Schematic plan · World War I (Italian Front 1915)

Third Battle of the Isonzo

18 October 1915
Austria
Victory for Austria

All battles The event in the chronicle Wikipedia

A schematic plan, generated from the statistics of the CAA Database of Battles: the armies' size and width, the hours of fighting, the plan of attack and the outcome are as recorded; the ground and the positions are not.

Italy (It 2nd & 3rd Armies, 356,000 men under Gen Cadorna) attacked Austria (Aus 5th Army, 157,000 men under Gen Borojevic) in Austria. The CAA Database of Battles records 408 hours of fighting on a front of 29 km, a frontal attack, river crossing against fortified defense, and that Austria held. Losses: Italy 67,008 (19%), Austria 31,474 (20%).

This plan is generated from those figures. It shows the shape of the battle the database describes: the size and width of the armies, the plan of attack and the outcome. It does not show where the units actually stood.

The armies

Italy

Gen Cadorna

Unit	Arm	Men
Italy left wing	Infantry	81,120
Italy centre	Infantry	108,160
Italy right wing	Infantry	81,120
Italy reserve	Infantry	67,600
Italy artillery (1,200 guns)	Artillery	18,000
Gen Cadorna	Commander	—
In this plan		356,000

Austria

Gen Borojevic

Unit	Arm	Men
Austria left wing	Infantry	37,680
Austria centre	Infantry	50,240
Austria right wing	Infantry	37,680
Austria reserve	Infantry	31,400
Gen Borojevic	Commander	—
In this plan		157,000

What the sources report

	Italy	Austria
Strength, this plan	356,000	157,000
Losses, this plan	67,008	31,474

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 298, “Third Isonzo”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 408 hours
Winner: the defender
Terrain: Rugged, Mixed
Weather: Dry, Sunny, Cold, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Fortified defense
Front width: 29 km (attacker), 29 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Italyattacker	356,000	67,008	0	1,200	Frontal attack; River crossing; Repulse; Stalemate
Austriadefender	157,000	31,474	0	—	Defensive plan; Stalemate

Attacker’s advantages none recorded

CDB90 (US Army Concepts Analysis Agency, 1990), tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold; data under ODC-BY 1.0.

Notes

On this reconstruction

Generated automatically from the statistics in CDB90. Frontages, depths, distances, the order of events and the terrain are schematic: they follow the recorded strengths, front widths, hours of fighting, tactical plan and outcome, not maps or accounts of the battle. The sources give no hours; the timing is conjectural.

Sources

US Army Concepts Analysis Agency; tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold, CAA Database of Battles (CDB90), no. 298 · ODC-BY-1.0Strengths, losses, front widths, hours of fighting, tactics and outcome.
Wikipedia contributors, Third Battle of the Isonzo · CC-BY-SA-4.0

Facts gathered from Wikidata (CC0), Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) and Wikimedia Commons (licence per file); the plan and its text are timeastra’s own.