The Battle of Caporetto (or Battle of Karfreit as it was known by the Central Powers), took place from 24 October to 9 November 1917, near Kobarid, in what is now Slovenia, on the Austro-Italian front of World War I. Austro-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 was a demonstration of the effectiveness of the use of stormtroopers and the infiltration tactics developed in part by Oskar von Hutier. Erwin Rommel added lustre to his military career leading some Central Power forces during this battle. Italian losses were enormous: 275,000 prisoners were taken and 2,500 guns captured; 40,000 were killed and 20,000 wounded. Austro-German forces advanced more than 100 km in the direction of Venice, but they were not able to cross the River Piave, where the Italians (with substantial help from French, British and American allies) established a new defensive line, which was held for the rest of the war. The battle led to the conference at Rapallo and the creation of a Supreme War Council, with the aim of improving Allied military co-operation and developing a unified strategy. The bloody aftermath of Caporetto was vividly described by Ernest Hemingway in his novel A Farewell to Arms. Luigi Cadorna was in charge of the Italian forces and was forced to resign after the defeat. He was replaced by Armando Diaz and Pietro Badoglio (who later became head of the Italian government in place of Mussolini after the fall of Fascism in 1943). The debacle was not the result of a lack of repression or coercion. In fact, 870,000 Italian soldiers came to be denounced by authorities with 210,000 sentences in military courts; 15,000 were sentenced to life in jail and 4,000 to death. There were rumors of illegal decimations taking place after the fashion of Ancient Rome to attempt to terrorise the remaining soldiers into fighting to the death. The failure of the Italian army was most likely because of the preponderance of peasants in an army which fought through terror. Many of these soldiers could not understand the national language or their battle orders. This led governments to the realization that terror alone cannot adequately motivate a modern army. After the defeat at Caporetto, Italian propaganda offices were established and cynically promised land and social justice to soldiers. Italy also accepted a more cautious military strategy from this point on. Just one fifth of the total 650,000 Italian casualties during the war occurred after Caporetto. After this battle, the term "Caporetto" gained a particular resonance in Italy. It is used to denote a terrible defeat - the failed General Strike of 1922 by the socialists was referred to by Mussolini as the "Caporetto of Italian Socialism".
One of the "must read' books on The Great War is Mark Thompson's The White War about the Italian Front. The poor Italians were probably the worst led, worst fed, worst equipped and most harshly disciplined army of the war, and their story isn't well known in English. The book tells us why Caporetto happened and the consequences. Gareth
I believe that Hemingway's passage in "A Farewell To Arms" about the retreat from Caporetto is an amazing account, even if it is a fictional novel. In fact, I think it is one of the finest examples of combining fact with fictional characters; it is probably the greatest piece of WWI fiction written by an American ever.
