The Washington herald., 1918-10-31
BRITONS BRAVE
IN PIAVEPUSH
Swim, Wade and Trudge
Through Stream After
All-Night Rain.

London. Oct 30-CBy British Wire
, less Servicel.-The Times correspou-
! dent, teIegraphing on Monday from
Italian headquarters. describes the
difficulties encountered by British
forces in crossing the Piave: Papa
dopoli Island was reached in small
boats which were swept wildly about
i9 the, neFee., c,i5peIS Of the-rtrer. -
The COS esponGcnt says: The tir,e
for assault was just before in
, the 'lprh,nr Rain came pouring
down soon after. 1t was like a sea
drenchiny the earth
The attackers moved up from the
western side of Papadopoli Island
to its easeern rim at FIVE thirty.
When they got to their taking of
I place drenched as hey were: they
sat on the sodden shingle to wait
| for orders to advance. There was
nothing else to do.
They had to endure four hours
, of the enemy's barrage on the is
| landau intense. hellish barrage.
says an officer who endured II.
There were no trenches. no shelters.
] JUST bdIt SillHB lF anu " dAFI al
round. the barrage on the top of all.
Through Darkness and Storm.
! AT 6:45 came the signal on they
moved and were Immediately strag-
/ Cling in bitterly cold and furious
/ currents. The men gave their hands
: TO each other. Some who could not
: grasp hands were swept away and
/ drowned. All this in great darkness
and still pitiless rain.
1 Several reached the bank. and
! climbing upon it. stretched arms to
! those nearest them who in turn
stretched out their hands so that
] chains were formed, the chains not
| crossing the river straight but almost
at acute angles to the bank they had
! just left.
! Presently every man had his foot
! ing on the opposite side Of the Piave
! The Austrians seemed to have aban-
/ doned their trenches by the river,
/ though quantities of munitions were
lying all around and there was an in
/ describable mass OF heaped-up war
material Our men had about 500
yards to swim. wade and trudEe be
/ fore they got into the shelter of their
own harragc
"Once ashore, their way was through
rough underwood scrubs and hedges
and thick-growinG acacia trees which
the Austrians had been able to join
up with barbed wires-ohstacles stand
ing at all heights and in all places
and angles The Austrians had en-
trenChed themselves in one of the
raised roads common 70 this fat
marshy country. This embankment
was chock full OF machine gun" Pnd
the men lining it were mainly snipers,
so that any approach was deadly. But
our men had brought their Lewis guns
and bombs as well, and met deadly
spray with a spray as deadly, and
engine with engine.
storm Block Houses.
Once this first road barrier was
i passed. however, they came to Ole
of equal difficulty, as far as the
ground was concerned. and one de-
Tended with every intricate device
that can be imagined. Most of the
houses had been gutted and partly
filled with concrete and lined with
dozens OF machine guns. These blocl,
houses had strong wire STRETCHING
i from them sometimes for a space ct
! two or three fields. so that a whole
/ quadrilateral of land was a deadly
maze. Cellars and caves were used
as freely as always in the Austrian
I defense system
/ THE defenders in many cases show
ed great courage. In others they
! weakened after their first efforts
Once they saw that the British were
not to be deferred, they yielded more
easily They were mostly Hungari-
ans. but after being captured they
were no longer Hungarians of for
mer days. They shook their hands
/ and said mThe PiaYe is no good. ;,