Identifier: literarydigesthi09hals (find matches)
Title: The Literary digest history of the world war, compiled from original and contemporary sources: American, British, French, German, and others
Year: 1919 (1910s)
Authors: Halsey, Francis W. (Francis Whiting), 1851-1919, comp
Subjects: World War, 1914-1918
Publisher: New York, London, Funk & Wagnalls Company
Contributing Library: Columbia University Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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trategical purpose. No material advance was indicated—no advance at all, in fact, except on the west bank of thePiave. It started raggedly and was halted almost in itstracks. It had developed a little secondary punch in thePiave region, but it remained a series of loosely connectedoperations, along a far too extended front. It had been solong delayed that the Italians had had ample time in whichto collect reserves to meet it. What the Emperor Charlesneeded was not a local success here and there in northernItaly, but an imposing victory with which to restore con-fidence at home and quiet not only his half-rebellious Slavsbut his war-weary Austrians and Hungarians. With thisoffensive a failure, he had now to stand on the defensive,Austrias fighting spirit was fiickering out. Her mountainbarriers might protect her for months to come, but she couldhardly cast her eyes again toward Verona, Vicenza, andPadua, or even toward Venice. Indications multiplied that the Austrians were doomed 132
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133 IN THE EAST, NEAR EAST, AND SOUTH to defeat. The fighting, however, was not yet over, as theyhad prepared for a longer offensive and had mustered theirmaximum strength. The struggle settled down to a series ofpitched battles of great intensity, battles in which numbersbecame the most prominent factor. Numerous attemptswere made to gain further bridgeheads on the western bankof the Piave, but the Italians everywhere checked them withgun-fire, doing sanguinary work in the ranks across theriver with bombs and machine-gun fire. More than 9,000men had been taken by the Italians since the offensivebegan, many guns and several hundred machine-guns. Fiftyenemy planes had been shot down, while only two Alliedmachines failed to return to their base. The heaviest fighting was around the bridgehead theAustrians established on the lower Piave, where they weretrying to push westward toward Venice. They held thewest bank of the river from Meserade to Fossalta and SanDona Di Piave, a front of abo

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