Battle of Caporetto

From Freepedia

Battle of Caporetto
Conflict: World War I
Date: October 24–November 19, 1917
Place: Isonzo valley, in present day Kobarid, Slovenia
Outcome: Decisive Austro-German victory
Combatants
Austria-Hungary Germany	Italy
Commanders
Otto von Below	Luigi Cadorna
Strength
35 divisions	41 divisions
Casualties
20,000 dead or wounded	40,000 dead or wounded 275,000 captured

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 (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.Italian losses were enormous: 275,000 prisoners had been taken and 2,500 guns had been captured; 40,000 had been 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 river Piave, where the Italians (with substantial help from French, British and American allies) established a new defensive line, which they 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.

German commander Erwin Rommel who had previously distinguished himself on the Romanian front achieved new successes in this battle, helping him in his future career.

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

Among the Italian generals, led by Luigi Cadorna, there was also Pietro Badoglio, who later became head of the Italian government in place of Mussolini after the fall of Fascism in 1943. General Cadorna was forced to resign after the defeat and was replaced by Generals Badoglio and Diaz.

The debacle resulted not due to lack of repression or coercision. 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 in the Roman fashion in hopes of terrorizing the remaining soldiers to fight to the death. The failure of the Italian army was most likely due to the heavily peasanted army which fought through terror. Many of these soldiers could not understand the national language or their battle orders.

This led governments to the realisation that terror alone cannot suffice a modern army. After the defeat at Caporetto, Italian propaganda offices were established with cynical promises of land and social justice being made to soldiers. Italy also accepted a more cautious strategy from this point on. Only 20% of the total 650,000 Italian casualties during the war occured after Caporetto.

The term "Caporetto" after this took a special hold in Italy, 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"