The retreat was accomplished by stages. Each stopping place, where the
land and marine forces were gathered and rearranged before carrying out
the established plan, had to be protected during the counterattacks of
the Italian rear guards, which became more frequent and vigorous with
the increasing accuracy of the enemy fire. These attacks were made more
difficult by the swampy nature of the ground. This flat and marshy land
offers no points of defense and has no traversable and continuous roads.
The marines were outnumbered by the regiments confronting them.
Every difficulty was overcome by the valor and self-sacrifice of the
Italian sailors. Aviators were seen flying for several consecutive days
without resting--attacking the moving enemy columns with machine guns;
defending themselves against numerous enemy airplanes, or dropping
messages under fire at the points of reunion of the Italian troops in
order to insure co-operation between the navy and the army; and
continually alternating flights of observation with those of bombardment
under the most adverse conditions.
Platoons of marines stood in the mud behind guns corroded by the
inundations, holding back entire companies of enemy troops for days and
nights without the possibility of obtaining relief or food. Some of the
gun crews dragged not only the mounts and the guns by hand across very
swampy ground, with the water up to their knees, but also the munition
cases, without taking time for sleeping or eating.
Armed submarine chasers threaded their way up winding and narrow canals,
in which they could not even have turned around in case of a forced
retreat, and hammered a Hungarian battalion for hours, until it had to
retire in disorder before the determination of a handful of men with a
few cannons and machine guns. Batteries of marines prolonged the defense
of Caorle, a few hundred meters from the enemy advance guards, and did
not cease firing until every civilian and everything movable had been
placed in security. After this they succeeded in reaching the line of
the Piave with their efficiency unimpaired.
Some companies of sailors clad in gray-green held off a big group of
"Honveds," [Hungarian guards,] forced back the boats which were
attempting to cross the river, made prisoners of men who had succeeded
in crossing with machine guns, captured their arms, defended their own
flank from the continuous encircling movements of other enemy troops who
had crossed the Piave further up stream, and finally formed a firm
pillar of defense for the right flank of the army where it made its
final stand.
This is a short summary of the work carried out by the Italian Navy
during the two weeks following the evacuation of Monfalcone and Grado.
When the navy was called upon not only to co-operate and to protect but
to constitute an important part of the line of resistance on the lower
Piave, its duties were multiplied and assumed the character of a direct
participation in the land war. Its special mission was to defend the
Lagoons of Venice. The work of forming the principal ring of defense
around the City of the Doges was confided to the machine gunners of the
navy. The duty of defending the approaches along the seacoast was given
to the sailors, and that of observing the battlefields on the lagoons to
the aviators. The torpedo boats were asked to guarantee the extreme
right wing against surprise from the sea.