The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1918-11-09

come an Italian lake. A"little more
looked down upon Trent from the
| hills, then to be taken for the at
lacking, but Bismarck denied it to
Italy. Now the people OF the city.
passionately Italian in all their sym
pathies, are liberated. \ Trieste is
similarly occupied by Italian troops.
Italian Irredenta is unredeemed no
| longer. 49,.
Going backward for moment, to
September Is. when D'Esperey
launched his Serbs against the BuIg-
gars about DobropoIjie, we, can
count little less than seven weeks,
and in this time we, have seen the
miracle accomplished. Serb troops
entered Belgrade on the day Italian
troops occupied Trent and Trieste.
Serbia and Italy were assured of
| freedom from an invader at the very
same hour. The occupation of Con-
stantinoples is a matter of moments.
The affairs of Serbia, Turkey and Of
Italy are 1iquidated.
What shall one say OF Austria
| About the future nothing can be
said with safety. About the past
| it is, perhaps, interesting in the
| hour of the final military disaster
] to recall the military history of the
Hamburg empire in this war. In
| August, 1914, at the Jedar a great
Austrian army was routed by the
Serbians, who scored the first con-
siderable Allied victory of the war.
A week later about Lemberg the
main Austrian armies were routed in
a series OF battles, which constituted
one of the great military triumphs
OF the war. After these defeats the
Austrians evacuated most of Galicia.
| Temporarily relieved by German
aid, the Austrian armies in Novem-
ber Joined in the first Hindenburg
bid for Warsaw, but were defeated
on the Vistula, and as a consequence
Galicia was overrun to the gates of
Cracow. In the winter the Russians
crowded over the Carpathians,
prisoners. Meantime Serbia had
destroyed another great Austrian
army at Valievo.
In 1915 the German victory at the
Dunajec relieved Austria, but the
! following year the failure of the Of,
| fensive against Italy was followed
by the colossal disaster in Galicia
and Volhynia which led to the cap
ture OF 100000 Austrian troops and
1.-THE approach of the Russians to Lem
berg Only German intervention
saved Austria at this moment, and
/ again when Rumania entered the
war, while on the Italian front
Gorilla was lost.
In 1917 Austria's role was passive,
even at Caporetto the strategy was
German, and the decisive blow was
delivered by German troops. AS an
offensive force as a fighting force,
| the Austrians We're no longer for
midable, and their defeat in the
First Battle of the Piave this year
| proved this fact. After the defeats
] of 1915 the Austrian army was no
more than a blunted instrument in
German hands; it supplied troops
| for occupation in Russia, it held the
Italian armies at the Piave, but il
was no longer capable of furnishing
more than few relatively inferior
divisions for defensive operations on
the West front, notably at st. Mihiel
i Such is the Austrian record in the
present war. The German and Hun
| garian troops have fought we'll and
with great determination, although
under Austrian and Hungarian lead
ership they have invariably been
A defeated. But the Slav troops have
fought with little energy, have sur
rendered by the thousands to the
Russians and have been an element
| of weakness at all times. Under the
1 strain of the war the army, like
the nation, has steadily deteriorat-
led. Had the war been between
Austria and Russia, Austria would
have fallen in the autumn of 1914
after the defeats about Lemberg
| Without German aid Austria would
have fallen to Italy last autumn at
ter the Italian victories on the
Bainzizza Plauteau.
And the defeats of the present war
are merely a new edition of Austrian
military history. Napoleon began his
4 career by his triumpl1s over Austria
lin italy. Ulm, Austerlitz and Wa.
+. gram IN the days of the Empire
were victorious over Austrians. Ma