Series of major battles between Italy and Austria-Hungary during WWI
The
Battles of the Isonzo
(known as the
Isonzo Front
by historians,
Slovene
:
so?ka fronta
) were a series of twelve battles between the
Austro-Hungarian
and Italian armies in
World War I
mostly on the territory of present-day
Slovenia
, and the remainder in Italy along the
Isonzo
River on the eastern sector of the Italian Front between June 1915 and November 1917.
Italian military plans
[
edit
]
In April 1915, in the secret
Treaty of London
, Italy was promised by the
Allies
some of the territories of Austro-Hungarian Empire which were mainly inhabited by ethnic Slovenes and Austrian Germans.
Italian commander
Luigi Cadorna
, a staunch proponent of the
frontal assault
who claimed the Western Front proved the ineffectiveness of
machine guns
,
initially planned breaking onto the Slovenian plateau, taking
Ljubljana
and threatening
Vienna
.
[
citation needed
]
The area between the northernmost part of the
Adriatic Sea
and the sources of the
Isonzo River
thus became the scene of twelve successive battles.
[
citation needed
]
. It was overall a massive failure for the Italian army, as they failed to achieve their original objectives and suffered heavy casualties in the process, highlighting ineffective leadership that would plague Italy into the next world war.
As a result, the Austro-Hungarians were forced to move some of their forces from the Eastern Front and a war in the mountains around the Isonzo River began.
[3]
Geography
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]
The sixty-mile long
So?a
River at the time ran entirely inside
Austria-Hungary
in parallel to the border with Italy, from the
Vr?i?
and
Predil
passes in the
Julian Alps
to the
Adriatic Sea
, widening dramatically a few kilometers north of
Gorizia
, thus opening a narrow corridor between
Northern Italy
and Central Europe, which goes through the
Vipava Valley
and the relatively low north-eastern edge of the
Karst Plateau
to Inner
Carniola
and Ljubljana. The corridor is also known as the "Ljubljana Gate".
By the autumn of 1915 one mile had been won by Italian troops, and by October 1917 a few Austro-Hungarian mountains and some square miles of land had changed hands several times. Italian troops did not reach the port of
Trieste
, the Italian General Luigi Cadorna's initial target, until after the
Armistice
.
[4]
Primary sector for Italian operations
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]
With the rest of the mountainous 400-mile (640 km) length of the Front being almost everywhere dominated by Austro-Hungarian forces, the
So?a
(Isonzo) was the only practical area for Italian military operations during the war. The Austro-Hungarians had fortified the mountains
[
citation needed
]
ahead of the Italians' entry into the war on 23 May 1915.
Italian Chief of Staff
Luigi Cadorna
judged that Italian gains (from Gorizia to
Trieste
) were most feasible at the coastal plain east of the lower end of the
So?a
(Isonzo). However he also believed that the Italian army could strike further north and bypass the mountains on either side of the river so as to come at the Austro-Hungarian forces from the rear.
[
citation needed
]
Cadorna had not expected operations in the Isonzo sector to be easy. He was well aware that the river was prone to flooding?and indeed there were record rainfalls during 1914?1918.
Further, when attacking further north the Italian army was faced with something of a dilemma: in order to cross the Isonzo safely it needed to neutralise the Austro-Hungarian defenders on the mountains above, yet to neutralise these forces the Italian forces needed first to cross the river?an obstacle that the Italians never succeeded in overcoming.
In the south (along the coastal zone) geographic peculiarities, including an array of ridges and valleys, also gave an advantage to the Austro-Hungarian defenders.
Casualties
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]
Despite the huge effort and resources poured into the continuing Isonzo struggle, the results were invariably disappointing and without real tactical merit, particularly given the geographical difficulties that were inherent in the campaign.
Cumulative casualties of the numerous battles of the Isonzo were enormous. Half of the entire Italian war death total?some 300,000 of 600,000?were suffered along the
So?a
(Isonzo). Austro-Hungarian losses, while by no means as numerous, were nevertheless high at around 200,000 (of an overall total of around 1.2 million casualties).
[5]
More than 30,000 casualties were ethnic Slovenes, the majority of them being drafted into the
Austro-Hungarian Army
, while Slovene civilian inhabitants from the
Gorizia and Gradisca
region also suffered in many thousands because they were resettled in
refugee camps
where Slovene refugees were treated as state enemies in Italian refugee camps, where thousands died of malnutrition.
[6]
Number of battles
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edit
]
With almost continuous combat in the area, the precise number of battles forming the Isonzo campaign is debatable. Some historians have assigned distinct names to a couple of the Isonzo struggles, most notably at
Kobarid
(Caporetto or Karfreit) in October 1917, which would otherwise form the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo.
The fact that the battles were always named after the Isonzo River, even in Italy, was considered by some a propaganda success for Austria-Hungary: it highlighted the repeated Italian failure to breach this landmark frontier of the Empire.
[7]
The Isonzo campaign comprised the following battles:
Brief summary of Isonzo battles
Battle
|
Dates
|
Italian casualties
|
Austro-Hungarian casualties
|
Outcome
|
First Battle of the Isonzo
|
23 June ? 7 July 1915
|
15,000
|
10,000
|
Limited Italian advance
|
Second Battle of the Isonzo
|
18 July ? 3 August 1915
|
41,800
|
46,600
|
Italian victory
|
Third Battle of the Isonzo
|
18 October ? 3 November 1915
|
66,998
|
41,847
|
Austro-Hungarian victory
|
Fourth Battle of the Isonzo
|
10 November ? 2 December 1915
|
49,500
|
32,100
|
Austro-Hungarian victory
|
Fifth Battle of the Isonzo
|
9?15 March 1916
|
1,882
|
1,985
|
Inconclusive
|
Sixth Battle of the Isonzo
|
6?17 August 1916
|
51,000
|
42,000
|
Italian victory
|
Seventh Battle of the Isonzo
|
14?18 September 1916
|
17,000
|
15,000
|
Italian victory
|
Eighth Battle of the Isonzo
|
10 October 1916 ? 12 October 1916
|
55,000
|
38,000
|
Inconclusive
|
Ninth Battle of the Isonzo
|
31 October ? 4 November 1916
|
39,000
|
33,000
|
Austro-Hungarian victory, Italian advance halted
|
Tenth Battle of the Isonzo
|
10 May ? 8 June 1917
|
150,000
|
75,000
|
Limited Italian advance
|
Eleventh Battle of the Isonzo
|
18 August ? 12 September 1917
|
158,000
|
115,000
|
Italian victory
|
Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo
|
24 October ? 19 November 1917
|
305,000
|
70,000
|
Decisive Austro-Hungarian victory; end of the Isonzo Campaign
|
Total casualties
|
June 1915 ? November 1917
|
950,180
|
520,532
|
Central Powers victory, counteroffensives on the
Piave river
(
First
and
Second battle
)
|
In media
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]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Palazzo, Albert (2002).
Seeking Victory on the Western Front
. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. p. 111.
ISBN
0803287747
. Retrieved
25 September
2018
.
- ^
A War in Words, p.147-148, Simon & Schuster, 2003
- ^
A War in Words, p.163, Simon & Schuster, 2003
ISBN
0-7432-4831-7
- ^
FirstWorldWar.Com
The Battles of the Isonzo, 1915-17.
- ^
Petra Svolj?ak,
Slovenski begunci v Italiji med prvo svetovno vojno
(Ljubljana 1991).
- ^
Isonzo 1917, Sivestri
Sources
[
edit
]
- Thompson, Mark (2009).
The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915-1919
. Faber & Faber.
ISBN
978-0571223336
.
External links
[
edit
]
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Theatres
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Principal
participants
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Timeline
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Prelude
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1914
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1915
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1916
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1917
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1918
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Co-belligerent conflicts
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Post-War conflicts
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Aspects
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