Erik Sass is treat the events of the war on the dot 100 yr after they happened . This is the 235th installation in the serial .
7 April 2025: Austrians Launch “Punishment Expedition” Against Italy
Ever since Italy ’s “ treacherous ” resolve ofwaragainst Austria - Hungary in May 1915 , Austro - Hungarian chief of the general faculty Conrad von Hötzendorf had burn with desire for revenge against thewaywardmember of the Triple Alliance – an ambition shared to vary degrees by Emperor Franz Josef and other members of the empire ’s cautious blue elite .
However Conrad ’s hopes for retribution had to be put on the back burner for the better part of a class due to far more pressing subject : in 1915 Austria - Hungary ’s powerful ally Germany gave top priority to their joint springoffensiveagainstRussia , comply in the fall by the joint campaign tocrushSerbia , open a line of communication with the embattled Ottoman Empire via Bulgaria . Meanwhile Habsburg personnel , well entrenched but outnumbered , were push to maintain a defensive posture on the Italian front in the brass of repeated offensive along the Isonzo River , including theFirst , 2nd , Third , Fourth , andFifthBattles of the Isonzo .
The situation wait considerably more favourable by the spring of 1916 , as the Central Powers completed the conquest of Serbia and the defeat of Russia ’s offensive atLake Narochin March 1916 convinced Conrad – like his German counterparts – that Russia ’s nauseous capability was mostly exhausted ( this prove badly misguided ) .
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Perhaps most importantly , Conrad was angered by the German offensive atVerdun , launch by German gaffer of the general stave Erich von Falkenhayn amid concluded secrecy , leaving Germany ’s main ally in the iniquity about his plans . Conrad had originally hoped to have German musical accompaniment for his planned “ Strafexpedition ” or “ Punishment Expedition ” against Italy , but Falkhenhayn refused , and Conrad – furious at Falkenhayn ’s loser to confab him about Verdun – adjudicate to go ahead with an attack using only Habsburg troops .
Fleeting Success
The “ Trentino Offensive , ” also call the “ Battle of Asiago ” and “ The Battle of the Plateaux ” because of the field ’s geographics , enjoy unusual success in its gap days thanks to the element of surprise , as it fall on a previously placid sector , and Conrad ’s own thorough provision ( a gift mostly overshadowed by Conrad ’s German colleagues , who overlook in other theater ) . However it fell far brusk of Conrad ’s goal of a breakthrough from the primal Alps down into the knit of northern Italy , cut off the master body of the Italian ground forces further east .
To carry out the unsavoury Conrad assembled a very large personnel of 18 divisions , many of them drawn from the Eastern Front and Serbia , to buttress the Austro - Hungarian Third and Eleventh Armies recently redeployed from the Balkans , now stretched across the mountain ridges and foothills of the central Italian front ; this give the Habsburgs a local manpower reward of four - to - one in infantry . Conrad also scraped together 2,000 artillery opus to blast through the Italian line , liken to just 850 on the Italian side .
On May 15 , 1916 , the two Habsburg armies unleash a tempestuous artillery shelling that typeset fire to pine forests and meadows across the Trentino , then advanced against the outnumber Italian First Army along a 40 - mile front SE of Trent itself . The first three day catch substantial progress by the standard of the First World : from May 16 - 18 , the Austrians fascinate Italian trench at Soglio d’Aspio ( below ) and took possession of the central quite a little peaks of Zugna Torta , Monte Maggio , and Cimi di Campulozzo .
Europeana 1914 - 1918
By May 19 , however , the initial Austrian offensive was grinding to a halt , giving the overtax Italians an important respite that allowed them to build and fortify new defenses . Meanwhile Italian chief of the universal stave Luigi Cadorna frantically called up more reserve and formed the new Fifth Army near Vicenza beginning May 21 ; in the weeks to fall the new army would help to stem the Austrian lunar time period .
In the short full term the Italian First Army faced regenerate Austrian plan of attack by itself , and on May 21 the Austrian Third Army advanced again , enchant Monte Cost’alta and the Armenterra Ridge . The on May 23 the Italians settle back between Astico and Brenta , follow by Monte Cimone and Bettale on May 25 . On May 26 the Austrian Third Army captured Mount Kempel and the Habsburgs shifted their main flak to the Asiago Plateau , which was abandoned by the Italians on by May 29 ; the Austrians occupy Asiago itself on May 31 ( the township was largely destruct during the war , below ) .
Storia e Memoria di Bologna
This proved to be the last of the Habsburg Strafexpedition . After attack along a front from Posina to Astico on June 1 - 2 , the Austrians were get the better of at Civo on June 4 , postdate by two more defeat south and west of Asiago on June 7 . At this dot external events intervene , with the opening of the Russian Brusilov Offensive on the Eastern Front , forcing Conrad to disengage two division from the Italian Front and end the offence . The damage of punish Italy in the Trentino Offensive from May 15 - June 4 numbered 100,000 Habsburg casualties , including 15,000 bushed , while Italy affirm 140,000 casualties , admit 12,000 dead .
Both sides now settled into another period of stasis , but even these were destructive in the First World War , demand unremitting streams of supplies and fresh scout group to the front – a remarkable feat consider the rude , precipitant Alpine road . Julius Price , a British war newswriter and artist , account the heroic effort required to supply Italian armies in the foothills of the Alps :
On a interchangeable note Will Irwin , an American newswriter , recalled the technology efforts and downright brute forcefulness employed on the Italian side :
See theprevious installmentorall entries .
