Battle of Caporetto

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Battle of Caporetto
Part of the Italian Front (First World War)
Battle of Caporetto and Italian retreat.
Date October 24–November 19, 1917 Location Isonzo valley, in present day Kobarid, Slovenia Result Decisive Austro-German victory
Combatants
Austria-Hungary German Empire	Italy
Commanders
Otto von Below	Luigi Cadorna
Strength
35 divisions	41 divisions
Casualties
20,000 dead or wounded	40,000 dead 20,000 wounded 275,000 captured

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 Battle of Caporetto (or Battle of Karfreit as it was known by the Central Powers), took place from 24 October to 9 November 1917, near Kobarid, in what is now Slovenia, on the Austro-Italian front of World War I. Austro-Hungarian forces, reinforced by German units, were able to break into the Italian front line and rout the Italian army, which had practically no mobile reserves. The battle was a demonstration of the effectiveness of the use of stormtroopers and the infiltration tactics developed in part by Oskar von Hutier.

[edit] Rommel

Erwin Rommel added lustre to his military career leading a company of Wuerttemberg mountain troops during this battle and capturing 3,000 Italians, winning a Pour le Merite in process. His genius was shown by capturing Monte Matajur, southwest of Caporetto. He led 300 men high up into an Italian stronghold to capture a gun battery, then swinging around and capturing 2000 troops. Rommel was ordered to defend his captured territory but did not hesitate and captured 1200 more Italians by convincing them that his force was the mere vanguard of thousands more. For an entire defence line knocked out he had 132 Italians dead and 4000 captured. Rommel, on the other hand had lost no men. Despite not having slept for 45 hours Rommel did not stop there, pushing on to take a garrison held town of Longarone. This involved charging across a booby-trapped bridge and removing the explosives before they could go off and then capturing 8000 more men. It was said "Rommel always remained the lieutenant, making snap decisions and acting on the spur of the moment." The Italians were sent to POW camps, accompanied by only two men, which would be later repeated in WWII in Tobruk, when 27000 Italians were accompanied by the same number of Australians. He had to attend military court to get his medal however, because another officer claimed he had taken the hill.

[edit] Losses

Italian losses were enormous: 275,000 prisoners were taken and 2,500 guns captured; 40,000 were killed and 20,000 wounded. Austro-German forces advanced more than 100 km in the direction of Venice, but they were not able to cross the Piave River, where the Italians (with some help from French, British and American allies) established a new defensive line, which was held for the rest of the war.

The battle led to the conference at Rapallo and the creation of a Supreme War Council, with the aim of improving Allied military co-operation and developing a unified strategy.

The bloody aftermath of Caporetto was vividly described by Ernest Hemingway in his novel A Farewell to Arms.

Luigi Cadorna was in charge of the Italian forces and was forced to resign after the defeat. He was replaced by Armando Diaz and Pietro Badoglio (who later became head of the Italian government in place of Mussolini after the fall of Fascism in 1943).

The debacle was not the result of a lack of repression or coercion. In fact, 870,000 Italian soldiers came to be denounced by authorities with 210,000 sentences in military courts; 15,000 were sentenced to life in jail and 4,000 to death. There were rumors of illegal decimations taking place after the fashion of Ancient Rome to attempt to terrorise the remaining soldiers into fighting to the death. The failure of the Italian army was most likely because of the preponderance of peasants in an army which fought through terror. Many of these soldiers could not understand the national language or their battle orders.

This led governments to the realization that terror alone cannot adequately motivate a modern army. After the defeat at Caporetto, Italian propaganda offices were established and cynically promised land and social justice to soldiers. Italy also accepted a more cautious military strategy from this point on. Just one fifth of the total 650,000 Italian casualties during the war occurred after Caporetto.

After this battle, the term "Caporetto" gained a particular resonance in Italy. It is used to denote a terrible defeat - the failed General Strike of 1922 by the socialists was referred to by Mussolini as the "Caporetto of Italian Socialism".