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Show FRENCH ViGTDRY SENDS TEimHS into mm Northern Front From Monte Tomba to the Piave Secretly Secret-ly Evacuated by Austro-German Austro-German Troops. ITALIAN PATROLS MAKE DISCOVERY Field Marshal Haig Reports Hostile Artillery Activity; Berlin Tells of Prisoners Prison-ers Gathered. V ITALIAN ARMY HEADQUARTERS IX NORTHERN ITALY', Wednesday, .Inn. 2o'. As a result of the brilliant victory FreneJi troops gained recently on Monte Toinha, the cuemy lias secretly se-cretly evacuated the territory on the northern mountain front from Tomba west, to tho Piavo river. Tho evacnatiou was discovered by French and Italian patrols anil raiding parties. "When the French made their drive at ' Monte Tomba Homo of their detachments detach-ments -were carried , by enthusiasm through the Aiistro-Gorman lines to tho . banks of tho Piavo river. They then found the hamlets were deserted, hot it, was believed this was- incident to the day's operations, and it was not then known that, the section was being systematically vacated by tho enemy. Trenches Deserted. Further reconnaissances made in the hist few days showed there had been a definite withdrawal. Camps, .material .mate-rial and supplies had been taken to .the rear and tho Ions lines of forward trenches were deserted. Italian patrols exploring the region found that the Austrians had adopted a remarkable ruse to conceal their. departure. de-parture. They had lined the forward 1 trenches with dummy soldiers, topped with helmets which protruded slightly above the trenches, to give an appearance appear-ance of occupation. In one of the battery bat-tery positions they had constructed machine ma-chine guns with zinc, barrels mounted on wood, while pioces of wood and gas pipe were shaped with the same ob-;joet. ob-;joet. Back Into Mountains. Tho section evacuated includes defensive de-fensive position along the valley of Ornio. The enemy's retirement takes him further into the mountains. The h'(ighls around ilonte Tomba do not exceed 2000 feet, while those in the vicinity vi-cinity of Monte Spinoncia are nearly 4000 feet high and. are further back from the plains. While the enomy still holds his advance ad-vance positions on both slopes to the Brenta river, his voluntary evacuation of one of the chief lines of approach to the plain appears to indicate that he has given up hope of breaking through this winter, and the French are receiving a large measure of credit for this decisive setback of the enemy's plan. |