disorganized as it was, stopped the triumphant progress of the
invaders; stopped it almost without artillery or ammunition, for
hundreds of guns had been abandoned during the retreat; stopped it with
the bodies of Italy's youth, the boys fresh from the training-camps, the
class of 1919, called to the colors two years before their time! They
stopped that victorious rush upon the line of the Piave, a broad,
shallow stream meandering through a flat plain with never a height to
command the enemy's positions, never a physical feature of the terrain
to satisfy the requirements of strategy. Not only was the line of the
Piave held by the Italians against the advice of their Allies, but it
was held in defiance of all the lessons taught by Italian history, for
that the Piave could not be successfully defended has been the judgment
of every military leader since first the barbarians began to sweep down
from the Alps to lay waste the rich Venetian plain. The Italians made
their heroic stand, moreover, without any help from their Allies. That
help came later, it is true, but only after the stand had been made. You
doubt this? Then read this extract from the report of General the Earl
of Caven, who commanded the Allied troops sent to the aid of the
Italians:

"In 1917, in the terrible days which followed the disaster at Caporetto,
I saw, just after my arrival at Venice, the Italian army in full
retreat, and I became convinced that a recovery was impossible before
the arrival of sufficient reenforcement from France and England. But I
was deceived, for shortly afterward I saw the Italian army, which had
seemed to be in the advanced stages of an utter rout, form a solid line
on the Piave and hold it with miraculous persistence, permitting the
English and French reenforcements to take up the positions assigned to
them without once coming in contact with the enemy."