The Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo: Situation on October 23rd 1917

Tag: Caporetto, Karfreit, Kobarid, the 12th battle of the Isonzo, Italian Front, 1917

The Year of 1917 and the Italian Theather

1917 was not a good year for Austria-Hungary in the Italian theater. They had not recovered from the disastrous Brusilov in the previous year. 

The Kingdom of Italy’s strength significantly increased. With more than a million troops, the Italians outnumbered the Austrians 5 to 2. Britain and France supplied their ally with a large number of heavy artillery batteries and munitions. This made the Kingdom a force to be reckoned with.

The Italians launched two ferocious offensives equal to those on the Western Front. They won the Tenth and Eleventh Battle of the Isonzo (12 May – 8 June 1917; 19 August – 12 September 1917), pushing the Austrian Empire to the brink of collapse. ​

A panoramic view over a landscape showing Gorizia is on the right and Monte Podgora on the left. In the background, from left to right, are San Daniele, Dol, Monte Sabetino, and Monte Santo. The peaks of Monte Nero are visible on the left. Savogna lies in the middle foreground and the woods on San Michele are in the immediate foreground.

​The Austrians’ elastic defense could not work. There was no place left for them to retreat. The sensitive Hermada Citadel was within the Italian reach. If Hermada felt, the strategic port city of Trieste would surely fall. The loss of it would knock the Austria-Hungary Empire out of the war. The Italians would use their number superiority to extend the frontline which the Austrians had no more troops to spare.

The Hermada. View from the heights of Monfalcone. 1917.

Emperor Karl I, Empress Zita and their two children - Otto and Adelheid - inspecting Austro-Hungarian officers in Italy. Imperial War Museum

Kaiser Karl during the 11th Battle of the Isonzo.

On the 22nd of August, Kaiser Karl I of the Austrian Empire personally inspected the troops on the Isonzo Front. In his letter to Kaiser Wilhelm of the German Empire, he asked the German to relieve Austro-Hungarian divisions on the Eastern Front, so they could be deployed to the South-West Front. In addition, he requested to increase supply of heavy guns, ammunition and war materials. Kaiser Karl did not ask for a direct German intervention as both Austria and Italy considered this front was their separate wars. Germany, Britain, and France did not have any division there. 

But the Austrian Chief of Staff Arthur Freiherr Arz von Straußenburg did not believe this was enough to turn the tide. He sent Major General Waldstätten to meet First Quartermaster General Erich Ludendorff on August 29th to discuss a joined offensive.

Both Kaiser Wilhelm and Ludendorff were hesitated to release those Austrian divisions. 

The Aftermath of the Eleventh Battle changed the calculation. 
​
During the Eleventh Battle, most of the Bainsizza-Heiligengeist Plateau fell to the attackers. The Italians would use this strategic area to cut the Austrian forces in half in their next offensive. ​

The citadel of Hermada was barely hold against the Italian's onslaught.

Italian troops in the front line trenches on the Karst Plateau (Carso ), Imperial War Museum

In addition to territory losses, the Austrian fighting force was critically low. As for artillery pieces, more than half of the irreplaceable Austrian batteries were captured. The empire could not replenish their losses nor replace their equipment.​

Erich Ludendorff predicted that Austria-Hungary would surrender before 1918. This would leave Germany alone in the war, a consequence that he wanted to avoid at all cost.  

The German General Staff finally agreed ​to a joined counteroffensive.

As Austria had only 21 divisions against 40 Italian divisions, the Central Powers created the German 14th Army from their best troops in the East under the leadership of General der Infanterie Otto von Below.

​It had 17 divisions, 1076 guns, 174 mortars and 31 engineer companies. This Army would be the spearhead of the Fall Offensive.

The Central powers' Plan for the fall Offensive

A group of German and Austrian Soldiers having a meal In Tolmein, October 1917. Imperial War Museum.

The main goal of the offensive was to drive the Italians 40 km back to the Tagliamento and beyond. This would shorten the frontline and give favorable terrains for the Austrian defenders.
​
To achieve this, the 14th Army would break through the Italian 2nd Army’s lines at Flitsch (Plezzo) and Tolmein (Tolmin, Tolmino).  Between Flitsch and Tolmien was the the town of Karfreit (Caporetto) which was soon to be a namesake for the Twelve Battle of the Isonzo.
The Offensive would begin in mid-October and end before December. Ludendorff wanted those German divisions back for the Spring Offensive of 1918.

The Kingdom of Italy after the Eleventh Battle of the Isonzo

Victories in 1917 came with enormous cost. The staggering loss of more than 300,000 men was more than the two previous years. The kingdom could not send more men fast enough before the winter.

An Italian soldier rescuing a wounded comrade during an attack, carrying him on his back. Imperial War Museum

Italian soldiers shoveling snow near Monte Marmolada in the Dolomites. Imperial War Museum

In addition, newly acquired territories added more burden to the victors. The road condition was horrible. The lack of roads prevented a sufficient amount of supplies from reaching the frontline. The terrain and bad weather hampered communications and coordination among the battle groups. 
​
Despite all the optimism in Italy, another offensive in 1917 was impossible.

As the Central Powers emerged victorious on the Eastern Front, Marshall of Italy Luigi Cadorna instructed his generals to focus on defense in case of the Central Powers’ attacks.

Despite his instructions, Luigi Cadorna and the Italian leadership did not believe a major Austrian offensive was possible until 1918.

Chief of Staff Luigi Cadorna.

The Commander of the 2nd Army shared this belief. Luigi Capello, the most abled general, did not follow the instructions and set his troops in an aggressive stance. Most of his troops were deployed in the forward positions at the cost of thinning his defense line. His 2nd and 3rd lines of defense were too close to the first line. Moreover, General Capello concentrated his divisions and batteries on the high ground and neglected the defense in the valley. 

​The main road between Tolmein and Karfreit was lightly defended. This would not be an issue in good weather conditions as the defenders on the high ground had a clear view to fire at the defenseless attackers. However, with extreme weather in October and poor communication, there was nothing to stop the attackers from advancing quickly on this road. ​

Luigi Capello. Commander of the 2nd Army

The Tolmein-Karfreit's roads were lightly defended compared to the nearby heights.

Capello’s reason for this aggressive stance was that he believed the offensive was small in scale. It would be shattered by a general counterattack. 
​
As Cardona did not force his general to follow the 18th September instruction, the Capello HQ intentionally misinterpreted his order. 
As signs of an imminent offensive emerged and Capello’s illness was serious, the weaknesses of the 2nd Army were on display. The Italian leadership attempted to adjust the defense, but it was too late. 

At 2:00 AM on October 24th, a massive artillery barrage fired across the Flitsch-and-Tolmein sector. The Twelve Battle of the Isonzo began.

​​Techniques and software:

Those maps were created with Wonderdraft, Inkscape, and GIMP. 

Wonderdraft is a wonderful mapping software that allows users to add symbols and other assets. However, it has shortcomings when the map area is less than 100km square.

To overcome this limit, the mountains have to be drawn painstakingly with the pathing function. One mistake or a change of heart usually takes hours to fix. The risks of corrupting saved files and backup are very high with this technique as the files are large.

For the accuracy and color theme, historical pictures taken in the same month of the Flitsch-Tolmien section the the same period are used. Modern pictures are not reliable because the vegetation from 107 years ago was “less green” compared to nowadays.
 
Inkscape and GIMP are free software that are used to edit the maps created by Wonderdraft. They are also excellent tools to create custom assets.

Sources

• OSTERREICH-UNGARNS LETZTER KRIEG, 1914-1918. Vol 6. Pg 532-622

The maps were recreated from the Leaflet024 and Leaflet026. 

• Caporetto and the Isonzo Campaign. The Italian Front 1915-1918. By Željko Cimprić, John Macdonald. ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1848846715
• The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front 1915-1919. By Mark Thompson. ISBN-13: ‎ 978-0465020379 
• Ring of Steel: Germany and Austria-Hungary in World War I. By Alexander Watson. ISBN-13: ‎978-0465094882

The Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo: The First Day of Battle October 24th 1917