They made good use of the new German model 08/15 Maxim light machine gun, light trench mortars, mountain guns, flamethrowers and hand grenades. To protect these attacker’s flanks Alpine Troops infiltrated the strong points and batteries along the crests of the adjoining ridges, Mount Matajur and the Kolovrat Range, playing out their telephone lines as they advanced to maintain contact with their artillery. Soon they penetrated the almost undefended Italian fortifications in the valley, breaching the defensive line of the Italian Second Army between the IV and XXVII Corps. At 08:00 two large mines were detonated under strong points on the heights bordering the valley and the infantry attacked.
Then the front was eerily quiet until 06:00 when all the Italian wire and trenches to be attacked were peppered with mortar fire.Īt 06:30, 2200 artillery pieces opened drumfire, many targeting the valley road along which reserves were advancing to plug the gap. Knowing that their gas masks could protect them only for two hours or less, the defenders fled for their lives, though 500-600 still died. At 02:00, 894 metal tubes (Gaswurfminen) dug into a reverse slope were triggered electrically to simultaneously fire canisters containing 600 ml of chlorine and phosgene gases, smothering the Italian trenches in the valley in a dense cloud of poison. Battleįoul weather delayed the attack for two days, but on 24 October there was no wind and the front was misted over. The Italians helped by providing all needed weather information over their radio. They proposed the quiet Caporetto sector, where a good road runs west through a mountain valley to the Venetian plain.Ī new 14th Army was formed, with nine Austrian and six German divisions, commanded by a German, Otto von Below. Ludendorff was opposed, but was overruled In September three experts from the Imperial General Staff led by the chemist Otto Hahn went to the Isonzo front to find a site suitable for a gas attack. In August 1917 Hindenburg decided that to keep the Austro-Hungarians in the war the Germans must help them to give the Italian army a severe beating. The Isonzo river, location of the initial attacks at Kobarid (Caporetto). See also: Battle of Caporetto order of battle The use of poison gas by the Germans played a key role in the collapse of the Italian Second Army. 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 battle was named after the Italian name of the town of Kobarid (known as Karfreit in German).Īustro-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 of Caporetto (also known as the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo or the Battle of Karfreit as it was known by the Central Powers), took place from 24 October to 19 November 1917, near the town of Kobarid (now in Slovenia), on the Austro-Italian front of World War I.
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