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Battle of Caporetto

The Battle of Caporetto (also known as the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo, the Battle of Kobarid or the Battle of Karfreit) took place on the Italian front of World War I.

The battle was fought between the Kingdom of Italy and the Central Powers and took place from 24th of October to 19th of November 1917, near the town of Kobarid (now in north-western Slovenia, then part of the Austrian Littoral), also was near the river Isonzo. The battle was named after the Italian name of the town (also known as Karfreit in German).


Austro-Hungarian forces, reinforced by German units, were able to break into the Italian front line and rout the Italian forces opposing them. 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 use of poison gas by the Germans also played a key role in the collapse of the Italian Second Army.[3]


The rest of the Italian Army retreated 150 kilometres (93 mi) to the Piave River, its effective strength declined from 1,800,000 troops down to 1,000,000 and the government of Prime Minister Paolo Boselli collapsed.[4]

Aftermath[edit]

Analysis[edit]

Brian R. Sullivan called Caporetto "the greatest defeat in Italian military history."[18] John R. Schindler wrote "By any standard, Twelfth Isonzo [Caporetto] and its aftermath represented an unprecedented catastrophe for Italian arms."[19] The disaster "came as a shock" and "triggered a search for scapegoats," culminating in a 1919 Italian military commission that investigated the causes of the debacle.[20][21][22] At Rapallo, a Supreme War Council was created to improve Allied military co-operation and develop a common strategy.[23] Luigi Cadorna was forced to resign after the defeat, a final straw according to the Prime Minister, Vittorio Emanuele Orlando. Cadorna was known to have maintained poor relations with the other generals on his staff and by the start of the battle, had sacked 217 generals, 255 colonels and 355 battalion commanders.[24][25]

Italian prisoners of war in World War I

Andreopoulos, George J.; Harold E. Selesky (1994). . Yale University Press. ISBN 978-1852851668. Retrieved 17 March 2016.

The Aftermath of Defeat: Societies, Armed Forces, and the Challenge of Recovery

Cassar, George H. (1998). . A&C Black. ISBN 978-0300058536. Retrieved 17 March 2016.

The Forgotten Front: The British Campaign in Italy 1917–18

Clodfelter, Micheal (2017). Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492–2015 (4th ed.). Jefferson, NC: McFarland.  978-0786474707.

ISBN

Dupuy, R. E.; Dupuy, T. N. (1970). The Encyclopaedia of Military History: From 3,500 BC to the Present. sbn 356-02998-0 (rev. ed.). London: Jane's.

Gooch, John (2014). The Italian Army and the First World War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  978-0521149372.

ISBN

Schindler, John R. (2001). . Greenwood. ISBN 978-0275972042.

Isonzo: The Forgotten Sacrifice of the Great War

(1965). Caporetto: The Scapegoat Battle. London: Macdonald. OCLC 1407385.

Seth, Ronald

Tucker, Spencer (2010). . ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1598844290.

Battles That Changed History: An Encyclopedia of World Conflict

Anna Grillini: , in: 1914–1918 online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.

Caporetto, Battle of

Simon Jones: The Gas Attack at Caporetto, 24th October 1917