[Sidenote: The Russian intelligence department collapses.]
Now, when the Russian Army went to pieces in the summer, its
intelligence department collapsed with the rest. The Russian Army has
taken virtually no prisoners for a long time, and consequently the facts
about what troops the Austrians and Germans have on that front have not
been ascertainable. It was known that the enemy used to have about one
hundred and thirty divisions there, but no one could tell whether they
still remained or whether they had been brought away to be held in
reserve for some sudden operation on another front.
[Sidenote: The attack by the Austro-Germans a surprise.]
In this way it came about that the sudden attack by an unexpectedly
large Austro-German force upon the Isonzo line took the Italians by
surprise, with the result that they lost in three days not only all they
had won in two and a half years of hard fighting, by sacrifices and
sufferings and labors beyond human estimation, but also the larger part
of that rich north-eastern department of their country which was for
centuries the metropolitan province of the great Venetian republic.
[Sidenote: Enemy has a great number of fresh guns.]
On October 22 we learned at Italian headquarters that ten German
divisions, about one hundred and twenty thousand men, had arrived behind
the enemy front on the Isonzo and were concentrated in reserve round
Laibach. This was the first time in the whole war that German troops had
met the Italians on this front.
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