Norwich bulletin., 1917-12-11
STORIES OF THE WAR
Glorious Rear Guards.

"TilipS IfOII1 the ttalldn iIOut Fer ciVaI Gibbon tells this story in The London Chronicle:
 The Tagliamento has served it's country badly. When our main re- treat fell back upon it it's wide sandy bed was drowned under rushing torrent, confining the westward nov ing army to the long, narrow and not numerous bridges; but as the enemy approached, his cavalry groping through the vine -curtained fields, the river subsided. and once again became little more than a tract of sand, with tracery of tiny rivulets.
 Even so the retirement towards the lines which the Supreme Command has in mind has been glorified by score of fine fights as the troops of the rear guard brought the enemy again and again to a standstill and hody. At the town of saei,e, on the little river Livenza. the Bersagheri, who have beer fighting and marching continuously since October 24, fell back through tke little town itself, fighting from house to house.
 Yesterday there was intense action along the IAiyerza from the foothills of the Cafnic Alps, to the foothills and water meadows of Motta, where es and the lagoons. The front here runs close to that other quaint and beautiful little city, Conegfiano, an ether of those antique and character
 
 end national life which are dotted so thickly over the battleffeids of the past and next days. One cannot but believe that the sight of the fields and cities, the contact with the mere soil of Italy, has it's influence upon the fighting forces in it's stimulus Of burn ing patriotism.
 The men to whose defection on October 24 Cadorna attributed the dis aster, were members of an array corps who were beyond their borders. fight ing on Austrian soil. The mystery of why they failed has yet rc be cleared up, and will make strange chapter of war history
 The Duke Of Aosta's Third Army proved its discipline and skill in the first phases Of the retreat from the Carso. It is still on the south of the line, driving back and back, and turn ing to fight at each stage in the road. On the northern end, fanking it is the Fourth Army, from the old Car nic positions - mountaineers these, and the hardest men in the world. Portions of it made forced marcoe es over mountains already snow covered, where the driving rains that shrouded the plains and turned them into q bog were translated into b,izzards. tray cling over 92 miles before they gained touch with the Third Army. For them the first phase of their retire. inent meant the stripping of their long established positions of large
 
 port of gums and ammunition whict mad been perched almost niracalollsly on mountain peaks, the destrtsction of rock -hewn galleries, the unstringing of cable railways and the iike--a for midable labor of demolition of their own work-and at the end of 1t the pain and dispiritment of retirement with all the long backward battle.
 Soon should come the moment when to the heroisfn of these armies will be added the weight and fresh implsfon of the new Allied troops; It will be q great moment. and it's effect upon the Italian soldiers will be incalculable. There is ready for our men, and for the French, When they take up their positions upon the front, such a wei come of implicit faith in. the salvation they bring. such fortified trust in the Alliance, that it is worth almost any price to purchase it-men, guns, and material, for Italy is literally lighting for. her life I must not indicate the line which it is proposed to held the enemy upon. nor the consequences of a failure there It is pity, for I should like the British public to real ize exactly what are the stakes which are being fought foe.