Though the troops to the south, the Italian 3d Army, occupying the Bainsizza, Gorizia and the Carso, made a desperate effort to check the torrent, they were obliged to fall back in accordance with the retirement in the north. Gorizia was evacuated on 28 October and occu pied by the Austrians. By that day the enemy claimed to have taicen 100,000 prisoners and 700 guns. Udine, the seat of the Italian main headquarters, fell to the Austrians on the 29th. Capello's broken army streamed in wild dis order bacic to the Friulian Plain, uncovering the Duke of Aosta's flank and jamming him be tween the invaders and the Adriatic. Though temporarily vanquished, the spirit of the nation was not crushed; it rose gallantly to the call of danger; people and leaders faced the crisis with commendable fortitude. The overwhelming magnitude of the disaster led the Italian com mand to overestimate the forces against them, for it was the new tactics and not weight of numbers that had carried the Austro-Germans farther than their expectations or intentions provided for. But Ludendorff, who had planned the campaign, was not prepared for such a great triumph as now lay almost within his grasp— the annihilation of Italian resistance. All now depended upon the 3d Army, and it did not fail its country in the crisis. Something like a million men, hampered with heavy naval guns, which had to be dragged through swamps and ferried on rafts through floods and blinding rainstorms,.were.engaged in the retreat it was a race against time to reach the Tagliameuto before the enemy. The enemy pressed close on their heels, and on 5 November Borojevich von Bojna's Austrian army operating on von Below's left forced a passage of the Tagliamento near Pinzand, about 40 miles from the mouth of the river. Cadorna still held the middle and lower river, but the position was too precarious in which to remain. The Adige, 60 miles to the west, promised the best defense, but that would uncover Venice, the key to the Adriatic and the whole of Italy's defense. By 8 November the enemy had taken 2,300 guns and nearly a quarter of a million prisoners. Large bodies of Italian troops surrendered every day. The pursuit continued and an attack was made concurrently upon the Tyrolean front, the Asiago sector falling to the Austrians on 10 November. By this time the main Italian forces were every where back on the Piave; thanks to the wintry weather setting in they were able to hold this ground.
The first news of Caporetto brought the Allie.s of Italy to her side, but assistance did not arrive until the Italians had borne the brunt oi the storm and fought the enemy to a stand still. A French contingent under General Fayolle crossed the frontier before the end of October; a British force under General Plumer came on 10 November. Early in that month Mr. Lloyd George, three high British officers, the French Premier, M. Pain'eve and General Foch arrived in Italy. They met the Italian Premier, Orlando, Sonnino, the Foreign Min ister, and other officials at the village of Rapallo„ 16 miles from Genoa, on 5 November. Out of that meeting there sprang the Allied Council of Versailles and the much-needed unity of command on the Western Front. General Cadoma was transferred to Versailles and General Diaz was placed in command of Italy's armies. General Badoglio became chief of the general staff. During the next six weelcs the Austrians delivered numerous attacks along the Piave and near Asiago, where Hoetzendorf was in command, but at the end of the year the Italians were still holding the line of the Piave. On 10 Dec. 1917 it was announced that French and British troops were in the firing line on the Italian front. The British were stationed at Montello, a critical point in the new defense system. Fighting continued throughout the winter; in January the Italians scored some local successes, and by the end of that month military experts decided that the Caporetto campaign was over. Italy had saved herself,
but her military strength had been shaken to its foundations and she had lost much war material. On the enemy side, the unexpected success had raised fresh hopes and particularly confidence in the new style of tactics. Yet the disaster was not altogether without profit to the Allies; it brought about that unity of purpose and effort which had hitherto been lacking, and it also united the Italian nation and produced both military and civil reforms.
On the last day of the year 1917 the French army and artillery came into action west of the Piave, with the result that the Austrians had to abandon their large bridgehead at Zenson, northeast of Venice. The winter was severe and fighting was confined to artillery duels for several weeks. On 29-30 Jan. 1918 the Italians recaptured the Val Bella and Rosso Heights and made 2,600 Austrian prisoners. On 9 May another important success was gained by the capture of the fortified Monte Carno Peak, north of Pasubio. By this time it was evident to the Allied Command that a great Austrian offensive was planned on the Italian 'front to synchronize with a German attack in France. The next battle opened on 15 June, on the whole front, from the Asiago Plateau opposite the British, around by Grappa, Montello and the Piave down to the sea. After a terrific botn bardment the Austrians carried with little re sistance almost the whole front line of the Allies, which included three British and three French divisions. But their success on the mountains was of short duration, for the British drove them out again with great slaughter and pursued them into their own lines, where all resistance ceased. The French and Italians also speedily recovered themselves on the mountain front.' The Austrian storming parties were harried with instant counter-attacks at every point. At two places the enemy had crossed the Piave on the first day of the attadc;. by the third day it was apparent that the offensive was not only a failure, but that the attempt might be converted into a disaster. The Piave had been low when the enemy had crossed; now it rose rapidly and washed away the bridges by which he had come over. The Italians pined the initiative by 21 June; most of the Austrians were driven back across the river with heavy losses; after eight days' fighting those of the enemy who remained on tlie west bank slipped back in the night; during that time the Entente Allies had taken 16,000 prisoners. The Italians followed the enemy across the river, recovering ground with little trouble. By 1 July the Asiago position had been restored and a week later the Italians had cleared the whole Piave delta and secured the safety of Venice. Besides the French and British, there was also a body of Czecho-Slovaks fighting on the Italian front ; the first American contingent arrived there on 31 Lly. On 14 July the second battle of the Marne d opened and the German command vias preoccupied with the last desperate throw. Dur ing.August a series of raids were carried out against the Austrians, but throughout the violent fighting on the Western Front and the period of the Bulgarian and Turkish collapse, the Italians were kept, as part of the general strategy of the Allies, marking time until Foch was prepared for his great thrust. On 15 Sept. 1918 Austria sent a peace note to all belligerents, including her ally, Germany. Neither the Entente Allies nor the United States treated these overtures seriously, for it was known that the dual monarchy was in dire straits and on the verge of collapse. On 6 October General Diaz offered Lord Cavan, who had succeeded General Plumer when the latter went back to Ypres in March, the command of a mixed Italian-British army for the coming offensive.