Note 4 — The Italian Invasion and Italo-Germanic Differences

In an Associated Press dispatch from Rome (via Paris) on June 23 one of the chief Generals in the Italian War Office was reported to have summarized the first month of the campaign about as follows:

One month ago the Italians invaded Austrian territory, uprooted the yellow and black poles bearing the Austrian eagle, and occupied the enemy positions along a front of 500 miles. An Austrian squadron bombarded the Italian coast on the Adriatic, and Austrian aeroplanes dropped eleven bombs on Venice.

During this month the Italians overran the whole of Friuli. The capture of Tolmino and Goritz, the two Austrian strongholds, is considered imminent, which would open the way to Trieste; while in the Alpine region in the province of Trent they have conquered peaks and passes, from which the picked Austro-Hungarian troops have been unable to dislodge them.

Austrian activity has been chiefly displayed in bombarding the Italian Adriatic towns.

From Vienna (via London) on June 23 the following Austro-Hungarian official résumé of the operations of the first month of war along the Italian frontier was issued:

During the first month of the war the Italians have gained no great success. Our troops in the southwest maintain their positions as in the beginning, on or near the frontier.

On the Isonzo front in the fortified frontier district from Flitsch to Malborgeth, on the Carinthian ridge, and on all the fronts of Tyrol, all enemy attempts at an advance have collapsed with heavy losses.