13 JULY 1918, Page 1

The Italian Army on the Piave front completed the Austrian

defeat last Saturday by expelling the enemy from the river delta, which he had held since November last. The Twenty-third Corps had much desperate fighting in this marshy region, where movement was only possible along the roads and embankments, so that a few brave men with machine-guns could hold up whole battalions. The Austrians used their best troops—Bosnian Moslems, who were being trained for service in Syria—but they failed to stop the Italian Arditi. The Italian front now runs along the New Piave—five miles further east of Venice than it was before. Since the Austrian offen- sive began on June 15th our gallant Allies have captured nearly twenty-four thousand five hundred prisoners and many guns, besides recovering their own lost artillery.