The Italian front (Italian: Fronte italiano; German: Südwestfront) was one of the main theatres of war of World War I. It involved a series of military engagements along the border between the Kingdom of Italy and Austria-Hungary from 1915 to 1918. The Kingdom of Italy entered the war on the Entente side, although they had previously been allied with Germany and Austria-Hungary in the Triple Alliance. They claimed that this alliance was void due to the treaty being defensive and the Germans attacking first. When they joined the war, they were aiming to annex the Italian-speaking provinces of Trento and Trieste (the main objectives of Italian irredentism) and also German-speaking South Tyrol and the largely Slavic regions (where Italian minorities lived) of Istria and northern Dalmatia from their previous ally Austria-Hungary. Those territories were secretly promised to the Italians in the 1915 Treaty of London by Britain, France and Russia. The front soon bogged down into trench warfare, similar to that on the Western Front. Fighting also occurred at high altitudes and with extremely cold winters. The war along the front displaced much of the local population, and several thousand civilians died from malnutrition and illness in Italian and Austro-Hungarian refugee camps.
Military operations came to an end in 1918 with Italian victory and the capture of Trento and Trieste by the Royal Italian Army. Austria-Hungary disintegrated due to military defeats and internal turmoil caused by pacifists and separatists. All military operations on the front came to an end with the entry into force of the armistice of Villa Giusti on 4 November 1918. The treaties of 1919 and 1920 allowed Italy to annex Trento, Trieste, South Tyrol and Istria, while northern Dalmatia was assigned to Yugoslavia, with the exception of the province of Zara. The annexation of Trento and Trieste is seen as the culmination of the Italian unification and, for this reason, the Italian intervention in World War I is also considered the Fourth Italian War of Independence, in a historiographical perspective that identifies in the latter the conclusion of the unification of Italy, whose military actions began during the revolutions of 1848 with the First Italian War of Independence.
History
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 Alfred von Kleist, 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 resigns 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 saddles, 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 gradually decreasing in 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
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:
A general attack on the most important penetration points, such as the Stilfser Joch, Etschtal, Valsugana, Rollepass [sic], [and] Kreuzbergpass [...] could have led to significant enemy successes in view of the extremely weak defense forces in May.
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.