Senior officers drafted memoranda on tactics. In October, when Britain and France wanted Italy to relieve the pressure on Serbia and the Western Front, the onus on Cadorna to attack became irresistible. If they could not have Trieste, what about Gorizia, the only other city in the “unredeemed lands” around the Adriatic? Other pressure came from the Allies. He had to put up with a string of high-profile visitors from Rome, warning that the nation needed a resounding victory by the end of the year. He had no doubts about the ultimate outcome and urged the government to prepare for a long haul to victory. Cadorna estimated that Italy’s arms manufacturers would need the best part of a year to produce the quantity of heavy artillery he wanted. He scraped together medium and heavy guns from far and near, including some naval batteries, and pushed the government to boost domestic production.
Aware that his resources lagged behind the nation’s ambitions, he needed more heavy artillery and munitions if his breakthrough strategy was to succeed. Italian army Chief of Staff General Luigi Cadorna was in no hurry to start a third offensive. The following account traces the third and fourth battles, waged from October to December 1915. The dozen Battles of the Isonzo were fought between June 1915 and November 1917 along the Isonzo River in modern-day Slovenia. Unit rebellions on both sides met with harsh reprisals, and the chaos inflicted on the Italian army and society by the northern campaign helped spur the rise of Italian fascism.
The resulting conflict in the rugged Dolomite mountains and the hills north of Trieste killed some 700,000 Italian and 350,000 Austro-Hungarian troops in some of the most bitter fighting of World War I. Italy declared war on the Hapsburg Empire in May 1915, hoping to recapture the “lost” territories of Trieste and Tyrol. Two and half years and more than a million and a half casualties from both sides had resulted in no gains to speak of.Do You Want Everyone to Die? | HistoryNet CloseĪ million casualties wasted on the Italian Front- and who remembers? The Germans and Austro-Hungarians could not sustain the offensive, but Isonzo as a viable front for the Italians was essentially gone. The scale of the disaster led to the dismissal of Cadorna, shook the Allied governments, and led to France and England hurriedly rushing reinforcements to Italy. Italy had lost over 300,000 men in a week, most of them taken prisoner. By October 30 the Italians had withdrawn past the Tagliomento river. Their lines were broken almost immediately by special German stormtrooper units practicing new assault tactics featuring flamethrowers and the mass use of hand grenades. on October 24, a massive artillery barrage featuring high explosives, smoke, and huge quantities of chemical weapons caught the Italian 2nd Army completely by surprise. They simply did not have the manpower the Italians had, and and their lines near Gorizia were on the brink of collapse.Īt last, appeals to Germany for reinforcements were answered, and a combined offensive was launched against the Italians at Caporetto, who were all forward deployed with no reserves for a defense in depth.Īt 2 a.m. He was also a savage disciplinarian, routinely ordering the execution of soldiers for cowardice and straggling. Cadorna showed himself particularly incapable of learning from the carnage, and was himself usually as far as 50 kilometers behind the front lines. This was a pattern that was to repeat itself throughout 1915 in three more failed Italian assaults, resulting in a quarter of a million casualties with no significant success. The Italian Army had suffered nearly 15,000 casualties, nearly double the enemies, while achieving practically no real gains. The fighting raged until Austro-Hungarian reinforcements arrived and stopped the offensive in its tracks. Italian soldiers found themselves charging head-long uphill into barbed-wire and fortifications that their artillery had been unable to break up, and attempting to cross the Isonzo while under ferocious Austro-Hungarian counter-barrages. The Italian offensive began on June 23, sparking the First Battle of Isonzo. Italian artillery perched over the Isonzo River.
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