The Battle of Caporetto
October 24th-November 12th, 1917
The battle of Caporetto was fought on the Italian Front where since 1915 the Austro-Hungarians had been raging war against the Italians. When Italy joined the war on the Allies side (against their former allies Germany and Austria-Hungary) in 1915, the Austro-Hungarians started attacking the Italian line in a series of battles at the Isonzo River. These battles were known as the 'Battles of Isonzo'. They were fought from 1915-1917 without any significant break through on either side especially for the Italians. The battle of Caporetto was a part of a joint Austro-Hungarian/German Offensive. Their effort was to help recuperate the Austro-Hungarian troops. This was because of the major failure of the Trentino Offensive. They had been losing resorces and strength.
When the Austro-Hungarian front around Gorizia was at risk of collapsing to the Italians, the German Third Supreme Command (under the control of Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff) accepted Austro-Hungarian Commander-in-Chief Arz von Straussenberg recommendations to launch a combined offensive. Luigi Cadorna Italian Chief of Staff, fearing of a joint attack by Austro-Hungarian and German troops, started to recieve word about German activities. As a result he called off his plans to attack Isonzo in September and took actions switching over to a defensive stance. The Austro-Hungarians wanted to repeat their previous Trentino Offensive but instead a 40 mile line cautiously chosen north of Gorizia along the Isonzo at Caporetto was overruled by the Germans as the prefered place of attack.
Fighting in the attack would be nine Austro-Hungarian divisions reinforced by six German divisions placed uder the command of German General Otto von Below. Even though the Italians out-numbered the Germans and Austrians all together at the Isonzo Front, the attack was going to take place where there were few Italians. General Luigi Capello stationed at Caporetto was ordered to be on the defensive but he instead choose to be on the aggressive gathering his troops together to attack von Below army's southern flank east of Gorizia.
The Austrian-German offensive was launched at 2:00AM on October 24th from a salient at Tolmino aided by misty conditions resulting in the attack completely taking the Italian troops by surprise. Aided by artillery gas and smoke the combined Austrian and German troops broke through the Italian lines easily. On the first day alone, the combined troops advanced 40 miles into Italian territory using infiltration tactics and exploiting breaches in the Italian frontline using flamethrowers along with grenades.
Secondary attacks by Below and his army did manage to be stopped by the Italians along with the Austrian 5th army at the coast. But due to the main success of the advance, the Italians were pushed back all the way to the River Tagliamento. After the line was quickly broken the first morning, General Capello suggested that the italian forces withdrawl to the River Tagliamento which was vetoed by Cadorna. Cadorna believed that repairs could be made by the end of the week but by Oct. 30th, the Italian troops were ordered to cross the river (which took four days). While this was going on a German division managed to build a bridgehead on Nov. 2nd further north up the Tagliamento. But due to the large amount of territory gained in such a short time, both the Austro-Hungarian and German supply lines were stressed causing them to fail. Cadorna took advantage of this set back and withdrawled the Italian forces to the River Piave, (which was 48 miles away from Venice) which took till November 10th to accomplish.
The Italian defeat hit with so much strength that the shock waves were felt by all the Allied governments. The Italians suffered 300,000 casualities with 90% of them taken as prisoners and had almost if not all artillery lost. After this defeat, Cadorna was dismissed and replaced by Armando Diaz and other Allied nations decided to aid the Italians on the Italian Front (because of the assistance of the Germans) against the Austro-Hungarians.
When the Austro-Hungarian front around Gorizia was at risk of collapsing to the Italians, the German Third Supreme Command (under the control of Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff) accepted Austro-Hungarian Commander-in-Chief Arz von Straussenberg recommendations to launch a combined offensive. Luigi Cadorna Italian Chief of Staff, fearing of a joint attack by Austro-Hungarian and German troops, started to recieve word about German activities. As a result he called off his plans to attack Isonzo in September and took actions switching over to a defensive stance. The Austro-Hungarians wanted to repeat their previous Trentino Offensive but instead a 40 mile line cautiously chosen north of Gorizia along the Isonzo at Caporetto was overruled by the Germans as the prefered place of attack.
Fighting in the attack would be nine Austro-Hungarian divisions reinforced by six German divisions placed uder the command of German General Otto von Below. Even though the Italians out-numbered the Germans and Austrians all together at the Isonzo Front, the attack was going to take place where there were few Italians. General Luigi Capello stationed at Caporetto was ordered to be on the defensive but he instead choose to be on the aggressive gathering his troops together to attack von Below army's southern flank east of Gorizia.
The Austrian-German offensive was launched at 2:00AM on October 24th from a salient at Tolmino aided by misty conditions resulting in the attack completely taking the Italian troops by surprise. Aided by artillery gas and smoke the combined Austrian and German troops broke through the Italian lines easily. On the first day alone, the combined troops advanced 40 miles into Italian territory using infiltration tactics and exploiting breaches in the Italian frontline using flamethrowers along with grenades.
Secondary attacks by Below and his army did manage to be stopped by the Italians along with the Austrian 5th army at the coast. But due to the main success of the advance, the Italians were pushed back all the way to the River Tagliamento. After the line was quickly broken the first morning, General Capello suggested that the italian forces withdrawl to the River Tagliamento which was vetoed by Cadorna. Cadorna believed that repairs could be made by the end of the week but by Oct. 30th, the Italian troops were ordered to cross the river (which took four days). While this was going on a German division managed to build a bridgehead on Nov. 2nd further north up the Tagliamento. But due to the large amount of territory gained in such a short time, both the Austro-Hungarian and German supply lines were stressed causing them to fail. Cadorna took advantage of this set back and withdrawled the Italian forces to the River Piave, (which was 48 miles away from Venice) which took till November 10th to accomplish.
The Italian defeat hit with so much strength that the shock waves were felt by all the Allied governments. The Italians suffered 300,000 casualities with 90% of them taken as prisoners and had almost if not all artillery lost. After this defeat, Cadorna was dismissed and replaced by Armando Diaz and other Allied nations decided to aid the Italians on the Italian Front (because of the assistance of the Germans) against the Austro-Hungarians.