Belluno and of the Seventh and First
armies to Riva.

"Although the armistice between the Italians and the Austrians was
signed in Trieste on the evening of November 3d, the advance continued
into the afternoon of the 4th.

"When the fighting ceased there had been an advance occupation of
territory by the Italians of approximately 3,500 square miles. More than
450,000 prisoners and 5,000 guns and mortars had been taken.

"On November 3d an Italian force landed in Trieste, which city was
occupied without opposition.

"It was essentially an Italian victory won by Italian troops.

"The result was the destruction of the great army of Austria-Hungary,
the armistice and surrender of Austria of November 3d and the hastening
by weeks of the armistice of November 11th.

"I have always felt that the British and French appropriated for
themselves too much of this victory, won by the united efforts of a
million men, mostly Italians.

"An army or division engaged in one sector of a great battle is prone to
take to itself more than its quota of the success from the united
efforts of many divisions. A division may be so placed as to bear the
brunt of an offensive and by a stubborn, bloody stand stop a disastrous
defeat; but it takes many combined divisions fighting with equal valor
and success under a great staff to put over a great offensive, such as
was the battle of Vittorio Veneto; in result, at least, the greatest
battle of the world.

"After the battle the same noises and apparent confusion of the advance
was repeated; of soldiers moving north by way of Tonale Pass to the
front; now far in enemy country beyond the cities of Male, Cles and
Bolzano to Innsbruck; of prisoners, Austrian, Hungarian and German,
taken south to labor in the fields of the plain of Lombardy, or even to
the Riviera to work in the quarries and upon the roads on the foothills
of the Apennines, overlooking the blue Mediterranean.

"Many feel that the final, fatal stroke to the Central Powers was given
by Italy when driving the Austrian army north and east, she took more
than 450,000 prisoners. More she might have had, but they were permitted
to move on, a disheveled, discouraged host, witnesses to the Austrian
and German people of a last, fatal defeat; they tramped northward
self-stripped of all equipment as a half-drowned man might throw away
his clothes, hoping to reach a distant shore.

"After the battle, in which I took a prominent part, I fo