Caporetto
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Caporetto
a population center in northern Italy, on the Isonzo River, where the Austro-Hungarian forces (the German Fourteenth Army, supported by the Austro-Hungarian Tenth and Second armies) inflicted a crushing defeat on the Italian Second and Third armies during World War I (Oct. 24—Nov. 9, 1917).
The Austro-Hungarian forces began their attack on October 24 and immediately broke through the Italian front, driving the Italian forces into chaotic retreat. Only when 11 Anglo-French divisions were thrown into battle was the front stabilized by November 9 along the Piave River. As a result of the breakthrough, the Italian Army lost more than 130, 000 soldiers killed and wounded, 355, 000 taken prisoner (according to Italian figures, 40, 000 killed and wounded and 215, 000 captured), 3, 152 artillery pieces, 1, 732 mortars, 3, 000 machine guns, huge supplies of provisions, and about 14, 000 sq km of territory. About 300, 000 soldiers, unable to continue fighting, fled into the country’s heartland. Despite its successes, the Austro-German advance on the Italian front did not alter the general strategic position of the Entente. The defeat of the Italian forces at Caporetto greatly aggravated the internal situation in Italy and promoted the growth of a revolutionary crisis there.
REFERENCES
Kaporetto: Razgrom ital’ianskoi armii na r. Izontso v oktiabre 1917. Moscow, 1938.Conquet, A. Srazhenie pod Kaporetto (1917). Moscow, 1940. (Translatedfrom French.)