Italian casualties at Caporetto totaled almost 700,000-40,000 killed or wounded, 280,000 captured by the enemy and another 350,000 deserted. Unfavorable weather, however, pushed back the plans, and by the time Germany and Austria-Hungary were ready to attack, they were able to catch the Italians by surprise.Though the Italians managed to harden their defensives over the coming weeks, by mid-November the Germans and Austrians had driven them back some 60 miles to the River Piave, just 30 kilometers north of Venice. Cadorna, learning by aerial reconnaissance of the Austro-German movements, pushed back his own army's scheduled September offensive to prepare a defensive position for the scheduled attacks that month. In preparation for the offensive, Germany transported seven divisions of troops to reinforce the Austrians on the upper banks of the Isonzo. German Supreme Command, led by Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff, determined with their Austrian counterpart, Arz von Straussenberg, to launch a combined operation against the Italians, intended for mid-September. By the autumn of 1917, Italian Commander in Chief Luigi Cadorna's strategy of successive offensives near the Isonzo River in northern Italy-11 Italian attacks since May 1915 preceded the Austrian assault at Caporetto-had cost the Italians heavy casualties for an advance of less than seven miles, only one third of the way towards their preliminary objective, the city of Trieste on the Adriatic Sea. On this day in 1917, a combined German and Austro-Hungarian force scores one of the most crushing victories of World War I, decimating the Italian line along the northern stretch of the Isonzo River in the Battle of Caporetto, also known as the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo, or the Battle of Karfreit (to the Germans). Fighting continued, with heavy losses on both sides, until November 22, when the arrival of winter weather forced the battle to a halt. On October 19, a protracted period of fierce combat began, as the Germans opened their Flanders offensive and the Allies steadfastly resisted, while seeking their own chances to go on the attack wherever possible. The race ended in mid-October at Ypres, the ancient Flemish city with its fortifications guarding the ports of the English Channel and access to the North Sea beyond. After the German advance through Belgium and eastern France was curtailed by a decisive Allied victory in the Battle of the Marne in late September 1914, the so-called "Race to the Sea" began, as each army attempted to outflank the other on their way northwards, hastily constructing trench fortifications as they went. Near the Belgian city of Ypres, Allied and German forces begin the first of what would be three battles to control the city and its advantageous positions on the north coast of Belgium during the First World War.
0 kommentar(er)
