When the news of the Austro-German invasion first spread through the
Italian naval bases, the Captains of the battleships saw an unusual
procession passing before their cabins, all asking the same thing--to be
moved into the infantry and sent to the front. Special orders of the day
were necessary to make the rank and file understand that each man could
best play his part by remaining at his own post. It was announced,
however, that those whose services were not absolutely necessary at
their bases would be given full satisfaction. The first naval infantry
companies were thus formed in a few days. Sections of the navy belonging
to the defense of Monfalcone and Grado were under fire on foot from the
first days of the resistance between the Tagliamento and the Livenza,
and many others wished to join these gray-green companies.
The first battalion of sailors, perfectly equipped and organized for
trench warfare, went into the front line the 1st of November. Most of
these men were not experiencing land firing for the first time, as they
had participated with small groups in the defense of Monfalcone and
Grado, but they had never before been used as real naval infantry. The
lower Piave, where it forms a zigzag before flowing into the Adriatic,
was assigned to the naval battalion as its line of defense. At dawn on
Nov. 13 the battalion underwent a tremendous shock from the advance
guard of the left flank of Boroevic's army. The attack was definitely
repulsed. However, a few kilometers to the west, where the line of the
Piave was held by battalions of territorials, the enemy succeeded in
throwing a bridge of boats across the river near Grisolera and getting
an armed patrol with machine guns to the opposite shore.
The territorials withdrew to Case Molinato, in the direction of
Cavazuccherina, and groups of Honveds crossed the large watery island
between the old and new Piave. The naval battalion, therefore, found its
left flank suddenly exposed and had to face both front and lateral
attacks. The Italians were commanded by an officer of great strength of
character, Lieut. Commander Starita, who decided to hold and to
counterattack in spite of the difficult position. The enemy was
therefore unable to enlarge the breach and was energetically held in the
delta of the river.
"ARDITI" OF THE NAVY
In the meantime the Hungarian machine gunners who had crossed the Piave
fortified themselves in the houses, barricaded the doors and windows
with sandbags, and, supported by these machine gunners, other enemy
patrols crept over, especially at night, through the dense vegetation of
the delta, and with riflefire and bombs tormented the sailors, who had
remained without any contact with the army. Lieut. Commander Starita,
though having only a few hundred men at his disposal, held a front of
several kilometers on three sides and organized a special corps of
"braves" to clean out the infested zone. He improvised the "Arditi" of
the navy and led them into action. Near Case Allegri a platoon of
Hungarians had established themselves in an old guardhouse and had made
a small fort with several machine guns. A patrol led by Captain Starita
was able to surround them and to penetrate and kill the commanding
officer despite the heavy fire of the machine gunners. The twenty
surviving Hungarians, as soon as they saw their leader fall, raised
their hands and called out "Kamerad!" The marines disarmed them, bound
them with their puttees, captured the machine guns, and conducted them
to the main battalion.
The same day, near Revedoli, a boat full of enemy soldiers attempted to
cross the river and to outflank the marines on the right, aided by a
bend in the river. The outlook post discovered what was happening and
another Italian patrol came to the rescue and engaged the Honveds. The
Hungarians were almost all captured and the boat taken. The following
day the Starita battalion, which in the meantime had remained isolated
from the rest of the army with a dismounted squadron of cavalry and with
a company of Alpine machine gunners, was put under a hard strain, as the
left flank of Boroevic's army was renewing the attack with great
strength. The enemy was repulsed, and the marine patrols took new
prisoners and fresh booty. As these operations had produced appreciable
losses, the line of the battalion was withdrawn on the evening of Nov.
14 from Case Allegri to the mouth of the river, without any
communication with the rest of the front.
The Italian troops of the lagoon section also had established a definite
line on the Sile and the old Piave, covering Cavazuccherina with a
bridgehead. The retirement of the naval battalion to the new line of the
Cavetta Canal from Cavazuccherina to the sea was then decided upon.
Lieut. Commander Starita received orders to reach the final positions on
the night of the 15th. It would have been an unnecessary sacrifice to
continue an isolated fight on the new Piave, as the sailors wished to
do. Therefore, the battalion made an orderly retirement with their
booty and all their prisoners to the line of Cavetta.
Between the 16th and 17th the enemy succeeded in sending some chosen
fighters with machine guns and hand grenades to the houses of
Cortelazza, north of the bend of the river. As the distance between the
two banks is only a few yards, the sailors opened a heavy fire on the
enemy advance guards, intensifying it at night. The battalion did not
have sufficient material to undertake a strong counterattack and to
repulse the advance guards beyond Cortelazza. On the 18th the necessary
material and hand grenades began to arrive. The counterattack was
immediately opened with great energy, the houses were retaken, and so
the marines were able to throw a bridgehead beyond the Cavetta Canal and
Cortelazza, which, consolidated, represents the extreme point of the
land resistance toward the sea.
This first naval company, which did so much to arrest the progress of
the Austro-Hungarians toward the Lagoon of St. Mark, now gives a
veteran's greeting to every new group of marines that comes to add its
strength to the ring around Venice.
[Illustration: DWELLING HOUSES IN VENICE RUINED BY AIR-RAID BOMBS]