Our Italian Allies are fighting resolutely in the foothills of
the Alps to the north of Venice. They have been pushed back a little by the weight of superior numbers and heavier guns, but they have made the enemy pay dearly for the peaks which be has taken. On Thursday week they lost the outlying hills north-east of Asiago and west of the Brenta, called Castelgoinberto, Piot., and Melette ; some of the Alpini battalions preferred to die fighting rather than retire or yield. On Wednesday they had to face, and in the main they repulsed, a violent attack on the hills further east, between the Brenta and the Piave. At the southern end of their line, on Monday, they lost the bridgehead on the old Piave at Cape Silo, which is at the north-eastern corner of the Venetian lagoons. They recovered it the same night by a counterattack and held it next day against fresh assaults. The British and French troops are now in position, the British hold the Montalto, a low plateau washed on two sides by the Piave. The river-line should now be secure if the northern hill-front can be held. The advent of winter would simplify the defenders' task. Last Sunday night some Italian destroyers made a daring raid into the port of Trieste, and tor- pedoed and sank the old battleship Wien.'
