te the constant approach of the low-flying enemy aircraft, a way
was cleared for the English guns to cross the bridge. They were scarcely
over when the first Austrian machine, swooping down, dropped bombs and
opened fire with its machine-gun on the tight-packed road. The attack
did not do much damage, though one British Red Cross car was filled as
full of holes as a pepper-pot; but the experience showed how much worse
the retreat would have been had not the heavy rain of the week-end kept
the Austrian airmen in their hangars.

[Sidenote: The army reaches Tagliamento.]

So the retiring army reached the Tagliamento, and completed the first
stage of its retreat. Once behind that barrier the Italians could be
sure of a certain breathing space, but to secure its protection was the
most difficult part of their rearward movement. To the constant
convergence which the lack of more than three bridges rendered necessary
must be attributed much of the confusion of the retirement and the
abandonment of the military equipment that was still to the east of the
Tagliamento when the pressure of the enemy finally compelled their
destruction.

[Sidenote: Germans try to cross the upper course of Tagliamento.]

[Sidenote: Enemies who cross are killed or captured.]

The Germans fully realized the formidable obstacle to the retreat of the
Italians which this rain-swollen river constituted, and they made a
determined effort to secure for themselves a passage across its upper
course while the Second and Third Armies to the south were not yet
behind the stream. There is a bridge a few miles west of the town of
Gemona which was not being used by the retreating army because of its
comparatively flimsy construction. The Tagliamento, then very high, was,
like many mountain streams, subject to very rapid rises and falls.
Therefore, part of the enemy advance-guard, which was following up the
Italian retirement was pushed on ahead to try to obtain control of this
bridge at Gemona, for use at any rate when the waters had sunk a little.
This German detachment forced its way across the bridge with
considerable courage, some of them being swept away by the swift stream
pouring over it, but on the other bank they were immediately faced with
stout resistance by the Italian rear-guard, and with their backs to the
river virtually all the enemy who had crossed the Tagliamento were
killed or captured.

[Sidenote: Gallant conduct of the rear-guard.]

The