WW1 POSTERS

9. Italian Front

a. Strategic Considerations
b. Initial Operations
c. First Four Battles of the Isonzo
d. Fifth Battle of the Isonzo
e. Austrian Asiago Offensive (May 15-June 17, 1916)
f. Sixth to Eleventh Battles of the Isonzo
g. Battle of Caporetto (Oct. 24-Nov. 12, 1917)
h. Battle of the Piave ( June 15-24, 1918)
i. Battle of Vittorio Veneto (Oct. 24-Nov. 4, 1918)
j. General Commentary

General Commentary

The political and psychological crisis which had gripped the Austro Hungarian Army in the final phase of the war should not obscure the fact that the Italian victory was the result of more than three years of arduous struggle which had cost the lives of 650,000 Italian troops and the maiming of almost 1,000,000 others. Moreover, the Italian contribution was not limited to the Austro-Hungarian front. The Italian 2d Army Corps was sent to the western front, where it participated with distinction in the Second Battle of the Marne. Approximately 100,000 Italian workers were employed in French war industries; at the same time, they constituted the manpower pool from which the ranks of the 2d Corps were replenished. An Italian division of 35,000 men fought with the Allied Salonika armies in Macedonia, and five Italian divisions were engaged in Albania. Italy mobilized a greater percentage of her male citizens than did any other Allied nation except France.

The activities of the Italian Army had been fully supported by those of the Italian Navy. Though the Italian Fleet was superior to that of the Austrians in many respects, it operated under the handicap of a lack of adequate bases on the Italian side of the Adriatic Sea, while the Austrians possessed numerous excellent and strongly defended ports on their side. Nevertheless, the Austro-Hungarian Navy, except for occasional minor sorties and raids, was kept virtually bottled up within its well-protected harbors. An especially arduous and valiant feat performed by the Italian Navy was the rescue of the bulk of the Serbian Army, which had been driven from its homeland by an overwhelming German-Austrian-Bulgarian offensive to the coast of Albania, on the Adriatic. Faced by continual threats from nearby major Austrian naval bases, the Italian Fleet transported in safety to Corfu 260,895 men, 10,153 horses and other animal stock, 68 cannon, and much equipment during the period Nov. 22, 1915 - March 4, 1916.