Salt Lake Tribune | 1917-11-20 | Page 2 | Italian Troops Contest Every Inch of Ground

ITALIAN TROOPS CONTEST EVERY INCH OF GROUND WASHINGTON. Nov. 19. The desperate des-perate character of the fighting between the Italians and the Austro-Germans on ! the Piave river is emphasized in an of-! of-! ficial cable dispatch received here today I from Rome. "Yesterday morning." says the dis-I dis-I patch. "Austrian troops attacked our po-j po-j sitions near Ponte di Plave alter an in-i in-i tense artillery iire. The positions were defended bv tiie Fifty-fourth infantry dl- vision, composed of the Noxara brigade .and the Third Bersaglieri brigade. Over-i Over-i come by the effect of asphyxiating gases, j our soldiers at the beginning gave way to the advancing enemy, hut later. In a ! dashing counter-attack, our troops suc-! suc-! ceeded in pushing the Austrians back to j tne river after a most furious hand-to-! hand engagement. Cults of Bersaglieri also are fighting epic ba ttles between Fagaro and San t'.artolomeo, where every ravine, every hole, every obstacle is desperately contested con-tested between the enemy and the defenders de-fenders and becomes the center- of the most sanguinary encounters. An entire division of Austrian is participating in the battle, which Is still ragintr. "The Austrians have been compelled to withdra w to the river edge, where they are stubbornly fighting, with the river behind tN-m and with little hope of receiving re-ceiving assistance in their difficult situation. sit-uation. "In this sector alone our soldiers have captured more than ."00 prisoners, with twenty. two officers and considerable war material, including many machine guns, which were immediately turned against the enemy."