
As noted earlier, it was on the Italian Front, opened in May 1915, that the Chief of the Italian Staff, General Luigi Cadorna, waged no less than eleven Battles along the River Isonzo. The majority ended in stalemate. The fast moving river itself, plus the mountainous nature of the terrain and the bitter cold weather that went with it, seriously impeded movement and proved very costly in casualties. This said, the sixth battle, known as the Battle of Gorizia, was an exception. As we have seen, in August 1916 it managed to establish a bridgehead over the river and capture the strategic city of Gorizia (see map). Indeed, at one point it came close to reaching if not capturing the vital port of Trieste.
And his final attack, launched on the 18th August, 1917, with an army of 51 divisions and over 500 guns, also achieved a good measure of success. This time, concentrating his forces on the Bainsizza Plateau, (this encounter is sometimes known as the Battle of Bainsizza - see map), his forces made surprisingly good progress. Under the command of the outstanding General Luigi Capello, who had been responsible for the capture of Gorizia in August 1916, the Second Army succeeded in capturing a large part of the plateau south of Tolmino. Eventually, however, the Italians outran their supply line, the Austro-Hungarians stood firm, and the attack was abandoned on the 12th September. The Italian success, however, was to have dire consequences. The Austro-Hungarians suffered such heavy casualties, put at around 85,000, that they immediately called upon Germany for reinforcements. General Ludendorff, fearing the collapse of his ally, wasted no time in sending seven divisions, and by the beginning of October, Cadorna was facing upwards of thirty-five divisions. Thexattack was not long in coming.
On the 24th October, this sizeable, combined force, commanded by the German General Otto von Below, crossed over the River Isonzo via the two Austro-Hungarian bridgeheads in the mountainous northern sector of the Isonzo front, close to the small town of Caporetto (now Kobarid, in Slovenia). After a ferocious four hour bombardment – including a gas attack – a dawn assault in heavy rain and fog (fifteen divisions strong), literally fell upon Italy’s weary, demoralized, and poorly equipped troops. Infiltrated by stormtroopers armed with flame-throwers and light machine guns (a tactic introduced, as we have seen, in the Battle of Riga a little earlier), the Italian frontline forces virtually collapsed. And no help was available. There were only a few reserve forces in the area, and those that were in-situ were not conveniently deployed. By the evening, the Italians had fallen back 12 miles. The next day Cadorna, who had been convinced, in fact, that the main assault would come in the Trentino region (see map above), was obliged to order a general withdrawal, and his army (originally 41 divisions strong), made a humiliating and disorderly retreat. The Battle of Caporetto - the last Battle of the Isonzo River – and the only offensive of the twelve to be mounted by the Central Powers! – was, indeed, an outstanding defeat, a rout in fact, of the Italian forces. Some units, it must be said, did put up a fight, and an attempt was made to make a stand at the River Tagliamento, but on the 2nd November the Germans crossed it in a number of places, and the Italians were pushed further back, unable to regroup until they had crossed the River Piave (see map above). Here they were joined by the 3rd Army, responsible for the defence of the lower reaches of the Isonzo. It had been forced to move south to avoid the risk of being totally outflanked.
By that time, von Below’s 14th Army had advanced some sixty miles, and Capello’s 2nd Army was an army in name only. It was one of the most decisive victories of the First World War though, surprisingly, as we shall see, it did not knock Italy out of the war. Fortunatelyxfor the Italian government, von Below, having reached the River Piave, was forced to call a halt because of his extended supply lines and a growing lack of men and munitions. In late November, however, he did, in fact, make one attempt to cross the river in the hope of seizing Venice (the First Battle of the Piave River or Monte Grappa), but it failed. The Austro-Hungarians were thus denied their planned Christmas Mass in St. Mark’s Cathedral, Venice, and Italy was left to fight another day! But it was at this time that Austro-Hungarian aircraft, working out of Pola (see map above), launched a series of bombing raids on the city. Casualties were heavy and two ceiling frescoes by the 18th century Italian artist, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, were quite badly damaged.
When the battle eventually came to an end in late November, the Italians had lost 7,700 square miles of territory, including the entire province of Friuli and much of Veneto Province. And the displaced population this caused – put at 400,000 - presented an enormous refugee problem for the Italian government. The Second Army, which had taken the brunt of the attack, had lost 40,000 men killed or wounded; some 280,000 had been taken prisoner; and around 350,000 had deserted. Overall, the Italian army was reduced in size by a half, from 65 to 33 infantry divisions. In addition, a vast amount of vital equipment was lost (notably artillery pieces and machine guns), together with food, munitions and medical supplies.
Incidentally, in Italy, the term “It was a Caporetto” is used to this day to describe a complete disaster! ……
...... ErwinxRommel, the famous commander of the German and Italian forces during the North African campaign of the Second World War – then known as “the Desert Fox” – served as a young lieutenant in the Battle of Caporetto. ……
…… General Cadorna, who was relieved of his office on the 9th November, blamed his defeat on “the inadequate resistance of units of the 2nd Army, cowardly retreating without fighting or ignominiously surrendering to the enemy …”. Others saw it as a lack of patriotism or the sign of an emerging class struggle. What can be said with certainty, is that the Austro-Hungarian - German victory was due mainly to the quality of their operational planning, and the tactics they adopted, in stark contrast to the serious lack of military leadership shown by their adversary.
On the home front, too, Italy was in a great deal of stress. The country was plagued by food riots, strikes and anti-war protests. However public morale slowly improved, and military discipline was quite quickly restored with the arrival of troops from Britain and France (a total of eight divisions), and, eventually, from the United States. In addition, the Italian IV Army was brought from the Cadore sector in the far north to strengthen the new front. As we shall see, when Austro-Hungarian troops resumed their campaign in June 1918, urged on by the Germans, the Second Battle of the Piave River was a decisive victory for the Allies.