Italy 1917-18: Austria’s last offensive

Italy 1917-18: Austria's last offensive

This week's chapter examines the fall of the Boselli government, Oct 1917, the Orlando ministry, political situation and Italian morale, Austria, the chief enemy, anxiety about Allied policy, the situation in spring 1918, the controversy between Italy and the Yugoslavs, the London Agreement and Italian claims, the Pact of Corfu, the Pact of Rome and its meaning, the military situation at the end of 1917, some minor successes, bombs on Venice and Padua, the Austrian offensive in June 1918, failure in the north, Austrians cross the Piave and are defeated, the importance of the Italian victory

The Austrian losses in the double battle were calculated by the Italians at from 180,000 to 200,000 men, and it is probable that the figure is close to the truth. The Italian losses were 80,000. Hardly another single week throughout the long struggle of the war saw more bloodshed than the week which put an end to the last Austrian hopes of a victorious peace

 

Italy's ordeal — Venice threatened

If the Austro-Germans succeed in crossing the Piave there is no longer any natural barrier between them and Venice https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/italys-ordeal-venice-threatened-l6nzrc9fr?utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=newsletter_118&utm_medium=email&utm_content=118_06.06.2018%20Italy%20(1)&CMP=TNLEmail_118918_3487692_118 november 11, 1917 Italy’s ordeal — Venice threatened The Italian forces have fallen back to the right (western) bank of the Piave and the artillery has entered into action. Before leaving Conegliano (five miles east of the Piave) Arditi shock troops made a fine defence in the streets, and between Conegliano and the Piave counter-attacked firmly, while at the same time the cavalry charged, advancing on the enemy on both flanks. Then before the enemy had recovered the Arditi and the cavalry passed undisturbed over the Pritla bridge, which was immediately blown up. The conduct of the rearguard troops, which have fought without intermission from Udine to the Piave, has won the admiration of the whole Army. Yesterday the Austro-Germans were closing round Conegliano. It is not to be expected that Conegliano, though protected on the north by hills, will be able to delay the enemy much longer. The troops left there are tough and have done all possible to prolong resistance, to the extent, even, of barricading the streets. They must inevitably fall back or find their line of retreat cut. They must retire across the River Piave by the great new bridge, and Italy must then stand face to face with her second and her greater crisis. Her first crisis came on that morning when the Germans passed through the gap at Caporetto on to Italian soil. Udine and the Friuli fell into their hands then, and a limb of the country was gone. But today, with the arrival of Austro-Germans on the Piave, a greater peril may have to be faced. If the Austro-Germans succeed in crossing the Piave there is no longer any natural barrier between them and Venice, and it would be as if the hair of Italy had been torn from her brows. Strategically it would mean that Austria had practically gained naval preponderance in the Upper Adriatic. A good omen is that the skies have repented of their favouritism. Rain has been falling, which will swell the river. It is a pity it did not fall sooner, but the Piave, like the Tagliamento, rises quickly. It also resembles the Tagliamento in those banks of gravel which lie in its bed but are covered when the river is high. Besides the bridge on the Conegliano road other important bridges were on the road to Oderzo and at Vidor, just after the river leaves the mountains, near where the poet Browning lived at Asolo.

 

All-night bombing of Venice

Venice is only a few minutes' flight from the Austrian lines, and the raiders evidently have a bomb dump close behind their trenches https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/all-night-bombing-of-venice-50s02ndgk?utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=newsletter_118&utm_medium=email&utm_content=118_06.06.2018%20Italy%20(1)&CMP=TNLEmail_118918_3487692_118 march 2, 1918 All-night bombing of Venice Last night saw the greatest air raid of the 45 that Venice has endured. It lasted eight hours and there was not an interval of more than half an hour during all that time of brilliant moonlight in which bombs were not falling on the city. Three hundred were thrown in all, 38 houses were smashed, the Royal Palace struck, a home for old men and women blown to pieces, and three churches damaged — St John and St Paul, St Simeon the Less, and St John Chrysostom, in the last of which an altar with one of Cellini’s last landscapes was wrecked. About 15 civilians were wounded, including two women, seriously. Only one man was killed, thanks to the promptness with which the Venetians now take shelter in refuges and also to the fact that only some 60,000 of the normal population of 160,000 remain. The same machines returned again and again, bringing fresh cargoes of bombs through the night. Venice is only a few minutes’ flight from the Austrian lines, and the raiders evidently have a bomb dump close behind their trenches. The journey both ways and the taking on board of more bombs seem to require about 25 minutes, which was the average length of the intervals. As several aeroplanes took part in the raid, the sinister drone of the approaching propellers across the lagoon and the shattering crash of bursting bombs recurred almost every ten minutes. Scattering bombs over inhabited towns is a brutal business anywhere, but in Venice it is sacrilege. For here it is practically impossible to drop bombs without destroying or injuring beyond repair beautiful buildings. The Austrians, and recently their German allies, have thrown in all about a thousand high-explosive bombs upon the city with a cynical disregard of whether they might strike the Doge’s Palace, a tiny shop, or, by an outside chance, some building which could plausibly have some vague military use. As it is Venice will never lose the scars which the Vandals have made. The Scalzi Church on the Grand Canal was destroyed months ago with its frescoed roof by Tiepolo: a white stone five yards from the doors of St Mark’s records where another bomb just failed to smash those gorgeous golden Byzantine mosaics which no covering with timbers and sandbags can protect, and which cannot be carried to a place of safety.

 

The Italian victory

It is Italian generalship and Italian valour which have hurled back the invaders and have liberated the peninsula from the deadly menace which hung over it for eight terrible days https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-italian-victory-btsqvh35m?utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=newsletter_118&utm_medium=email&utm_content=118_06.06.2018%20Italy%20(1)&CMP=TNLEmail_118918_3487692_118 June 25, 1918 When the Italian Prime Minister foretold some days ago that Caporetto would soon be avenged we ventured to better the phrase and to say that Caporetto had been avenged already. But the vengeance was not complete. It may not yet be complete. The great army which struck at the Italian lines with all the force of the Dual Monarchy is in full retreat. The Montello is clear, and the enemy troops, who have fought with desperation for eight days to maintain the positions they had rushed on the right bank of the Piave, have been forced to evacuate them and have been driven back across the stream. By Sunday night no Austrians but prisoners remained on that side of the river, except about Musile. There they still held a small position, which was being vigorously attacked. More than 4,000 prisoners have been added to those in the hands of our Allies, and great quantities of arms and material have been taken by them, including, it is said, half the guns which they had previously lost. It is too soon to speculate with any confidence on the possible developments of the situation. The Austrians have generally proved stubborn fighters in defeat, but one of our Special Correspondents states that on Sunday Italian cavalry, supported by infantry, were already across the Piave in pursuit. The Italians have won a great and signal victory over the whole armed strength of their hereditary enemy, and they have won it by their own right hand. Their English and French Allies have given them valuable help in the mountains, as they themselves are the first to acknowledge, but the victory is their own. It is Italian generalship and Italian valour which have hurled back the invaders and have liberated the peninsula from the deadly menace which hung over it for eight terrible days. All the British Empire, all the States and nations associated with Italy in this great conflict with “militarism,” will join with their whole hearts in the congratulations which the Prime Minister and Mr Asquith offered her last night in the name of the “Mother of Parliaments.” Mr Lloyd George did not hesitate to say that the repulse of the formidable offensive, on which Austria had staked so much, has been “one of the greatest and most disastrous defeats of the war,” and that it is no longer a question which way her armies are going, but where they will be able to retreat. That, perhaps, may be putting the result of the victory too high. General Diaz makes no such claims in his modest dispatch. He describes the defeat of the enemy as great, which it manifestly is, but he bears testimony to the valour of his opponents, and he makes no suggestion that, so far, they are a routed and broken army. They may rapidly become demoralized and disorganized after a repulse so crushing and so decisive, but, with our present information, it is prudent not to go beyond Mr Asquith’s words when he states that the brilliant and glorious achievement of our Allies is “one of the most remarkable performances in the war,” and that it “has filled us with the greatest possible hope for the future.” The Prime Minister touched upon another aspect of the Austrian defeat which must occupy us all. It has occurred, as he observes, at a time when there is very serious discontent in the Dual Monarchy itself. That is undeniable. Information from all sides has appeared in our columns for a long time past on the great and growing dissatisfaction of the Austro-Hungarian peoples in general, and on the increasing disaffection of the oppressed races among them. Hunger, approaching the limits which are unbearable, is rife throughout the dominions of the Emperor-King, and it is now confessed that no relief can be expected before the harvest. Want, as all history shows, is the fertile breeder of rebellion among disloyal populations. The Prime Minister in one half of the Dual Monarchy has tendered his resignation because he dare not meet Parliament. The Emperor has directed him to remain at his post, a step which whets, the jeer of the Socialist Arbeiter Zeitung, “Austrians rejoice, for although we have no Parliament, we still have the Seidler Government.” The Prime Minister of the other half is said to contemplate following his Austrian colleague’s example. The most rigorous measures are taken against agitators, and particularly agitators who venture to insist upon the rights of nationalities. We hear of strikes, riots, arrests, and punishments in all directions. Mr Lloyd George believes that three-fifths of the population are out of sympathy with the war; that they are far more in sympathy with the aims of the Allies than with those of “militarist” Germany, for which they are driven to fight, “Strumaenti ciechi d’occhiuta rapina he lor non tocca e che forsenonsanno I” and that they look to the victory of the Entente as their only chance of freedom. The presence of the Czecho-slovaks in the ranks of the victors, and the ardour with which they have helped to defeat their old oppressors are portentous symptoms of the internal condition of the Hapsburg dominions. There is reason to believe that a main reason for the great offensive which has failed was the hope that, as in 1848, an overwhelming military success might assuage or overawe domestic treason. Commenting on the first news of the battle, the Neue Freie Presse declared that it “scented history” in the reports from Headquarters. It will not be the history of Radetzky. Custozza has been avenged as well as Caporetto. What will be the result upon populations seething with discontent, consumed by hunger, and convinced that they are being starved and slaughtered to gratify the ambitions and the greed of Germany? The Austrian official explanation will hardly soothe them.