Battle of Caporetto
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Battle of Caporetto | |||||||||
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Part of the Italian front (World War I) | |||||||||
![]() Battle of Caporetto and Italian retreat | |||||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||||
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Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Units involved | |||||||||
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2nd Army | ||||||||
Strength | |||||||||
353,000 soldiers, 2518 artillery pieces [1] | 257,400 soldiers, 1342 artillery pieces [1] | ||||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||||
70,000 |
13,000 dead 300,000 stragglers 50,000 deserters 3,152 artillery pieces 1,712 mortars 3,000 machine guns 300,000 rifles | ||||||||
600,000 internally displaced people[2] |
The Battle of Caporetto (also known as the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo, the Battle of Kobarid or the Battle of Karfreit) took place on the Italian front of World War I.
The battle was fought between the Kingdom of Italy and the Central Powers and took place from 24th of October to 19th of November 1917, near the town of Kobarid (now in north-western Slovenia, then part of the Austrian Littoral), and near the river Isonzo. The battle was named after the Italian name of the town (also known as Karfreit in German).
The rest of the Italian Army retreated 150 kilometres (93 mi) to the Piave River; its effective strength declined from 1,800,000 troops down to 1,000,000 and the government of Prime Minister Paolo Boselli collapsed.[4]
Prelude
In August 1917 Paul von Hindenburg and Arthur Arz von Straußenburg decided to send troops from the Eastern Front to the Isonzo Sector. Erich Ludendorff was opposed to this but was overruled.[5] 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.[6] 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.[7]
The Austro-Hungarian
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.[7]
The buildup of German and Austro-Hungarian military forces in the region was noticed by Italian air reconnaissance.[7]
Battle
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/20/Plotone_d%27assalto_tedesco_con_MG0815.jpg/220px-Plotone_d%27assalto_tedesco_con_MG0815.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9c/WWI_-_Battle_of_Caporetto_-_Italian_102-35_anti-air_cannons_mounted_on_SPA_9000C_trucks.jpg/220px-WWI_-_Battle_of_Caporetto_-_Italian_102-35_anti-air_cannons_mounted_on_SPA_9000C_trucks.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cb/WWI_-_Battle_of_Caporetto_-_New_Italian_Line_at_the_Piave_River_-_trenches_near_Case_Ruei.jpg/220px-WWI_-_Battle_of_Caporetto_-_New_Italian_Line_at_the_Piave_River_-_trenches_near_Case_Ruei.jpg)
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.
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.
The attackers in the valley marched almost unopposed along the excellent road toward Italy, some advanced 25 kilometres (16 mi) on the first day. 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 River. 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. Then, on 2 November, after an attack by Captain Emil Redl's 4th Battalion of the 4th Bosnian Infantry Regiment,[15] the 55th Infantry Division (Austria-Hungary)[16] 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[9] and Monte Grappa.
Even before the battle, Germany was struggling to feed and supply its armies in the field.
Aftermath
Analysis
Brian R. Sullivan called Caporetto "the greatest defeat in Italian military history."[18] John R. Schindler wrote "By any standard, Twelfth Isonzo [Caporetto] and its aftermath represented an unprecedented catastrophe for Italian arms."[19] The disaster "came as a shock" and "triggered a search for scapegoats," culminating in a 1919 Italian military commission that investigated the causes of the debacle.[20][21][22] At Rapallo, a Supreme War Council was created to improve Allied military co-operation and develop a common strategy.[23] Luigi Cadorna was forced to resign after the defeat, a final straw according to the Prime Minister, Vittorio Emanuele Orlando. Cadorna was known to have maintained poor relations with the other generals on his staff and by the start of the battle, had sacked 217 generals, 255 colonels and 355 battalion commanders.[24][25]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/30/Luigi_Cadorna_02.jpg/170px-Luigi_Cadorna_02.jpg)
In addition, he was detested by his troops as being too harsh.[26] Cadorna had been directing the battle some 30 kilometres (19 mi) behind the front and retreated another 160 km (99 mi) to Padua. Cadorna was replaced by Armando Diaz and Pietro Badoglio,[7] who commanded one of the corps easily overwhelmed by the Germans in the early stages of the battle, but escaped from all charges during the commission hearings. Italian propaganda offices were established, promising land and social justice to soldiers. Italy also accepted a more cautious military strategy from this point on. Diaz concentrated his efforts on rebuilding his shattered forces while taking advantage of the national rejuvenation that had been spurred by invasion and defeat.
Casualties
Italian losses were enormous: 13,000 were killed, 30,000 wounded and 265,000–275,000 were taken prisoner.[27][7][28] Morale was so low among the Italian troops, mainly due to Cadorna's harsh disciplinary regime, that most of these surrendered willingly.[23] 3,152 artillery pieces, 3,000 machine guns and 1,712 mortars were lost,[27] along with a vast amount of stores and equipment.[23][a] In contrast, the Austro-Hungarians and Germans sustained around 70,000 casualties.[28][27][b]
Subsequent operations
The last push of Austro-Hungarian and German forces was met and defeated by Italian forces at the
The Piave served as a natural barrier where the Italians could establish a new defensive line, which was held during the subsequent
Legacy
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0e/Kobariski_muzej.jpg/220px-Kobariski_muzej.jpg)
After the battle, the term "Caporetto" gained a particular resonance in Italy. It is used to denote a terrible defeat – the failed
The Battle of Caporetto has been the subject of a number of books. British writer and military historian Cyril Falls's 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. The battle also features prominently in the novel Questa storia by Alessandro Baricco.
Today, a museum in the town of Kobarid is dedicated to the Isonzo Battles in general, and the Caporetto Battle in particular.
See also
Notes
- ^ An additional 350,000 troops were temporarily separated from units before rejoining them, mostly at the Piave line.[13]
- ISBN 1851098798. Retrieved 5 August 2012.
References
- ^ ISBN 978-8817107112
- ^ "Quella massa di profughi che lasciò il Nordest, dopo Caporetto – Il Piccolo". 13 June 2006.
- Seth, Ronald(1965). Caporetto: The Scapegoat Battle. Macdonald. p. 147
- ^ Gooch 2014, pp. 245–246.
- ^ Falls, Cyril (1966). Caporetto 1917. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. p. 25.
- ^ Hahn, Otto (1970). My life. Herder and Herder. p. 127.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Battle of Caporetto | Facts, History, & Casualties". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
- ^ Geoffrey Regan, More Military Blunders, p. 161
- ^ ISBN 0395652375.
- ISBN 0198581424.
- ^ Dupuy & Dupuy (1970), p. 971
- OCLC 257129831. Retrieved 28 October 2015.
- ^ ISBN 1853671991.
- ISBN 0275933288.
- ^ Erwin Rommel - Infantry Attacks p. 191
- ^ Isonzo: The Forgotten Sacrifice of the Great War By John R. Schindler pp. 259–260
- ^ ISBN 0306807866.
- ^ Sullivan, Brian R. (1994) "Chapter 4. Caporetto: Causes, recovery, and consequences" in: Andreopoulos, George J.; Selesky, Harold E., ed.s, The Aftermath of Defeat: Societies, Armed Forces, and the Challenge of Recovery (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1994), p. 60.
- ^ Schindler (2001), p. 263
- ^ Tucker (2010), p. 433
- ISBN 978-1598844290. Retrieved 16 September 2012.
- ^ Cassar (1998), p. 232
- ^ ISBN 1841767387.
- ^ ISBN 0435327259.
- ^ Geoffrey Regan. More Military Blunders, p. 160.
- ISBN 0714650730.
- ^ ISBN 1851098798. Retrieved 5 August 2012.
- ^ a b Clodfelter 2017, p. 419.
- ^ "La Grande Guerra: Caporetto - A Fresh Look".
- ^ [s.n.] (2010). Opera nazionale combattenti (in Italian). Dizionario di Storia. Roma: Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana. Accessed December 2017.
- Three Faces of Fascism: Action Française, Italian fascism, National Socialism. New York: Mentor. p. 274.
Sources
- Andreopoulos, George J.; Harold E. Selesky (1994). The Aftermath of Defeat: Societies, Armed Forces, and the Challenge of Recovery. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-1852851668. Retrieved 17 March 2016.
- Cassar, George H. (1998). The Forgotten Front: The British Campaign in Italy 1917–18. A&C Black. ISBN 978-0300058536. 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 978-0786474707.
- Dupuy, R. E.; Dupuy, T. N. (1970). The Encyclopaedia of Military History: From 3,500 BC to the Present. sbn 356-02998-0 (rev. ed.). London: Jane's.
- Gooch, John (2014). The Italian Army and the First World War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521149372.
- Schindler, John R. (2001). Isonzo: The Forgotten Sacrifice of the Great War. Greenwood. ISBN 978-0275972042.
- OCLC 1407385.
- Tucker, Spencer (2010). Battles That Changed History: An Encyclopedia of World Conflict. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1598844290.
Further reading
- Connelly, O. (2002). On War and Leadership: The Words of Combat Commanders from Frederick the Great to Norman Schwarzkopf. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-03186-X.
- Morselli, M. (2001). Caporetto 1917: Victory or Defeat?. Military History and Policy. London: Frank Cass. ISBN 0-7146-5073-0.
- Reuth, R. G. (2005). Rommel: The End of a Legend. London: Haus Books. ISBN 1-904950-20-5.
External links
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