Erich Ludendorff was opposed to this but was overruled. In August 1917 Paul von Hindenburg decided that to keep the Austro-Hungarians in the war, the Germans had to help them defeat the Italian army. The Isonzo river, location of the initial attacks at Kobarid (Caporetto). The use of poison gas by the Germans also played a key role in the collapse of the Italian Second Army. The battle was a demonstration of the effectiveness of the use of stormtroopers and the infiltration tactics developed in part by Oskar von Hutier. The battle was named after the Italian name of the town (also known as Karfreit in German).Īustro-Hungarian forces, reinforced by German units, were able to break into the Italian front line and rout the Italian forces opposing them. The Battle of Caporetto in 1917 (also known as the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo, the Battle of Kobarid or the Battle of Karfreit as it was known by the Central Powers), took place from 24 October to 19 November 1917, near the town of Kobarid (now in north-western Slovenia, then part of the Austrian Littoral), on the Austro-Italian front of World War I. Instead of engaging in a frontal attack, a young officer Erwin Rommel ordered that this position be bypassed and that the successive advance should be towards west.Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo (24 October – 7 November 1917) / Battle of Caporetto Even in this case the bombardments were devastating and the soldiers easily reached Height 1114, the seat of a fortified Italian position. At 3.30 pm the bridge on the river Isonzo was blown up but despite this, before sunset the German troops entered the small city together with two thousand Italian prisoners.Īlso on the same day a contingent consisting of Alpenkorps and of a mountain battalion from Württemberg left Tolmino and attacked directly the western side, aiming at the peaks of the Kolovrat. At noon they reached Kamno and two hours later they were at the doors of Caporetto, preceded only by Italian soldiers who were hurriedly abandoning all their positions. The German battalions started to climb back from the bottom of the valley in a northerly direction, meeting on their way only a few Italian soldiers who, in the absence of any official orders, did not even fire a single shot. General Pietro Badoglio only started to organize this retreat on 22nd October and allowed the Austro-German forces a considerable advantage. The survivors were given the order to withdraw and so allowed free passage to the village of Saga to the Army Corps led by General Alfred Krauss.Īt Tolmino instead the Italian troops were taken completely by surprise: the order to retreat towards the nearby plateau of Kolovrat, received on 10th October, was ignored for several days. The first zone was well defended by the Italian army but besides bombs, even hand grenades and poison gas were used and in a short while more than 700 soldiers of the Friuli Battalion were killed. The Austro-German troops moved simultaneously both in the north, around Mount Rombon, as well as in the south, at Tolmino. The Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo was under way. The frontline was isolated and at seven in the morning the infantry came out of its trenches. The bombs fell relentlessly for five hours and destroyed a large part of the Italian structures. The cannons of the Austro-German troops were aimed at the rear, on their lines of communication, on observers and on the artillery positions. To the great surprise of all the soldiers of the Second Army, at 2.00 in the morning of 24th October 1917 the Italian lines between Plezzo and Tolmino started to be attacked by an unprecedented bombardment both as regards its intensity as well as its precision.
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