The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1917-01-26
and unpatriotic.

and unpatriotic."
An officer Of the Second Battalion
Of the Forty-sixth Infantry Regiment.
'ept a dairy in which he wrote at
length his impressions about the war.
When Italy declared war on Austria,
he wrote as follows: II thank God
for permitting Italy's treason so that
Austria can now punish her heredi-
tary enemy with a free conscience. I
also thank God for the pleasure and
pride I feel in contributing personal
ly toward Italy's punishment On
June he described in glowing col
ors an attack in which the Italians
were repulsed, but on the same day
he had to admit that the Italians
counter attacked and repulsed the
Austrians. THE men complain be-
cause they have not had anything to
eat for two days." he wrote. "They
deserve to be starved to death A0r
having been beaten by those brigands
OF Italians
After the first great battle on the
Carso the Austrian officer wrote: 'The
Italians fought with great valor. They
opened way through the bodies of
our fallen heroes. God have mercy
upon u.s." The officer then began
to respect the Italians and omitted
calling them bandits. They attack
ed us again." he wrote on July 6, land
drove us back. Later we were COM
PEELED to draw back still further and
my men fell like flies. There have
been some cases of cholera. God
must have forsaken u.s. Later on
he wrote: 1.-The men are stupefied
with fright. They do not understand
anything and I feel lost. Death is
very near 4 I am afraid and terroriz-
ed, and strangely enough, I am not
ashamed to admit it. We abandoned
our position and there is no hope for
u.s. His last words were: II wish
we had never declared war on Ser
bia."
sToward the end of spring Austrian
officers and men were forbidden to
write home anything but postal cards,
evidently because easily censored, and
a Capt. Wernikowski Of the Thirtieth
Infantry, who in his dairy mentioned
fact, wrote: What beasts these Aus
TRANS are. They treat us like pris-
oners." OF course it was impossible
to reduce all correspondence between
the soldiers at the front and their
families to postal cards, and long let
tiers continued to be written and smug-
gled. AS such letters were not in
tended to pass the censor, naturally no
attempt was made in them to hide
the truth, as the following from an
officer of the Second Infantry clear
ly shows:
I'VE arrived near Nova Vas at in
f11n ifY,,n y~vnirN of% sko:, -; L.
losses fromsthe italian artillery on our
march. AS soon as we reached the
first lines we were ordered to attack.
We had lost our bearings and were
completely muddled up. The men re-
fused to advance. led the men, how
ever, and attempted a Ranking move
ment when the Italians pretended to-
retire, but they opened fire against us,
caught us in the open, and we were
compelled to fall back. In the af-
ternoon the Italians again opened fire.
My company had been relHced to only
sixty men and when the Italians at
tackled they took the positions held by
the third and fourth sections
Major Color then came up with
reenforcements. My men fed like
hares and only succeeded in making
them hold their positions by free use
of stick and by threatening to shoot
them. When evening came I had
only twenty-nine men left. The Twen-
ty-seventh attacked the Italians, but
was repulsed. All our subsequent
attacks against Point No. 2O8 failed.
We attacked every evening, always
with heavy losses and no results. The
102d the REIMBURSEMENT, Ninety
sixth. Ninety seventh, Eleventh and