Battle of Caporetto

Battle of Caporetto and Italian retreat.

Date	24 October – 19 November 1917
Location	Kobarid, Austria-Hungary (present day Slovenia) Coordinates: 46°12′52″N 13°38′33″E / 46.21444°N 13.64250°E / 46.21444; 13.64250
Result	Central Powers victory

Belligerents

Austria-Hungary

German Empire

Italy

Commanders and leaders

Svetozar Boroević

Otto von Below

Johann Ritter von Henriquez

Luigi Cadorna
Luigi Capello

Strength

~350,000 soldiers
2,213 artillery

~874,000 soldiers
6,918 artillery pieces

Casualties and losses

70,000 killed and wounded

305,000
10,000 dead,
30,000 wounded,
265,000 captured
3,152 artillery pieces

600,000 internally displaced people

The Battle of Caporetto in 1917 (also known as the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo, the Battle of Kobarid 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 north-western Slovenia, then part of the Austrian Littoral), on the Austro-Italian front of World War I. The battle was named after the Italian name of the town (also known as Karfreit in German).

Austro-Hungarian forces, reinforced by German units, were able to break into the Italian front line and rout the Italian forces opposing them. 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 use of poison gas by the Germans also played a key role in the collapse of the Italian Second Army.

In August 1917 Paul von Hindenburg decided that to keep the Austro-Hungarians in the war, the Germans had to help them defeat the Italian army. Erich Ludendorff was opposed to this 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. They proposed attacking the quiet Caporetto sector, where a good road ran west through a mountain valley to the Venetian plain.

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Wikipedia