Fifth Battle of the Isonzo

The Fifth Battle of the Isonzo was fought from March 9–15, 1916 between the armies of the Kingdom of Italy and those of Austria-Hungary. The Italians had decided to launch another offensive on the Soča (Isonzo) River.

Fifth Battle of the Isonzo
Part of the Italian Front
(World War I)

Italian trenches at the beginning of the Fifth Battle of the Isonzo
Date9–15 March 1916
Location
Soča river, western Slovenia
Result Inconclusive
Belligerents
 Kingdom of Italy  Austria-Hungary
Commanders and leaders
Luigi Cadorna (Chief of Staff of the Italian Army)
Pietro Frugoni (Commander of Second Army)
Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia (Commander of Third Army)		 Archduke Friedrich (Supreme Commander of the Austro-Hungarian Army)
Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf (Chief of the General Staff)
Archduke Eugen of Austria-Teschen (Commander of Southwest Front)
Svetozar Boroević von Bojna (Commander of Fifth Army)
Franz Rohr von Denta (Commander of Tenth Army)
Gustav Globočnik Edler von Vojka (Commander of Group Globočnik in Tenth Army)
Strength
286 battalions (plus 90 in reserve)
1,360 guns		 100 battalions (plus 30 in reserve).
470 guns
Casualties and losses
1,882 killed, wounded and missing 1,985 killed and wounded

Background

After four attempts to cross the Soča (Isonzo) river and invade Austro-Hungarian territory, Luigi Cadorna, the Italian commander-in-chief, organized a strong new offensive following the winter lull in fighting which had allowed the Italian High Command to regroup and organize 8 new divisions for the front.

However, it was an offensive launched not after detailed strategic planning, but rather as a distraction to shift the Central Powers away from the Eastern Front and from Verdun, where the greatest bloodshed of the war was occurring. The attack was a result of the allied Chantilly Conference of December 1915.

The battle

The attacks ordered by Cadorna for the 2nd and 3rd Italian Armies as "demonstrations" against the enemy, proved to be less bloody than those previously. The battles were fought on the Karst plateau, with the objective of taking Gorizia and the Tolmin bridgehead. The Italians were able to conquer Mount Sabatino from the Austro-Hungarians, but that was the only real gain they had made.

After a week of fighting that cost the lives of 4,000 men between both sides, the clashes ceased because of the terrible weather conditions that worsened the trench conditions and because of the Austro-Hungarian "punitive" offensive in the Trentino.

Along certain parts of the front, especially around Gorizia, skirmishes continued between enemy platoons until March 30 and beyond, in a protracted struggle that produced no clear victor.

Cadorna had called upon his Russian allies to keep the Austria-Hungarian units at bay on the Eastern front given Cadorna the chance to redeploy his forces at Trentino all the while abandoning the Fifth Battle of the Isonzo.

Aftermath

With the Fifth Battle of the Isonzo over the Italians now had to plan another assault. Cadorna put his sixth offensive on the drawing board after hearing promises of resupply from Italy's Allies.

See also

Further reading
  • Schindler, John R. (2001). Isonzo: The Forgotten Sacrifice of the Great War. Praeger. ISBN 0275972046. OCLC 44681903.

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