Battle of Caporetto

The Soča (Isonzo) river, location of the initial attacks at Kobarid (Caporetto)

Throughout the Spring and Summer of 1917, the Italians had launched numerous offensives on the Austro-Hungarian Lines in the Isonzo Sector, with The 11th Battle of the Isonzo being the most successful in pushing back the Austro-Hungarians.[4] After the Italian success in the 11th Battle of the Isonzo, Emperor Karl knew a breakthrough was going to happen at any moment, as both the Austro-Hungarians and Italians were exhausted, and running out of men to sustain the war. So, he wrote to Kaiser Wilhelm II and requested that German Forces be deployed to Italy.

In August 1917 Paul von Hindenburg and Arz von Straussenberg decided to send troops from the Eastern Front to the Isonzo Sector.[4] Erich Ludendorff was opposed to this but was overruled.[7] Later, in September three experts from the Imperial General Staff, led by the chemist Otto Hahn, went to the Isonzo front to find a site suitable for a gas attack.[8] They proposed attacking the quiet Caporetto sector, where a good road ran west through a mountain valley to the Venetian Plain. The Germans also sent Lieutenant General Konrad Krafft von Dellmensingen, an expert in mountain warfare to reconnoitre the ground.[9]

The Austro-Hungarian Army Group Boroević, commanded by Svetozar Boroević, was prepared for the offensive. In addition, a new 14th Army was formed with nine Austrian and six to eight German divisions, which were commanded by the German Otto von Below.[4][9] The Germans divisions were Ludendorff's general reserve.[9] Lieutenant Colonel George Wetzell, Ludendorff's strategic adviser advised Ludendorff to use the German divisions to attack a weakpoint in the Italian line.[9] The Italians inadvertently helped by providing weather information over their radio.[10]

The German and Austro-Hungarian battle plan was to use Otto von Below's German divisions, which would be guided by Konrad Krafft to attack a part of the Julian Alps which was near the northeastern corner of the Venetian salient. Meanwhile, Svetozar's Austro-Hungarian army would attack the eastern end of the salient and a stretch of ground near the Adriatic shore.[9]

The buildup of German and Austro-Hungarian military forces in the region was noticed by the Italian air reconnaissance.[4][9] Because of this, Italian General Luigi Cadorna, decided to push back the Italian offensive in order for the Italian army to prepare defensive fortifications.[4]

German assault troops at Caporetto

Italian 102/35 anti-air guns mounted on SPA 9000C trucks during the retreat

Provisional Italian trenches along the Piave river

Foul weather, as well as lack of readiness in some of the Austro-Hungarian divisions and in particular of their artillery, delayed the attack for two days but on 24 October there was no wind and the front was misted over.[11] At 02:00, in the northern area of the battle (near Bovec/Plezzo) 894 metal tubes similar to Livens Projectors (Gaswurfminen), dug into a reverse slope, were triggered electrically to simultaneously fire canisters containing 600 ml (21 imp fl oz; 20 US fl oz) of chlorine-arsenic agent and diphosgene, smothering the Italian trenches in a dense cloud of poison gas. Knowing that their gas masks could protect them only for two hours or less, the defenders fled, though 500–600 were still killed.[12] Other parts of the valley were bombed with gas from common grenades. Then the front was quiet until 06:00, when all the Italian wire and trenches to be attacked were bombarded by mortars.

At 06:41, 2,200 guns opened fire, many targeting the valley road along which reserves were advancing to plug the gap. At 08:00 two large mines were detonated under strong points on the heights bordering the valley and the infantry attacked.[13][14] Soon they penetrated the almost undefended Italian fortifications in the valley, breaching the defensive line of the Italian Second Army between the IV and XXVII Corps. To protect the attackers' flanks, Alpine Troops infiltrated the strong points and batteries along the crests of the adjoining ridges, Matajur and Kolovrat, laying out their telephone lines as they advanced to maintain contact with their artillery.[15] Specially-trained and equipped stormtrooper units led attacks, making good use of the new German model 08/15 Maxim light machine gun, light trench mortars, mountain guns, flamethrowers and hand grenades.[16]

The attackers in the valley marched almost unopposed along the excellent road toward Italy, some advanced 25 kilometres (16 mi) on the first day.[4] The Italian army beat back the attackers on either side of the sector where the central column attacked, but von Below's successful central penetration threw the entire Italian army into disarray. Forces had to be moved along the Italian front in an attempt to stem von Below's breakout, but this only weakened other points along the line and invited further attacks. At this point, the entire Italian position was threatened.

The Italian 2nd Army commander Luigi Capello was bedridden with fever. Recognizing that his forces were ill-prepared for this attack and were being routed, Capello requested permission to withdraw to the Tagliamento. Cadorna, who believed the Italian force could regroup and hold out, denied the request. Finally, on 30 October 1917, Cadorna ordered the majority of the Italian force to retreat to the other side of the Tagliamento. It took the Italians four full days to cross the river, and by this time the German and Austro-Hungarian armies were on their heels, ambushing the defenders whenever they could. These ambushes would become known as the Battle of Pozzuolo. Eventually, the retreating Italian Soldiers were able to break through the Austro-German encirclement and retreat to the Tagliamento River. Then, on 2 November, after Captain Emil Redl's 4th Battalion of the 4th Bosnian Infantry Regiment attack,[17] the 55th Infantry Division (Austria-Hungary)[18] established a bridgehead across the Tagliamento River. About this time, however, the rapid success of the attack caught up with them. The German and Austro-Hungarian supply lines were stretched to the breaking point and unable to launch another attack to isolate a part of the Italian army against the Adriatic. Cadorna was able to retreat further and by 10 November had established a position on the Piave river[11] and Monte Grappa.

Even before the battle, Germany was struggling to feed and supply its armies in the field. Erwin Rommel, who as a junior officer won the Pour le Mérite for his accomplishments in the battle, often bemoaned the demands placed upon his "poorly fed troops".[19] The Allied blockade of the German Empire, which the Kaiserliche Marine had been unable to break, had led to food shortages and widespread malnutrition in Germany and the Central Powers in general. The inadequate provisioning, as well as the grueling night marches preliminary to the Battle of Caporetto, took a toll on the German and Austro-Hungarian forces. Despite these logistical problems, the initial assault was extremely successful. However, as the area controlled by the combined Central Powers forces expanded, an already limited logistical capacity was overstrained. By the time the attack reached the Piave, the soldiers of the Central Powers were running low on supplies and were feeling the effects of exhaustion.[19] As the Italians began to counter the pressure put on them, the German forces lost momentum and were once again caught up in another round of attrition warfare.

The Museum of the Isonzo Front in Kobarid, Slovenia

Opera Nazionale Combattenti, an Italian charitable organisation, was set up in December 1917 in the immediate aftermath of the battle, to provide assistance to veterans of the First World War; it was closed in 1977.[29]

After the battle, the term "Caporetto" gained a particular resonance in Italy. It is used to denote a terrible defeat – the failed General Strike of 1922 by the socialists was referred to by Mussolini as the "Caporetto of Italian Socialism".[30] Many years after the war, Caporetto was still being used to destroy the credibility of the liberal state.[26]

The Battle of Caporetto has been the subject of a number of books. British writer and military historian Cyril Falls' one volume The Battle of Caporetto is an operational and tactical account of the battle as the centerpiece of the larger campaign in northeastern Italy. Infanterie greift an (Infantry Attacks), an interwar memoir and military handbook written by the future German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, features the actions of then Lieutenant Rommel and units he led during the battle, providing insight into "stormtrooper" tactics. The Swedish author F.J. Nordstedt (pseud. Christian Braw) wrote about the battle in his novel Caporetto. The bloody aftermath of Caporetto was vividly described by Ernest Hemingway in his novel A Farewell to Arms. Curzio Malaparte wrote an excoriation of the battle in his first book, Viva Caporetto, published in 1921. It was censored by the state and suppressed; it was finally published in 1980.

Today, a museum in the town of Kobarid is dedicated to the Isonzo Battles in general, and the Caporetto Battle in particular.

• Andreopoulos, George J.; Harold E. Selesky (1994). The Aftermath of Defeat: Societies, Armed Forces, and the Challenge of Recovery. Yale University Press. ISBN 9781852851668. Retrieved 17 March 2016.
• Cassar, George H. (1998). The Forgotten Front: The British Campaign in Italy 1917-18. A&C Black. ISBN 9780300058536. Retrieved 17 March 2016.
• Clodfelter, Micheal (2017). Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492-2015 (4th ed.). Jefferson, NC: McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-7470-7.
• Gooch, John (2014). The Italian Army and the First World War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-14937-2.
• Schindler, John R. (2001). Isonzo: The Forgotten Sacrifice of the Great War. Greenwood. ISBN 9780275972042.
• Tucker, Spencer (2010). Battles That Changed History: An Encyclopedia of World Conflict. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781598844290.

• Italian prisoners of war in the First World War

• Anna Grillini: Caporetto, Battle of, in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.