Part 5 - One Son's Father: The Battles of the Isonzo River, 7th, 8th and 9th, The Trieste Offensive, September - November 1916

Prologue

After Gorizia, Cadorna turned his attention to the remainder of the Karst Plateau. Three successive (and short) offensives between September and November were begun and then brought to a halt by a combination of heavy enemy gunfire and bad weather. Together they would cost the Italians 125,000 dead and wounded, as opposed to 85.000 Austrians.

The Austrian command correctly believed that Cadorna would strike on the Karst Plateau again intent on trying to reach Trieste.  The Italian Navy had a plan to use an amphibious assault using a division sized force in concert with a land attack on Trieste. The landing of a division-sized force behind Austrian lines would have turned Boroevic's (the Austrian commander) vulnerable left flank; combined with a general offensive, such a joint army-navy operation might easily have enjoyed strategic success, including the capture of Trieste from the rear. Cadorna had enough troops to spare, but he was uninterested in any plan that was not his own and was not focused on the Isonzo front. 

Meanwhile, Boroevic after the defeat at Gorizia, was strengthening the second defensive positions. By early September, the 5th Imperial Army had 40,000 construction troops, half of them unarmed Russian prisoners of war, working day and night in the Isonzo valley. They built stone reinforcements, dug deeper trenches, laid foot-high walls of sandbags, placed steel shields and barbed wire in front of entrenchments, and did all the tasks that were required to make the army's positions ready for Cadorna's next attack. They worked especially hard on the Carso, where the next Italian blow was expected. The construction units suffered regular losses to random Italian artillery fire, but remarkably, most of the second defensive line was ready in the second week of September, fortuitously, because Cadorna would launch another direct ground offensive to Nova Vas on September 14 in the Seventh Battle of the Isonzo, also known as the Battle of Nad Logem. Nad Logem refers to a strategic summit on the Karst Plateau, located along the Isonzo Front, near Doberdò. 

Moreover, the loss of Gorizia convinced the Austrian AND GERMAN High Commands of the gravity of the Italian threat, and Boroevic received more new units and replacement battalions than ever before (even drawing troops from the Eastern Front with Germany's consent). By mid-September, the Austrian forces on the Isonzo reached an unprecedented strength of almost fourteen divisions (165 infantry battalions). Boroevic also received artillery reinforcements from the High Command also by mid-September. 

Moreover, the battle-worn divisions broken by the Sixth Battle were being rapidly rebuilt. Only a month after its loss, Austria's 58th Division was again at full strength, but its character had changed; only one-third of the division's eighteen infantry battalions were Dalmatian (locals), the rest being new units drawn from all over the empire. The 17th Division was also reconstructed to look much like its former self. The Austrian VII Corps still held the line on the north and central Carso; the plateau's southern third was garrisoned by a mostly Czech battle group, one and a half divisions strong. In all, Austria had seven brigades-32,000 infantrymen-at Isonzo to beat back the expected coming Italian offensive. The Italians knew little of this rapid recovery.

Battle of Nad Logem

On September 13 the Macerata Brigade had again been deployed to Doberdo as part of the 31st Division – south of Quota 208 Sud and on September 15 is ready for action in the narrow, deep but small valley of Bonetti, south of Quota 208 Sud.

The Macerata Brigade was positioned left of the lake opposite Quota 208 S (see C), attacking into the valley to the right.

After ceasing artillery fire, the II Battalion of the 121st Regiment initiates a bayonet attack to the edge of the Austrian trenches but the lateral troops cannot support the advance and the Battalion is forced to fall back.  They are then reinforced by I Battalion of the 122nd Regiment who make a breakthrough and leap over a sinkhole (dolina) leading to the capture of 20 Austrian officers and 200 troops. The enemy counterattacked and forced the left of the line to fall back.  The 31st Division faired considerably better than its neighboring 19th Division.  This group was torn apart by machine gun and artillery fire well before reaching the Austrian lines.  Then a surprise counterattack by a single company of Austria’s 11th Kaiserjägers pushed the dazed Italian troops back to their own lines.  Also an attempt by the XII Corps to expand its hold on Quota 144 also failed.

Trenches at Quota 208 Sud (South)

From September 17 until 24 the action ebbed and flowed in another bloody battle. The Macerata Brigade is then relieved by the Modena Brigade and moves to Romans d’Isonzo in the rear to recuperate. 

The short nature of this battle allowed the Austrians to continue to rebuild. By this time the Imperial Army was now facing three fronts – the Eastern (Russia), the new Transylvanian (Romanian) and the Italian. The Italian front was still the lowest priority but the high command was able to send two more divisions to Borovic and more work was done in the south sector on the secondary defensive lines towards Trieste.

Map showing the locations of the places involved in the Battles of the Isonzo River (7, 8 & 9)

The Eighth Battle of the Isonzo River

On October 10, the Eighth Battle of Isonzo ensued. Essentially this was a continuation of Italy’s prior attack in September (Nad Logen) which in turn was an attempt to extend the bridgehead established at Gorizia in August 1916 south to Trieste. Cadorna was determined to continue Italian attacks to the left of the town of Iamiano (Jamiano), a policy that continued during the subsequent (ninth) battle - with equal lack of success.

33rd Division Position at Quota 208 Sud

On October 12 the Macerata Brigade is sent again to the front lines under the command of the 33rd Division. Two battalions are sent to Quota 208 and two battalions are sent to the towns of Palichisce and Ferletti under the command of the 47th Division and first to Vermegliano (in reserve) and thence to Boneti to replace the 41st Regiment. 

The Battle could be considered an Italian victory because some ground was gained (but not enough to indicate a path to Trieste). However, what the Battle also showed was that the still beleaguered Austrians had just enough strength to stop an advance but not be overrun.  This was the war of attrition that Italy would be expected to win if no further changes were made.  As long as there were enough infantrymen to sacrifice - “offer up in grey-green clothes” – as articulated by D’Annunzio, the odds would be in Italy’s favor.

It is worth noting, however, that this battle represented at least in theory one of the most dramatic moments for the Empire of Austria-Hungary. Although Cadorna and his military commanders were unaware, the resistance at Iamiano (the small village to the south-east of Doberdò) saved the destiny of that front for Borevic. In fact the Austro-Hungarian commanders, after the withdrawal that had taken place in August, were still re-organizing the new defensive lines in the south. A specialist sent by Vienna to visit the Vipacco Valley suggested the organization of a new fortified line that would be placed further back from the first line (by about three kilometers) and that would take advantage of the maze of rocky paths and of the numerous natural caverns around Mount Ermada.  When the combatants reached Iamiano in this battle, the new defensive lines were still inadequate and if the Italian army had continued along this road, it would most likely have succeeded in breaking through and in advancing towards Trieste. 

But the reality was otherwise. As with the earlier, Seventh Battle attack, heavy Italian casualties - this time 50,000–60,000 killed, wounded, missing or captured, compared to 38,000 killed, wounded, missing or captured for the Austrians - required that the short, sharp concentrated initiative be called off pending the army's recuperation. The Trieste-Isonzo onslaught was next renewed with the Ninth Battle of the Isonzo on 1 November 1916.

The Ninth Battle of the Isonzo River

The German command still recognized the gravity of the situation and allowed another single Austrian division to be transferred from the Russian front to Italy.  They would arrive in late October. 

Sketch showing components of the Italian Third Army before the 9th Battle of the Isonzo River, including the Macerata Brigade SE of Boneti

The battle began on November 1, after 24 hours of artillery fire. The Italian XI Corps made a breakthrough of the front in its sector, occupying important positions on Veliki Hribach and Pecinka; on the contrary the XIII Corps was stopped by the counterattack of the Imperial Army. During the night the Austrian counter produced a constant artillery fire on the new positions of Veliki and Pecinka, held by the 45th division; at 4 o'clock they attacked en masse but the resistance of the Barletta brigade saved the day. This part of the battle which lasted more than 12 hours, allowed the arrival of the reserves, practically saving the situation of the 45th division. On November 2 new positions were taken on the Karst plateau in the area of ​​Castagnevizza, while towards the south the Imperial Army resisted the Italian assault. Because of the shortage of ammunition and considering the new positions taken as satisfactory Cadorna ordered the suspension of operations on the evening of the November 2. Then on November 3 and 4 the struggle suddenly resumed, due to the retreat of the Austrians to more backward positions, a retreat immediately exploited by Italian troops that on the evening of the November 4 who occupied all the trenches of Mount Fajtji. But as always, the Austro-Hungarian Army's position on the high terrain provided a formidable natural barrier to the Italians' attempts to achieve the breakthrough to Trieste.

Bombardment during battle near Boneti

Also on November 1, the Marcerata Brigade took its part in the Ninth Battle of the Isonzo River as part of the 33^rd Division - again at the northern flank of the main thrust of the assault. In the initial wave they were able to overrun the enemy trench and at Quota 208, capture 200 Austrians and send many on the run back to their rear. But the flanks were unable to duplicate this success and with the threat of being cut off the advanced units returned to their initial positions. Three other battalions (the I and II of the 122 Regiment and V of the Bersaglieri) launched another attack. The loss of the three battalion commanders (two fallen on the field and the other seriously injured) stymied the effort and as a result the gains were outweighed by the losses on the battlefield. The Brigade (tired and exhausted) eventually took the ridge of the Valtellina after having lost on 17 officers and 546 men. These unit actions were recognized by the award of the Medaglia d'argento al valore militare.

Italian soldiers in trench at Quota 208 Sud

Aftermath for the 121st infantry

The Karst Plateau Campaign was over for the winter of 1916-1917.  The Macerata Brigade was now miraculously to be transferred to the “quiet” Trentino Front - the White War. On November 4 the Brigade is sent to Vermigliano, then the next days to Cervignano and Strassoldo and on November 6-8 moved by rail to Val Lagarina between Pilcante and Brentonico-Passo Buole under the control of the 37th Division tasked with the protection and defense of Baldo sector and Brentonico sub-sector where they spent the rest of the year, the entirety of 1917 and a part of 1918.