place in Europe.
Human ingenuity has outdone it
self to provide floating fortresses
armed with huge guns which, cam
oufiaged and concealed cunningly
from spying airplanes, can slip from
point TO point, never offering a mark
for the invaders and yet always able
TO lombard the enemy as he at
tempts nightly 70 build pontoon
bridges across the river Piave.
Engineers Establish Lines.
Skilled engineers have ferreted
out every bit of solid mainland in
the vast swampy area north of Ven
ice where batteries. large and small,
according to the distance from the
Austrian lines, have been establish
ed They never relax their vigi-
lance in watching for the enemy.
The same engineers have cut away
the dikes that formerly controlled
the water to irrigate the fertile Ital-
ian plains. creating a vast lake.
Finally in addition to the foremost
infantry lines in the inundated sec
ton, large and small batteries are
scattered everywhere and floating
monitors constantly are on patrol.
Thus far the enemy has been pre-
vented from bringing his big guns
up TO a position from which he
might lombard Venice.
Life Signs Vanish.
Virtually ali signs of life were left
blind at sunrise as a motorobat
bearing the correspondent worked it's
way to the north from Venice into
the vast marshland, intersected by
narrow channels.
Suddenly the press boat almost
collided with a grayish steel hulk
secured by chains and ropes to the
shore This vessel on which was
mounted a huge gun, taking up its
position there the night before, had
thrown shells to the Piave river and
many times had defeated the efforts
OF the Austrian TO complete a pom
toon bridge TO the southern shore
This monitor was only the first OF
a series. Others with lighter guns
and lighter dran we're lying in re-
serve ready at a moments notice TO
steam through the winding chan
nels to some point nearer to the en-
envy and from there to direct an
unexpected fire on his positions.
The armament of the monitor
generally decreased in size as the
press boat approached more closely
to the front lines ana similarly the
batters which here and there began
to make their appearance became
lighter and lighter as the tortorous
lagoons merged either in the Sile
river or in the Sile canal, far to the
north of Venice.
Waterway Runs East
The artificial waterway runs al
most due east and west between Por-
to Grandie and the ocean, while the
new Piave, several miles to the
north, flows eastward to the sea.
The area between this waterway,
composed OF the Silecian canal and
the old Piave and the course Of the
new Piave is that which has been
inundated.
The Austrians have occupied the
entire northern bank of the new
Piave, but the main body of the
troops, has been unable to cross be-
cause of the activity of the moni-
tors and stationary batteries and
they are unable 10 inflict any serious
damage because they are too far
away from Venice for their big guns
to be effective.
They have reached Santa Dona di
Piave. which is about 16 ga miles
as the crow flies northeast of Venice,
but the Italians hold Musile, on the
south bnak Of the river opposite
Santa Dona di Piave ed have been
able TO prevent the Al trians from
bringing any heavy artillery up 10
that point from when Venice pos
sibly might be bonn barded
At Capo Sile, the correspondent |
inspected the infantry positions, |
which were indescribably muddy |
and bleak. The infantrymen were /
cheerful and disregardful OF the un- |
comfortable positions.
Later the press boat again plow- /
cd through seemingly endless nnazes /