Pre-war period •
1908 -
Bosnian Crisis: Italy expected compensations in the areas of "
Italia Irredenta" ruled by
Austria-Hungary in exchange for its recognition of the annexation of
Bosnia-Herzegovina, as was agreed upon in the
Triple Alliance treaties with Austria-Hungary. However, this did not happen and this became one of the reasons for Italy to break its alliance with Austria-Hungary in 1915. The mutual compensation clause was Article 7 of the 1909 and 1912 versions of the same treaty: " However, if, in the course of events, the maintenance of the status quo in the regions of the Balkans or of the Ottoman coasts and islands in the Adriatic and in the Aegean Sea should become impossible, and if, whether in consequence of the action of a third Power or otherwise, Austria-Hungary or Italy should find themselves under the necessity of modifying it by a temporary or permanent occupation on their part, this occupation shall take place only after a previous agreement between the two Powers, based upon the principle of reciprocal compensation for every advantage, territorial or other, which each of them might obtain beyond the present status quo, and giving satisfaction to the interests and well-founded claims of the two Parties. " •
1911 -
Italo-Turkish War: The war is regarded as a major escalation stage on the way to
World War I. The weakening of the
Ottoman Empire alienated
Italy from its previous partners in the
Triple Alliance.
Germany viewed the Ottomans as an ally and
Austria-Hungary's position was further complicated by the subsequent
Balkan Wars, which
Bulgaria,
Greece,
Serbia and
Montenegro ignited by the prospect of an Italian victory. •
1914 - 28 June, the
Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in
Sarajevo by the Serbian nationalist
Gavrilo Princip. The Archduke was heir to the throne and the main proponent of
Trialism. Such reforms would have transformed the
dual monarchy Austria-Hungary into a tripartite state Austria-Hungary-Croatia, which competed with Serbia's interest in founding a
South Slavic kingdom under Serbian leadership. •
1914 - 1 July,
Alberto Pollio, the Chief of Staff of the
Royal Italian Army since 1908, dies unexpectedly and is replaced by
Luigi Cadorna. According to , German military attaché in Rome, in a dispatch from April 1914,
Pollio was considered utmost stable, loyal and fully committed to the
Triple Alliance and its military prospects. •
1914 -
July Crisis: The Austro-Hungarian foreign minister,
Berchtold, deliberately fails to inform the (official) allies,
Italy and
Romania, of the intended action against Serbia, breaching Article 7 of the Triple Alliance, since he foresaw that consent would only be given in exchange for compensation. •
1914 - 2 August,
Antonio Salandra declares Italy's neutrality, in conjunction with Article 3 of the Triple Alliance. •
1914 - 5 November,
Sidney Sonnino is appointed
Minister of Foreign Affairs and makes it a priority to pressure
Austria-Hungary on Article 7 of the Triple Alliance in terms of compensation. •
1915 - 9 January, Urged by the German and Austro-Hungarian ambassadors in Rome,
Bernhard von Bülow and
Karl von Macchio,
Berchtold proposes to the Emperor
Franz Joseph I to cede the
Trentino to Italy as compensation. However, the Emperor and the Hungarian Prime Minister
István Tisza reject the proposal and at the instigation of Tisza, Berchtold is removed as
Foreign Minister and replaced by the
Hungarian Stephan Burián several days later. A German proposal of giving
Sosnowiec and its coalfields to
Austria-Hungary in turn of compensation for the
Trentino was likewise rejected in February 1915. •
1915 - 3 March, Salandra and Sonnino, with the backing of king
Victor Emmanuel III, submit an offer to the
Triple Entente for intervention in the war. The
Siege of Przemyśl on March 22 marks a major setback for Austria-Hungary on the
Eastern Front. •
1915 - 26 April, The
Treaty of London is signed by the
United Kingdom,
France, and
Russia on the one part, and Italy on the other, in order to entice the latter to enter World War I on the side of the
Triple Entente within a month. The Entente also hoped that
Romania and
Bulgaria would be encouraged to join them after Italy did the same. The Treaty was agreed to be kept a secret according to Article 16, and remained so until December 1917 when
Bolshevik leader
Vladimir Lenin exposed to the public all treaties of Tsar
Nicholas II and the Entente, including the secret treaty of London. •
1915 - 4 May, In the midst of the
Gorlice breakthrough, Salandra officially renounces the
Triple Alliance in a note to
Germany and
Austria-Hungary. But on May 13, threatened without a majority in Parliament, Salandra resignes from office and orders Cadorna to stop mobilization. •
1915 - 16 May, Salandra is reinstated as
Giovanni Giolitti failed to form a new government amid rising tensions in the public and threats from the king. When Parliament resumed on May 20 Salandra secured overwhelming majorities (367 to 54 and 407 to 74) on a Bill conferring extraordinary powers upon the Government in the event of war. General mobilization was ordered on May 22. •
1915 - 23 May,
Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary. The Front Topography The Italian Front stretched from the
Stelvio Pass (at the border triangle between Italy, Austria-Hungary and Switzerland) along the
Tyrolean,
Carinthian, and
Littoral borders to the
Isonzo. Its total length was around 600 kilometers, of which 450 kilometers ran in high alpine terrain. This information relates to measurements as the crow flies. Taking into account the natural terrain, the many yokes, peaks and ridges with the resulting differences in height, the effective length was several thousand kilometers. The front touched very different geographical areas: in the first three sections - from the
Stelvio Pass to the
Julian Alps in the area of
Tarvisio, it ran through mountainous territory, where the average ridge heights reached 2,700 to 3,200 meters. The higher mountainous regions have a highly rugged relief with little vegetation; Elevations over 2,500 meters are also covered by glaciers. The barren landscape and lack of sufficient arable land led to little development of these high elevations; settlement was largely limited to the lower-lying zones. From the Julian Alps to the
Adriatic Sea, the mountains are constantly losing on height and only rarely reach 1,000 meters as in the area around
Gorizia. This area is also sparsely populated and characterized by a harsh climate with cold winters and very hot and dry summers. A craggy
karst landscape spreads out around the
Isonzo valley, which adjoins the Italian foothills of the Alps in the southwest. The topographical characteristics of the front area had a concrete impact on the conduct of the war. The rocky ground, for example, made it difficult to dig trenches and in addition, the karst rock in the Isonzo Valley turned out to be an additional danger for the soldiers. If grenades exploded on the porous surface fragments of the exploding rock acted as additional shrapnel.
Mobilization soldiers
Archduke Eugen, who was already in command of the Balkan forces, was promoted to
Generaloberst on May 22, 1915 and was given supreme command of the new southwest front. Together with his chief of staff
Alfred Krauß the
5th Army was reorganized and placed under the command of General d. Inf.
Svetozar Boroević who on May 27 had arrived from the
Eastern Front. The K. u. k. Landesverteidigungskommando in
Tyrol (LVK) was handed to GdK
Viktor Dankl to protect the Tyrolean borders. It included the German
Alpenkorps which was suitable for operations in the high mountains, the first divisions arrived on May 26; a short time later, the Alpenkorps was already taking part in combat operations against Italian units, although the
German Empire was not officially at war with Italy until August 28, 1916. The "Armeegruppe Rohr" stood under the command of
Franz Rohr von Denta and was to secure the
Carinthian front. The transfer of the 5th Army and additional troops from the east went smoothly; within a few weeks, Archduke Eugen had around 225,000 soldiers under his command. In June the 48. Division (FML Theodor Gabriel) and finally, in July, the four
Kaiserjäger regiments and three
k.k. Landesschützen regiments from
Galicia were added. A major advantage of the Austro-Hungarian defense was its entrenchment on higher ground. Italy ordered general mobilization on May 22, 1915 and by the end of June four armies had marched into the north-east border area. In the deployment plan of the Italian general staff (Commando Supremo) under the direction of FM
Luigi Cadorna, three main points were set: • The 1st Army was to encircle the Tyrolean front from the west and south. • The 4th Army was to set up position in the Cadore and Carnia • The 2nd and 3rd Armies on the other hand, were opposed to the 5th k.u.k. Army, in the Julian Alps and on the Isonzo. Although the Italian armed forces were numerically superior, things initially remained surprisingly quiet on the southwestern front. No attempt was made to break through on the
Tyrolean front, and there was no major offensive on the
Isonzo either. Due to the hesitant implementation of Cadorna's attack plans, the chance to score the decisive blow right at the beginning was lost. FML Cletus Pichler, the chief of staff of the LVK Tirol, wrote: That the opportunity for a quick breakthrough was not used was partly due to the slow mobilization of the Italian army. Due to the poorly developed transport network, the provision of troops and war material could only be completed in mid-June, i.e. a month later than estimated by the military leadership. The Italian army also suffered from many shortcomings on the structural level.
Artillery pieces and munitions were not the only area where shortages were acute. In August 1914 the Italian army had at its disposal only 750,000 rifles of the standard
Carcano 1891 model and no hand grenades available at all. This inadequate supply of equipment especially limited the scope and efficiency of training throughout 1914 and 1915. Munitions were also urgently needed: in July 1914 only ca. 700 rounds were available per rifle, despite Cadorna's demand that 2,000 rounds each be found in preparation for war, by May 1915 the army had only succeeded in procuring 900 rounds per rifle. Meanwhile,
Emilio De Bono records that "
throughout 1915 hand-grenades remained unheard of in the trenches". Italy's first machine guns were prototypes, as the
Perino Model 1908, or
Maxim guns acquired in 1913 from the British manufacturer Vickers. In line with the 1911 plan for creating 602 machine gun sections. By August 1914 only 150 of these had been created, meaning there was only one machine gun section per regiment, as opposed to one per battalion, as envisaged in the plans. By May 1915 the
Fiat-Revelli Mod. 1914 became the standard machine gun of the Italian army and a total of 309 sections had been created, with 618 guns in total; though this was an improvement it was still only half the planned number, leaving many battalions to do without. In contrast a standard
k.u.k regiment had four machine gun sections,
MG 07/12 "Schwarzlose", one for each battalion, whilst a standard British regiment had by February 1915 four machine gun sections per battalion. During the
Italo-Turkish War in Libya (1911–1912), the Italian military suffered equipment and munition shortages not yet repaired before Italian entry into the Great War. At the opening of the campaign, Austro-Hungarian troops occupied and fortified high ground of the
Julian Alps and
Karst Plateau, but the Italians initially outnumbered their opponents three-to-one.
Battles of Isonzo in 1915 An Italian offensive aimed to cross the
Soča (Isonzo) river, take the fortress town of
Gorizia, and then enter the
Karst Plateau. This offensive opened the first
Battles of the Isonzo. At the beginning of the
First Battle of the Isonzo on 23 June 1915, Italian forces outnumbered the Austrians three-to-one but failed to penetrate the strong Austro-Hungarian defensive lines in the highlands of northwestern
Gorizia and Gradisca. Because the Austrian forces occupied higher ground, Italians conducted difficult offensives while climbing. The Italian forces therefore failed to drive much beyond the river, and the battle ended on 7 July 1915. Despite a professional officer corps, severely under-equipped Italian units lacked morale. Also many troops deeply disliked the newly appointed Italian commander, general
Luigi Cadorna. Moreover, preexisting equipment and munition shortages slowed progress and frustrated all expectations for a "Napoleonic style" breakout. Numerous avalanches were caused by the Italians and Austro-Hungarians purposefully firing artillery shells on the mountainside, while others were naturally caused. In addition to building
underground shelters and covered supply routes for their soldiers like the Italian
Strada delle 52 Gallerie, both sides also attempted to break the stalemate of
trench warfare by tunneling under
no man's land and placing explosive charges beneath the enemy's positions. Between 1 January 1916 and 13 March 1918, Austro-Hungarian and Italian units fired a total of
34 mines in this theatre of the war. Focal points of the underground fighting were
Pasubio with 10 mines,
Lagazuoi with 5,
Col di Lana/Monte Sief also with 5, and
Marmolada with 4 mines. The explosive charges ranged from of
blasting gelatin. In April 1916, the Italians detonated explosives under the peaks of Col Di Lana, killing numerous Austro-Hungarians.
1917: Germany arrives on the front The Italians directed a two-pronged attack against the Austrian lines north and east of Gorizia. The Austrians checked the advance east, but Italian forces under
Luigi Capello managed to break the Austrian lines and capture the
Banjšice Plateau. Characteristic of nearly every other theater of the war, the Italians found themselves on the verge of victory but could not secure it because their supply lines could not keep up with the front-line troops and they were forced to withdraw. However, the Italians despite suffering heavy casualties had almost exhausted and defeated the Austro-Hungarian army on the front, forcing them to call in German help for the much anticipated Caporetto Offensive. The Austro-Hungarians received desperately needed reinforcements after the
Eleventh Battle of the Isonzo from
German Army soldiers rushed in after the
Russian offensive ordered by
Kerensky of July 1917 failed. Also arrived German troops from Romanian front after the
Battle of Mărășești. The Germans introduced
infiltration tactics to the Austro-Hungarian front and helped work on a new offensive. Meanwhile, mutinies and plummeting morale crippled the Italian Army from within. The soldiers lived in poor conditions and engaged in attack after attack that often yielded minimal or no military gain. On 24 October 1917 the Austro-Hungarians and Germans launched the
Battle of Caporetto (Italian name for
Kobarid or Karfreit in German).
Chlorine-
arsenic agent and
diphosgene gas shells were fired as part of a huge artillery barrage, followed by infantry using infiltration tactics, bypassing enemy strong points and attacking on the Italian rear. At the end of the first day, the Italians had retreated to the
Tagliamento River. When the Austro-Hungarian offensive routed the Italians, the new Italian chief of staff,
Armando Diaz ordered to stop their retreat and defend the fortified defenses around the
Monte Grappa summit between the Roncone and the Tomatico mountains; although numerically inferior (51,000 against 120,000) the Italian Army managed to halt the Austro-Hungarian and German armies in the
First Battle of Monte Grappa.
1918: The war ends Second Battle of the Piave River (June 1918) , 1917 Advancing deep and fast, the Austro-Hungarians outran their supply lines, which forced them to stop and regroup. The Italians, pushed back to defensive lines near
Venice on the
Piave River, had suffered 600,000 casualties to this point in the war. Because of these losses, the Italian Government called to arms the so-called
99 Boys (''Ragazzi del '99''); the new class of conscripts born in 1899 who were turning 18 in 1917. In November 1917,
British and French troops started to bolster the front line, from the 5 and 6 divisions respectively provided. Far more decisive to the war effort than their troops was the Allies economic assistance by providing
strategic materials (steel, coal and crops – provided by the British but imported from Argentina – etc.), which Italy always lacked sorely. In the spring of 1918, Germany pulled out its troops for use in its upcoming
Spring Offensive on the Western Front. As a result of the Spring Offensive, Britain and France also pulled half of their divisions back to the Western Front. The Austro-Hungarians now began debating how to finish the war in Italy. The Austro-Hungarian generals disagreed on how to administer the final offensive.
Archduke Joseph August of Austria decided for a two-pronged offensive, where it would prove impossible for the two forces to communicate in the mountains. The
Second Battle of the Piave River began with a diversionary attack near the
Tonale Pass named Lawine, which the Italians repulsed after two days of fighting. Austrian deserters betrayed the objectives of the upcoming offensive, which allowed the Italians to move two armies directly in the path of the Austrian prongs. The other prong, led by general
Svetozar Boroević von Bojna initially experienced success until aircraft bombed their supply lines and Italian reinforcements arrived. , 3 November 1918, after the victorious
Battle of Vittorio Veneto. The Italian victory in this battle marked the
end of the war on the Italian Front, secured the dissolution of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire and contributed to the
end of World War I just one week later.
The decisive Battle of Vittorio Veneto (October–November 1918) To the disappointment of Italy's allies, no counter-offensive followed the Battle of Piave. The Italian Army had suffered huge losses in the battle, and considered an offensive dangerous. General
Armando Diaz waited for more reinforcements to arrive from the Western Front. By the end of October 1918, Austro-Hungary was in a dire situation. Czechoslovakia, Croatia, and Slovenia proclaimed their independence and parts of their troops started deserting, disobeying orders and retreating. Many Czechoslovak troops, in fact, started working for the Allied Cause, and in September 1918, five Czechoslovak Regiments were formed in the Italian Army. By October 1918, Italy finally had enough soldiers to mount an offensive. The attack targeted
Vittorio Veneto, across the Piave. The Italian Army broke through a gap near
Sacile and poured in reinforcements that crushed the Austro-Hungarian defensive line. On 31 October, the Italian Army launched a full scale attack and the whole front began to collapse. On 3 November, 300,000 Austro-Hungarian soldiers surrendered, at the same day the Italians entered Trento and Trieste, greeted by the population. On 3 November, the military leaders of the already disintegrated Austria-Hungary sent a
flag of truce to the Italian commander to ask again for an armistice and terms of peace. The terms were arranged by telegraph with the Allied authorities in Paris, communicated to the Austro-Hungarian commander, and were accepted. The
Armistice with Austria was signed in the Villa Giusti, near Padua, on 3 November, and took effect at three o'clock in the afternoon of 4 November. Austria and Hungary signed separate armistices following the overthrow of the
Habsburg monarchy and the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Casualties Italian military deaths numbered 834 senior officers and generals, 16,872 junior officers, 16,302 non-commissioned officers, and 497,103 enlisted men, for a total of over 531,000 dead (including those who died as POWs or who were declared dead after going missing). Of these, 257,418 men came from
Northern Italy, 117,480 from
Central Italy, and 156,251 from
Southern Italy. While the confirmed death numbers of Italian soldiers on the front in 1915 were 66,090 killed, in 1916 this figure was 118,880 killed, in 1917 it was 152,790 killed, and in 1918 it stood at 40,250 killed soldiers. Another breakdown of fatalities gives 237,353 killed in action, 106,000 died of disease (59,000 in the operating army and 47,000 in the territorial army), 81,430 missing later declared dead, 12,036 accidental deaths, and some 90,000 deaths of prisoners of war in Austro-Hungarian captivity (mostly from disease). An additional 946,640 men were wounded. Excess Italian civilian deaths due to privations and military action are estimated at about 600,000, most of them related to the Spanish flu epidemic. Austro-Hungarian
KIAs (this category does not include soldiers who perished in the rear or as POWs) amounted to 4,538 officers and 150,812 soldiers, for a total of 155,350 dead. The losses were increasing over time; there were 31,135 killed in 1915, 38,519 in 1916, 42,309 in 1917 and 43,387 in 1918. While in 1915 killed-in-action fatalities on the Italian front constituted 18% of all Austro-Hungarian KIAs, in 1916 this figure was 41%, in 1917 it was 64%, and in 1918 it stood at 84%. Overall and excluding those who perished as prisoners, 1.2 million Austro-Hungarian soldiers died and 3.62 million were wounded during World War I. About one-third of these losses were incurred on the Italian Front, for a total of about 400,000 dead and 1,200,000 wounded.
Occupation of Dalmatia, Istria, Trentino and Tyrol on 3 November 1918, after the victorious
Battle of Vittorio Veneto Italian soldiers entered Trento while
Bersaglieri landed from the sea in Trieste. The following day the Istrian cities of
Rovigno and
Parenzo, the Dalmatian islands of
Lissa and
Lagosta, and the cities of
Zara and
Fiume were occupied: the latter was not included in the territories originally promised secretly by the Allies to Italy in case of victory, but the Italians decided to intervene in reply to a local National Council, formed after the flight of the Hungarians, and which had announced the union to the Kingdom of Italy. The
Regia Marina occupied
Pola,
Sebenico and
Zara, which became the capital of the
Governorate of Dalmatia.The Governorate of Dalmatia had the provisional aim of ferrying the territory towards full integration into the Kingdom of Italy, progressively importing national legislation in place of the previous one. The Governorate of Dalmatia was evacuated following the Italo-Yugoslav agreements which resulted in the
Treaty of Rapallo (1920). Italy occupied also
Innsbruck and all
Tyrol by the III Corps of the First Army with 20–22,000 soldiers.
Aftermath of
Redipuglia, with the tomb of
Prince Emanuele Filiberto, Duke of Aosta in the foreground, nicknamed the
Undefeated Duke for having reported numerous victories in the
First World War without ever being defeated on the battlefield As the war came to an end,
Italian Prime Minister Vittorio Emanuele Orlando met with
British Prime Minister David Lloyd George,
President of Council of France Georges Clemenceau and
United States President Woodrow Wilson in
Versailles to discuss how the borders of Europe should be redefined to help avoid a future European war. The talks provided little territorial gain to Italy as Wilson promised freedom to all European nationalities to form their nation-states. As a result, the
Treaty of Versailles did not assign
Dalmatia and
Albania to Italy as had been promised. Furthermore, the British and French decided to divide the German overseas colonies into their mandates, with Italy receiving none. Italy also gained no territory from the breakup of the
Ottoman Empire. Despite this, Orlando agreed to sign the Treaty of Versailles, which caused uproar against his government. The
Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919) and the
Treaty of Rapallo (1920) allowed the annexation of
Trentino Alto-Adige,
Julian March,
Istria,
Kvarner as well as the
Dalmatian city of
Zara. Furious over the peace settlement, the Italian nationalist poet
Gabriele D'Annunzio led disaffected war veterans and nationalists to form the
Free State of Fiume in September 1919. His popularity among nationalists led him to be called
Il Duce ("The Leader"), and he used black-shirted paramilitary in his assault on Fiume. The leadership title of
Duce and the blackshirt paramilitary uniform would later be adopted by the
fascist movement of
Benito Mussolini. The demand for the Italian annexation of Fiume spread to all sides of the political spectrum. The subsequent
Treaty of Rome (1924) led to the annexation of the city of
Fiume to Italy. Italy's lack of territorial gain led to the outcome being denounced as a
mutilated victory. The rhetoric of
mutilated victory was adopted by Mussolini and led to the
rise of Italian fascism, becoming a key point in the
propaganda of Fascist Italy. Historians regard
mutilated victory as a "political myth", used by fascists to fuel
Italian imperialism and obscure the successes of
liberal Italy in the aftermath of World War I. Italy also gained a permanent seat in the
League of Nations's executive council. , Italian patriot and hero of World War I.From Italian weekly
La Domenica del Corriere, 24 September 1916. ==Italian Army Order of Battle as of 24 May 1915==