Caporetto

Caporetto By Andriy Bortnik & CharlieHoang 

The Battle of Caporetto (Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo) was a spectacular loss for the Italians in WWI. In Italian, "Caporetto" means "a complete disaster, " which, was brought about by misunderstandings. The Italian line was broken through by Austrian forces which were reinforced by German forces. After which they routed the Italians, killing many and enslaving many more.



Cadorna, the commander of the Italian Army, made repeated attempts to break through the Izono Front during 1915 and 1916. Although he did not achieve much in territorial terms, he suffered heavy casualties. He had weakened the Austro-Hungarians steadily. Cadorna's victory at Gorizia in August 1916 worried the Germans and it was decided to carry out a joint operation against the Italians. In October 1917 nine Austrian and six German divisions launched an attack on a lightly defended stretch of the front at Caporetto. Over 300,000 men and most of its trench artillery was lost during the Caporetto Offensive. General Luigi was sacked and replaced by General Armando Diaz. Vitorrio Orlando was the new prime minister and he agreed to a new Allied Supreme War Council that would help coordinate Italian operations.

The German began attacking on October 24th in 1917 at around 2 AM. Due to the weather that morning, particularly the mist, the Italians were caught by complete surprise. The battle opened with a German artillery barrage, poison gas, and smoke. The defensive lines of the Italian army was weakened immediately. The German forces used flamethrowers and grenades for their offensive tactics and were able to tear holes in the Italian line, especially in the Italian strongholds on Mount Matajar and at Kolobrat. By the end of the first night, von Below's men had advanced a 25 km. German and Austro-Hungarian attacks from either side of von Below's central troops were less effective. The Italian Army countered almost all of these attacks, but the success of von Below's central thrust threw the entire Italian Army into disarray. Forces had to be moved along the Italian front to try to stop von Below's attacking forces, but this only weakened other points along the line and invited further attacks. At this point, the entire Italian position along the Tagliamento River was under threat. Capello realized his forces were not prepared for this attack and were being routed, so he asked permission to withdraw back. He was overruled by Cadorna. Cadorna believed that the Italian force could regroup and hold out against the attackers. Finally, on the 30th, six days later, Cadorna ordered the majority of the Italian force to retreat to the other side of the river. The Italians took an entire four days to cross the river. By then the German and Austro-Hungarian armies were very close behind. By November 2nd, on the Tagliamento, a German division established a post. About this time the enemy offensives were catching up to the Italians. The German and Austro-Hungarian supply lines were stretched to breaking point so they were not able to launch another coordinated attack. Cadorna took advantage of this to retreat further. On the 10th of November, the Italians were in position on the Piave River.The Italians had suffered heavy losses and this position soon led to the Battle of the Piave River. The once bold regime was reduced in numbers, strength, rations, and morale. They surrendered willingly.

Important points - German and Austrian forces were already running low on food an supplies for the soldiers when they attacked the Italians, and so when they succeed in their attack, they expanded their area of control and so made it even harder to supply their forces. After the attack, the germans kept pushing forward and as the battle reached Piave, the germans had lost all of their drive and were caught in attriation warfare.

-They allied forces had made a blockade on the central powers which limited their resources.

-Italian losses were enourmous, 11,000 were killed, 20,000 wounded and 265,000 were taken prisoner and roughly 3,000 guns, 3,000 machine guns and 2,000 mortars were captured by the along with an untold amount of stores and equipment

-Italian morale was low because of Cadorna's harsh disciplinary regime and many left the army after the battle

-The battle led to the conference at Rapallo and the creation of a Supreme war council, with the aim of improving Allied military co-operation and developing a unified strategy.

- Luigi Cadorna was forced to resign after the battle, not only because of the battle but also because of his harsh treatment of his soldiers, this also led to governments realizing that fear was not the best way to motivate an army.

Questions- 1. What weapons were used in this battle ? 2. How were the logistics of German troops different from those of the Italians? 3. What could Italy have done to better defend their line from german attack and what were the flaws in their defense? 4. How did the Germans exploit these flaws? 5. If Italy had a different terrain, would that help them or hinder them?

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