The Italian 2nd Army commander Luigi Capello was commanding while bedridden with fever. At this point, the entire Italian position was threatened. 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. The Italian army beat back the attackers on either side of the sector where the central column attacked, but Below’s successful central penetration threw the entire Italian army into disarray. The attackers in the valley marched almost unopposed along the excellent road toward Italy, some advanced 25 kilometres (16 mi) on the first day. They made good use of the new German model 08/15 Maxim light machine gun, light trench mortars, mountain guns, flamethrowers and hand grenades. To protect the attackers’ flanks Alpine Troops infiltrated the strong points and batteries along the crests of the adjoining ridges, Mount Matajur and the Kolovrat Range, laying out their telephone lines as they advanced to maintain contact with their artillery. 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. At 08:00 two large mines were detonated under strong points on the heights bordering the valley and the infantry attacked. Then the front was quiet until 06:00 when all the Italian wire and trenches to be attacked were bombarded by mortars.Īt 06:41, 2,200 guns opened fire, many targeting the valley road along which reserves were advancing to plug the gap. Knowing that their gas masks could protect them only for two hours or less, the defenders fled for their lives, though 500–600 were still killed.
At 02:00, 894 metal tubes dug into a reverse slope similar to Livens projectors (Gaswurfminen), 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 the valley in a dense cloud of poison gas. Provisional Italian trenches along the Piave riverįoul weather delayed the attack for two days but on 24 October there was no wind and the front was misted over. Italian 102/35 anti-air guns mounted on SPA 9000C trucks during the retreat The Italians inadvertently helped by providing weather information over their radio. In addition, a new 14th Army was formed with nine Austrian and six German divisions, commanded by the German Otto von Below. The Austro-Hungarian Army Group Boroević, commanded by Svetozar Boroević, was prepared for the offensive. They proposed attacking the quiet Caporetto sector, where a good road ran west through a mountain valley to the Venetian plain. 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. 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. Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo (24 October – 7 November 1917) / Battle of Caporetto
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