Don Martin diary entry for Saturday, January 19, 1918:
Got up at 9 and went to Claridge to see Paul D. [Crawath] of N.Y., advisor for U.S. to Inter-Allied Council [for War Purchases and Finance]. He introduced me to Oscar T. Crosby, Pres. of [Inter-Allied] Council [who later became Assistant Secretary of the Treasury] whom I had long confidential talk. He says German attack soon to come will be biggest blow ever struck by any army. He says French and English pull and haul and Germany knows it and is making the most of it. Submarine menace serious he says. Went to office for while.
Got up at 9 and went to Claridge to see Paul D. [Crawath] of N.Y., advisor for U.S. to Inter-Allied Council [for War Purchases and Finance]. He introduced me to Oscar T. Crosby, Pres. of [Inter-Allied] Council [who later became Assistant Secretary of the Treasury] whom I had long confidential talk. He says German attack soon to come will be biggest blow ever struck by any army. He says French and English pull and haul and Germany knows it and is making the most of it. Submarine menace serious he says. Went to office for while.
Then walked a roundabout way to hotel where I wrote two columns “sidelights” for mailing. Dinner at Simpson’s again. Went to Fleet St. office in evening for a short time. Bought Locke’s “Beloved Vagabond” and began reading it.
Weather nasty but warm
Don Martin wrote and cabled on January 19 a story about successes on the Italian war front, which was published in the New York Herald on Sunday, January 20, 1918.
ITALIANS CLEARING AUSTRIANS FROM EAST AND NORTH
Oust Teuton Invaders from Piave Sector and from Monte Asolone Positions
[Special Cable to the Herald]
Herald Bureau, No. 130 Fleet Street, London, Saturday
Two notable successes gained by the Italians this week marked the beginning of the expulsion of the Teuton invaders. Fought to a standstill on both fronts, with their communications impeded by deep snow in the mountains, the Austro-German forces are facing a great disaster. Unwilling to retreat, yet unable to advance, they are being mowed down by thousands.
At the same time the Italian army has been brought up to greater strength than ever by a mustering of nearly half a million new men this week, ranging from eighteen to forty-four years old, a number far exceeding the losses suffered by the defections that occurred when the Teutons first broke through the Isonzo line owing to their insidious and treacherous propaganda among the Italian troops.
By their victory at Capo Lile, made pubic to-day, General Diaz’s forces have removed the most threatening danger to Venice. This town is on the western edge of a triangular delta of marshland formed by the Piave and the “Old Piave,’ or Sile River. The Teutons had crossed these marshes during their first onrush from the Tagliamento but were held up at the river.
Extending southwestward from the Sile is a series of shallow lagoons cut up by mud flats just lifting above the water, their surface covered with seaweed and navigable only in narrow channels known to the boatmen of Venice, which is about fifteen miles away. The region will be best understood in New York by saying it is for all the world like Jamaica Bay, only more so.
Venice “Taxicabs” to the Rescue
As General Gallieni used the taxicabs of Paris to move fresh troops against the Germans on the Marne, so the Italian commander seized all the gondolas, motor boats and flat boats of Venice and with their own pilots sent them, full of sharpshooters and machine guns, through these intricate waterways to the Sile barrier to check the Teutons. The device succeeded admirably and the enemy was held in the delta.
Only one road crosses the marshland from the Piave, near the Adriatic coast, reaching the Sile at Cavazuccherina, whence it follows the eastern bank of the Sile past Piave Vecchia to Capo Sile. From that point to Porto Grande, five miles further west, the Sile has been turned into a canal. A small branch of the Piave joins the Sile at its junction with the canal. By opening these waterways the whole delta has been flooded and the Teutons were cleared out.
Within the last three weeks, however, the water has been running low and the Austro-Germans pushing along the single road over the marshes occupied Piave Vecchia and nearly reached Capo Sile, constructing trenches and dugouts wherever the nature of the ground permitted. Operations in this sector have been directed for the last ten days to breaking up these offensive works.
First, a great concentration of trench mortars and machine gun fire was brought to bear on the lower end of the Teutons’ river positions at Cavazuccherina, which the enemy were forced to evacuate, losing thousands of men as they retreated under fire. On Sunday this process was continued further north at Cortellazzo and a quantity of war material was captured from the fleeing foe.
A bridgehead put across the river by the Italians at Capo Sile was extended and some enemy trenches were carried in a surprise attack on Monday. A strong counter attack that night was beaten off with heavy loss to the Austrians. They came back again on Wednesday, but were thrown back after four hours of desperate fighting, leaving 491 prisoners in the hands of the Italians.
Correspondents at the Italian headquarters report that 500 rifles were found on the ground, which was covered with enemy dead. Eighteen machine guns and two bomb throwers were captured. This victory has taught the Austrians that they cannot bring their big guns within the range of Venice. That part of the front is considered safe from further invasion.
Storm Monte Asolone
Italian troops, aided by French artillery, also achieved a signal victory on the northern line between the Brenta and the Piave, pushing back the enemy from Monte Tomba. On Monte Asolone the Teutons had established observation posts looking down the San Nazario valley toward the Brenta and the city of Bassano, supported by artillery on Monte Pertica, two miles to the northeast.
From their positions on Monte Asolone the Austrians occasionally had reached Bassano, nearly twelve miles to the south, with their long range guns. Little damage had been occasioned, but the Italians determined to stop the annoyance and made a concerted attack with infantry on Monday after the French and Italian batteries had prepared the way by shelling the Austrian positions.
There was a light fog partially concealing the movement of the Italians as they started from the valley through the melting snow up the slopes of the mountain. As soon as the movement was discovered, the enemy directed a concentrated fire on the advancing columns, but no halt was made until the Austrian positions were reached and their observation posts were destroyed.
The movement was carried out so quickly that the enemy was unable to bring up large bodies of infantry and in one case more than half of a large battalion, taken by surprise in their winter quarters in log barracks, was captured. Monte Asolone was the last mountain above 4,000 feet high in this region, the remaining hills being only two or three thousand feet in altitude. Its capture therefore has an important bearing on the campaign.
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