Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-06-24
$4,000 of the Enemy Already
Taken by the Victorious
Italians Who Are Cutting
Down Austrians by the
Thousands
RIVER FLOATS FULL OF
BODIES OF INVADERS
Emperor Charles Men Caught
by Swirling Waters of the
Piave in Veritable Death
trap; Great Amount of
Booty Left
By Associated Press

Italy's victory over the Aus
trians on the Piave front appears
likely to assume the proportions
of a veritable triumph for the
Italians and a disaster of great
magnitude for the defeated
enemy.
Already, it is announced in
official dispatches from Rome,
the Austrians have lost $4,000
men in prisoners and great guam
titles of material, while the extent
of their other casualties may be in
d1cated by the thousands of bodies
floating in the waters of the swollen
Piave.
Prccipitate Retreat
Unable to force his way further
than the immediate vicinity of the
west bank of the river, and with
bridges thrown across the stream
swept away by the swirling waters
or the flood pouring down from the
mountains, the enemy began a pre-
cipitate retreat Saturday night.
So hasty was his withdrawal that
he left great many cannon on the
west bank of the Piave, while his
retreating infantry columns, accord
ing to news dispatches, are already
being pressed by Italian detach-
ments thrown over to the easterly
side of the stream.
Back Across River
From the Montello plateau south
ward to the Adriatic comes the same
story of the Austrian retreat. The
Piave river formerly emptied into
the sea quite near Venice, but in re-
cents years its course has changed
to its present location. In the first
rush of the Austrian offensive, the
enemy succeeded in crossing the old
river bed, which is now a canal.
From their positions there the foe
mas been driven. and the Italians are
relentlessly pressing the pursuit.
The latest news dispatches from
the Piave river front, sent out on
Sunday. tell of italian bombing units
being thrown across the main stream
of the Piave, which seems to indicate
that the Austrian retreat was not
stayed at the eastern bank of the
river.
ForlOrn Hope
10 tNGty the AUS
trian hunger offensive" has been
a forlorn hope for several days. The
effect of the defeat on the internal
conditions of Austria Hungary, when
once the news is made public, can
only be conjectured, but it may be
that the Italians have dealt the
enemy a harder blow than that
merely involved in the military feat
of pushing him back across the
Piave.
There have been no further re-
ports foreshadowing a new attack
in the mountain sectors of the Ital-
ian front. by their signal victory In
the lower reaches of their battle
front, however, the Italians and the
allied troops fighting in that the
ater of the war may be expected to
meet any new move with the stub
born resistance which so far has null
lifted the efforts of the Austrian
emperor to carry the war into the
plains of Italy and still the murmurs
of his soldiers with the loot from
captured cities.
Coincident with the Italian victory
on the Piave comes the news of the
Italian units on the Marne- Rheims
sector repulsing a second heavy
German attack on the heights of
Bligny, just to the west of the city
of Rheims. The German failure
was complete, as was the original
blow on Saturday night.