Italian big-gun position, and orders were given for it to be retaken at
any cost. So a distinguished brigade of bersaglieri was sent up to
counter-attack, and drove the Germans from the captured guns down the
slopes of Globocak again. North of Caporetto, too, the angle of the
Italian line at Zaga had been assailed, but had resisted, and across the
river on the Bainsizza plateau the most violent fighting of all took
place, as a result of which the Italian line was withdrawn from Kal, and
the heavy guns and equipment were sent back across the Isonzo, though
the Italian counter-attacks on the Bainsizza were carried out with such
dash that they captured several hundred Austrian prisoners.

[Sidenote: Danger that the Italian Army may be trapped.]

Now the enemy's plan stood out in all its formidable strength and
strategy. He had opened a gap in the Italian front; through this gap he
was pouring overwhelming forces. Already the rest of the Italian Second
Army and the Third Army on the Carso to the south of it were outflanked.
If the whole of that great force was not to have its line of
communications cut and be surrounded, it must be immediately and rapidly
withdrawn for a great distance. An immense sacrifice of Italian
territory was imperative if the Italian Army was to be saved from a trap
by the side of which the fall of Metz was the capture of an outpost.
During the afternoon of October 25 the general order of retreat was
given.

[Sidenote: Austrians use seventeen-inch howitzers.]

I went up again to visit the British batteries which were with the Third
Army on the afternoon of the twenty-fifth, and from one of their
observatories watched the heavy shelling. The Austrians were using huge