Eleventh Battle of the Isonzo
Encyclopedia : E : EL : ELE : Eleventh Battle of the Isonzo
| Italian Front |
|---|
| 1st Isonzo – 2nd Isonzo – 3rd Isonzo – 4th Isonzo – 5th Isonzo – Asiago – 6th Isonzo – 7th Isonzo – 8th Isonzo – 9th Isonzo – 10th Isonzo – Ortigara – 11th Isonzo – Caporetto – Piave River – Vittorio Veneto |
The Eleventh Battle of the Isonzo was a World War One battle fought by the Italian and Austro-Hungarian Armies on the Italian Front between August 18 and September 12, 1917.
On the Isonzo River, Luigi Cadorna, the Italian Chief of Staff, concentrated three quarters of his troops: 600 battalions (52 divisions) with 5,200 guns. The attack was carried forth from Tolmin (in the upper Isonzo valley) to the Adriatic sea, and the Italians crossed the river in several points on temporary bridges, but the main effort was exerted on the Bainsizza Plateau, whose capture was to further the offensive and break the Austro-Hungarian lines in two segments, isolating the strongholds of Mount Saint Gabriel and Mount Hermada.
After fierce and deadly fightings, the Italian 2nd Army, led by General Capello, pushed back Boroević's Isonzo Armee, conquering the Bainsizza and Mount Santo. Other positions were taken by the Duke of Aosta's 3rd Army.
However, Mount Saint Gabriel and Mount Hermada turned out to be impregnable, and the offensive wore out.
After the battle, the Austro-Hungarians were exhausted, and could not have withstood another attack. Fortunately for them (and unfortunately for their opponents), so were the Italians, who could not find the resources necessary for another assault, even though it might have been the decisive one. So the final result of the battle was an inconclusive bloodbath.
External references
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.