Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-02-03 | Page 1 | 224 Lives Lost When Steamer Goes Down

in LIVES HOST WHEN STEAMER G0EI001 British Armed Boarding Vessel Torpedoed and Sunk by German Submarine Sub-marine in the Eastern ! Mediterranean on Jan-j Jan-j uary 21; Announce-j Announce-j ment Just Made. SERB PRISONERS STARVED TO DEATH Lnspeakable Cruelties fd!- - acticed by the Aus-trfass Aus-trfass Upon Unfortunate Unfortu-nate Antagonists Who Fall Into Their Hands; Italians Continue to Hold Ground. LONDON, Feb. 2 The British armed boarding steamer Louvain, Lieutenant Commander M. G. Earton, commanding, was torpedoed torpe-doed and sunk by a German submarine sub-marine in the eastern Mediterranean Mediterran-ean on January 21. Seven officers and 217 men were lost. The official announcement was made tonight. ITAUAN" ARMY HEADQUARTERS. Feb. 2. (By ths Associated Press). Exchanged Ex-changed Italian prisoners who have just arrived from Austrian concentration amps tell of almost unbelievable cruellies cruel-lies practiced against prisoners, particularly particu-larly Serbians, who are reported conned con-ned In cages and fed through bars like f animals. An authoritative summary of It." statements of these returned prisoners prison-ers says: j "The treatment of the Serbians is even worse than that of the Italians, indicating (t Austria intends to destroy the Ser-' Ser-' -Vvs as a race. As a result of these con-JIUoi?ere, con-JIUoi?ere, up to now not less than 30,000 to 40,000 have died from starvation. They are permitted to receive no parcels and are unable to work because of weakness. weak-ness. They are put, like animals, in cages with wooden bars. Through these te-'s the keepers throw tliera scraps of uneatable bread, carrots and turnips as te'r sole sustenance. The mortality, al-'eatfy al-'eatfy great, is increasing, as they are tf'.en no care and there are no doctors and no sanitation." Concerning the Italians, tho statement as they returned In rags, after suffer-lrf suffer-lrf 111 treatment and exposure to cold I u2l.e compelled to work on enemy ''enciies under the guard of Hungarians. are declared to be particularly hos-l;le hos-l;le to the Italians. They received a taa!I loaf of bread daily for division '"long eight men. Conditions are so ter- ib!'V the rePrt says, that they will In not more than one-third of the 'an prisoners coming back alive. WSTRIANS FAIL IN THEIR EFFORT TO REGAIN POSTS K.'hA,LU-NI -ARMY HEADQUARTERS. e-.T, '8y llle Associated Press). The Uv!,- ade another powerful effort vest's ves-t's v re'Jeem the situation west of r.-'rtnta river, where the Italians re-Ua-V w,jn a notable success, but was back by the combined action of I i'i "''ar"ry and artillery without reacting reacti-ng objective of Monte di Valla Bella, tne Italians arc maintaining their '-'lion. extent of the enemy losses In the U" i.rf early this week is" now known to ci'atlrf evn than the first account in-i in-i the fuller details making this k i Tunt An observer who tfilked with I :r. ";b" of the captured officers and 1 ,J'i j2k0 the'V were a miserable looking r ' J&' of them wearing Italian uni-taken uni-taken during the invasion of the in ri-siun. I : tiie prisoners agreed as to the I.;,'.1" rature of the filming and the jnonally heavy losses caused by the (Contill..ed 224 LIVES LOST WHEN STEAMER GOES 001 (Continued from Page One.) concentration of the fire of the Italian, French and British batteries. The trenches were leveled and the links be- j tween the forward and rear lines swept ! away, thus stopping all communications i and preventing- the officers from secur- I ins co-ordination in the work of the ar- ! tillery and the infantry. The few trenches remaining were littered with dead and ; the survivors were found for the most J part on their knees, hysterically crying or praying. The Twenty-first rifle division of the Austrian forces had 5000 men put out of action, or about 70 per cent of the fighting fight-ing forces. Brigades of the Eighteenth and Sixth Austrian divisions had casualties casual-ties amounting to approximately 50 per cent. But the most terrible loss was inflicted in-flicted on the 160th landsturm, which, of several thousand men in Ime, has only a few hundred left. Triple Artillery Fire. 1 The magnitude of such losses was due ; to the triple artillery fire of the allies, i maintained for forty consecutive hours, often cross-firing from two or three directions di-rections simultaneously. An unusual feature fea-ture of this artillery action was the complete com-plete unity brought about among the Italian, French and British batteries. This was so marked that one of the chiefs of the artillery staff exclaimed : "At last we have realized unity of command com-mand right in the face of the enemy fire." An enemy battery with four monster 240-millimeter guns was destroyed completely. com-pletely. The whole action disclosed un-', usual demoralization and confusion in the enemy lines. While a convoy of prisoners was being taken to the rear, an enemy airplane, flying low, sought to interrupt its progress. prog-ress. The machine finally, was brought down by a rifle. This was said to be a rare instance of the bringing down of an airplane by a rifle. Interrogation of prisoners gave confirmation con-firmation of reports that the Germans have moved troops from the Russian to the French front during the armistice. This was accomplished indirectly by granting leave to the best troops on the Russian front, their places being filled from the invalid class.