Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 10.djvu/511

LEFT "WOULD WAR 441 WORLD WAR front. German and Russian soldiers lay watching each other from their trenches, sometimes even crossing the intervening space and holding friendly intercourse. The Bolsheviki encouraged this fraterni- zation, hoping to carry on Bolshevist propaganda among the German soldiers. In this work the Bolsheviki were, for the time being, assisted by the Committee on Public Information of the United States, which printed and sent over into the German lines tons of literature tending to discourage the German soldiers with further warfare. Italy's Defeat and Recovery. — Little of importance occurred on the Italian pleasant shock. Here, as in Russia, the cause seemed to have been the propa- ganda of the extreme Socialist elements. Shortly previous, German troops had been secretly arriving on this front, tak- ing their places among the Austrians. On October 24 these troops began their attack. The onslaught came with the sud- denness of a stroke of lightning. During the first week the Italians lost nearly a quarter of a million men in prisoners taken by the enemy and 2,300 guns. The attack began in the Julian Alps, then spread southward down to the vicinity of Venice. Tolmino and Plezzo were taken from the Italians; the whole LINE ON WESTERN FRONT AT END OF WAR front during the year 1917 until May 15, when the Italians began their strong offensive movement, culminating in the capture of Gorizia on August 9, Monte Santo on August 24, and Monte Gabriele on September 14. During this period the Italians had apparently i>erformed wonders, considering the nature of the terrain on which they were operating. Steadily they had forced the Austrians back. The news of the disaster which over- took the Italians, beginning on Oct. 24, 1917, came to the public of the Allied countries with a tremendous and un- Italian line from the sea to the Carnic Alps wavered, then broke. More im- portant still, the Italians lost Caporetto, on the upper Isonzo, where they had built a series of dams by means of which the Isonzo could be flooded at a moment's notice, so that it would be impassable by any army. The Italian retreat continued until the Piave river was reached, where British and French troops met them and served as stiffening. General Cadorna had meantime been dismissed, and General Armando Diaz appointed commander-in» chief in his place.