The battles of the Isonzo were fought between the Austrians and the Italians, between 1915 and 1917 during the Great War. Italy declared war on Austria, on May the 23rd,1915. On the eastern front, where their main attack was made, the Italians readied the line of the Isonzo by the end of the month. The Austrians had withdrawn to their positions on the Isonzo, mostly on its eastern bank, their centre being the entrenched camp of Gorizia, but they retained important bridgeheads on its west bank.
The first struggle on the river began on June the 5th, when the Italians crossed at Pieris and drove the Austrians from the flat between the river and Monfalcone; but the assault did not develop in strength along the whole river line until June the 9th. It lasted until June the 27th, when the Italians carried Castelnuovo. Cadorna's offensive was chiefly in three directions. On the north his left attacked Tolmino and the Monte Nero region, in the middle his centre assailed the positions protecting Gorizia, and on the south his right occupied Monfalcone. For the first he had the railway to Cividale and the road from it to Caporetto, and other neighbouring points; and for the second and third he had railways all the way. His communications were good, but the terrain in front was naturally difficult, and strongly fortified with powerful artillery and heavy wire.
Early in June the Italians captured the highest peak of the Monte Nero, and on the 14th Vrata, and by the 23rd were in the Plezzo valley, but failed to make any impression on Tolmino. In the centre the heights protecting Gorizia were assailed. The town lies on the eastern bank of the Isonzo, near the angle it makes in its course opposite Salcano, one side of which reaches north to Plava, and the other and longer, south to Sagrado. In front of the town, but on the western bank, rises the height of Podgora, which the Italians had unsuccessfully endeavoured to carry with a rush at the outset.
On June the 9th the Italians got across the river at Plava, and on June the 17th captured the height known as Hill 383, and formed a bridgehead. South-west of Gorizia they crossed the Isonzo at a point a little above Sagrado, south of Gradisca, on the north-west edge of the Carso, and occupied Sagrado.
By June the 23rd the Italians had gained possession of some villages south of Sagrado-Fogiano, at the foot of the Carso, managed to cross the river above Sagrado on June the 24th, and, taking Castelnuovo on June the 27th, established a bridgehead overlooking the Carso before the weather broke.
The second battle was a renewed offensive against Gorizia. This combined frontal assaults on the positions protecting that town with converging attacks by the Italian left and right wings north and south By this time the Austrians had brought up reinforcements and increased the number of their guns. On July the 2nd the attack was general from Plava to Castelnuovo, the two bridgeheads which the Italians had won in the first battle. Next day Cadorna's centre assaulted Podgora, in front of Gorizia, and drove the Austrians from its top; but the fire from Monte Santo and other points forced the Italians to withdraw. On the same day Cadorna made some progress in the Carso from Castelnuovo in the direction of Doberdo.
On July the 5yj he advanced his trenches both in the centre towards Gorizia and on his right in the Carso, while his left gained ground in the wooded heights east of the river from Plava, but at a heavy cost of life. Fighting continued along this 25 mile. front for nearly a fortnight, with the result that the Italians slowly but surely pushed forward their lines. Between July the 18th and 20th they vigorously attacked the Austrians in the Carso, capturing many trenches and about 3,500 prisoners. The Austrians counterattacked in force on July the 22nd, but. were driven back with heavy losses. Next day the Austrians came on again, but the result, speaking generally, went in favour of the Italians, who stormed, but were unable to hold, the whole of Monte San Michele. Monte Sei Busi was taken and lost several times. The struggle in the Carso went on without intermission until the end of the first week in August. The Italian success was most marked in the Carso, and 20,000 Austrians were taken prisoners. The battle gradually died down by the middle of August.
The third battle on the river began on October the 18th, 1915, with a general bombardment by the Italians of the Austrian positions from Plava to the sea. Cadorna launched his infantry attack on the 21st, his purpose. being to obtain better positions from which Gorizia might be assailed. With his left wing he succeeded in moving some distance forward from the positions beyond Plava gained in the second battle; but he was checked at Kuk, and could not advance against Monte Santo, the dominating height in this area. Higher up, near Tolmino, which the Italians had invested during the summer, he took the greater part of the Santa Maria and Santa Lucia heights, but was unable to drive the Austrians from the rest. He again attacked the Podgora position before Gorizia, and his troops, after desperate struggles, gained ground between Monte Podgora and the neighbouring Monte Sabotino. Early in November Monte Sabotino was taken with extraordinary gallantry, but through a misunderstanding was not held. North-west of Gorizia the village of Oslavia was captured on November the 20th, and presently the Italian heavy guns were bombarding Gorizia.
In the Carso, Cadorna's right fiercely attacked the enemy trenches about Doberdo, and bitter struggles took place on the slopes of San Michele and San Martino, as well as on the north towards the Vipacco stream. The battle continued until the beginning of December, but the Austrians were again reinforced, bad weather intervened, and the Italians made no more headway.
On August the 1st, 1916, Italian artillery bombarded the Isonzo front from Sabotino, north-west of Gorizia, to the sea, and on August the 4th infantry made a feint from Monfalcone, carried some hills, and lost them. This operation, which opened the fourth battle, led to the Austrians being reinforced from higher up their line, which consequently was so much weakened. On August the 6th the Austrian positions were heavily shelled from Sabotino to San Michele, and in the afternoon the third army, under the duke of Aosta, advanced to the assault, the two main points of attack being Sabotino on the north and San Michele on the south. Within an hour Sabotino was carried; soon after the Oslavia hills, a little to the south, were taken, and before dark Podgora was practically in the hands of the Italians.
On August the 6th and 7th the Italians took San Michele. By noon on August the 8th they held the whole of the heights in front of Gorizia, as well as San Michele and the village of Boschini on the eastern side of the river. Bridges were thrown across, and the main army passed over, entering Gorizia before midday on August the 9th Cavalry marched on south of the town to the Vertoibizza, a small tributary of the Vippacco, and to the hills bounding on the east the plain on which Gorizia stands. Cadorna's main attack now centred in the Carso, and on August the 10th the advance began to the Vallone, a sort of big natural trench running north and south across it. The Doberdo plateau was taken, Cosich and other heights were captured, and the Austrians were driven east, their resistance being finally broken on August the 12th. By August the 15th the Italians at Oppacchiasella were well beyond the Vallone. Then the advance, which bad gained so much, slowed down, and there was a pause until September, when heavy fighting broke out again in this district.
During the winter of 1916-1917 both Italy and Austria prepared for an offensive, but the former got in the first blow by bombarding the Austrian front on the Isonzo from Tolmino to the Adriatic on May the 12th, 1917, British heavy guns cooperating. For two days the shelling continued with great intensity, the main front assailed reaching from a point above Plava down to Salcano, a little north of Gorizia.
There were supplementary actions higher up the river near Bodrez, about eight miles south of Tolmino, and in the Carso, but the real attack, known as the fifth battle of the Isonzo, which developed on the morning of May the 14th, was from Plava to Saleano, where the Isonzo flows through a gorge, with the heights of Kuk, Vodice, Santo, and San Gabriele on its eastern side. It was against the strong Austrian positions on these mountains that the Italians of the second army threw themselves. On May the 14th they took Zagora, a village south of Plava, and made a bridgehead there, afterwards capturing Zagomila from it. They reached one of the spurs of Monte Kuk, and got on to Monte Santo.
Next day they progressed on Kuk, gained ground on Vodice, and stormed, but were unable to hold, the top of Santo. Alarmed by this success, the Austrians counterattacked on May the 16th in great force, but without avail. The Italians moved forward again, improved their positions near Santo, and established themselves on the summit of Vodice during the following days up to May the 22nd, when the fighting virtually ceased in this district, From Bodrez the Italians withdrew on May the 18th, when the operation there had served its purpose. Research Battles of The Isonzo
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Abbreviations
Research Battles of The Isonzo
