Page 317 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo I

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march in Budapest. But, ultimately, the Soča basin became the central battlefield of Italian
campaign.
When Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary, the war had already been underway for
almost a year and the Austro-Hungarian army was fighting on two battle fronts. The former
ally now opened yet another European battlefield – the South Western or Italian-Austrian
front. At a length of 600 km, it stretched from the Stelvio Pass on the Swiss-Italian-Austrian
border, through Tyrol, Carnia, the Soča basin, and down to the Adriatic Sea. The most impor-
tant battlefield between Italy and Austria-Hungary was a 90 km long southern branch of the
front that cut into Slovene ethnic territory, the so-called Soča Front. This was the Austrian
defensive line, that started at Mount Rombon (2208 m), whence it descended through the
mountains along the left bank of the Soča river, traversed the Banjšice Plateau and continued
along the foot of the Kras Plateau to the Adriatic Sea at the mouth of the river Timavo (Slov.
Timav). Austro-Hungarian units that engaged the Italian army served under Archduke Eu-
gen, the commander of the South Western Front with his seat in Maribor, whose chief of staff
was General Alfred Krauss. The Austro-Hungarian army on the Soča was under the com-
mand of Svetozar Boroevič von Bojna, commander (finally promoted to Field Marshall) of
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the 5 Army, also known as the “Lion of the Soča”. Count General Luigi Cadorna served as
the Italian chief of staff, whereas the command on the Soča Front was taken over by General
Duca d’Aosta (3 Army) and General Pietro Frugoni (2 Army).
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The Soča Front was the stage of 12 offensives, of which eleven were unleashed by the
Italian army and the last one by the Austrian and German forces, after which the front “with-
drew” from the Slovenian territory. The eleven battles brought Italy no major triumph; with
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the only two exceptions being the 6 battle (6–17 August 1916), when the Italians seized
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control over Gorizia and the Doberdob Plateau and, even more so, the 11 battle (17 August –
15 September 1917), the last Italian offensive on the Soča, when in an attempt to make a de-
cisive breakthrough on the Soča Front, the Italian army pounced upon it with all its military
might. The Italian army penetrated some 10 km deep into the Austrian defence positions.
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The Italian military success in the 11 battle of the Soča on the Banjšice Plateau posed a
real threat to completely obliterate the Austrian defence lines on the Soča Front in the ensu-
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ing offensive. Therefore it was already during the 11 battle that the preparations started to
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launch an Austrian-German offensive or the 12 battle of the Soča (24 October – 27 October
1917). Because the Austrian units were severely undermanned, Emperor Charles I sought
succour from his war ally, German Emperor William II. The planned breakthrough, also
known as Loyalty in Arms (Ger. Waffentreue), was prepared by the German General Kraft
von Dellmensingen. The breakthrough was to be made in the Upper Soča Valley, between
Bovec and Tolmin. Its main trumps were the element of surprise, the use of gas and a swift
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action of combined infantry and artillery forces. The 12 battle of the Soča was launched
on 24 October 1917 at 2 a.m. by releasing a thick cloud of poisonous gas over the Italian
trenches supported by a heavy barrage of artillery fire pounding from 2,000 cannons and
1,000 mortars. On 27 October, the commander of the Italian army ordered a withdrawal to
the Tagliamento river, but in the ensuing days the Italian army retreated all the way to the
Piave river. The battles on the Soča took around 1.5 million casualties, 187,000 of whom
were fallen.