During the three plus years of the war, soldiers and their armies have tried virtually everything
to win this war, to no avail.
But what if you do the opposite?
What if you tried to end it by losing?
What if you tried treason?
I’m Indy Neidell; welcome to the Great War.
Last week we saw revolt in the Russian Baltic Fleet, Russian soldiers in France, and even
Egyptian laborers in France.
There was action on the Libyan front, and the Battle of Passchendaele flared to life
again with a British victory that seemed to have cracked the German elastic defense system.
Those British attacks back on the 20th had secured most of their objectives and had held
them, doing enormous damage to the German Eingreif reserves - who counterattacked using
stormtroop methods - in the process.
British General Sir Herbert Plumer’s planning had done what was seemingly impossible - turning
the German defense in depth system into a disadvantage, advancing just small distances
before digging in instead of trying for a breakthrough.
Now - the further the Eingreiftruppen, the German counterattack forces, advanced, the
more disorganized they grew and the less effective they were.
British Prime Minister David Lloyd George visited the front this week to find a mood
of “exaltation”.
British Army Commander in Chief Sir Douglas Haig was described as radiant.
Plumer brought his artillery forward during the week, and on the 26th launched what is
known as the Battle of Polygon Wood.
His Second Army would again attack, with I ANZAC trying to take all of Polygon Wood and
Zonnebeke, while the flanks maintained the line of advance.
There was a withering artillery barrage and then the infantry attacked at 5:50 AM on a
front of around 6km.
They didn’t have much problem reaching their objectives, though it wasn’t so easy on
the flanks, especially to the south, where the Germans had launched a pre-emptive attack
the day before.
The fighting was bitter, as you may imagine, and the second phase, the German counterattack,
soon began.
Thing is, British and French aircraft had been flying over the battlefield all day,
strafing and bombing for all they were worth, and they noticed the signs of the reserves
moving in.
They made no progress against artillery and aircraft, though, and took huge casualties.
The British dug in after advancing about 800 meters.
Polygon Wood was a success, but the casualties were heavy - the British took over 15,000
casualties that day on a shorter front and with fewer divisions attacking than last week,
so it was proportionally greater.
The Germans looked on basically helplessly as the British dug in, having taken more German
strongpoints.
What could they do in future to prevent ever more of their defenses from falling into British
hands in small “bites”?
Moreover, German Quartermaster General Erich Ludendorff wrote of the 26th (Gilbert), “A
day of heavy fighting, accompanied by every circumstance that could cause us loss.
We might be able to stand the loss of ground, but the reduction of our fighting strength
was again all the heavier.”
He was seriously worried by now.
And he had lost one of the great German aces this week too.
On the 23rd came one of the most famous aerial dogfights of the war, when German Werner Voss,
with 47 confirmed kills, was ambushed by a patrol of SE5s. (quoted in “Passchendaele”),
“The triplane was still circling round the middle of six SE5s... at one point I noted
the triplane in the apex of a cone of tracer bullets from at least five machines simultaneously,
and each machine had two guns.
By choosing to stand and fight...
Voss showed an extraordinary level of dedication and bravery... but once he did the outcome
was inevitable.
After about ten minutes of frantic air combat- when most of the SE5s received bullet damage-
Voss’s plane was hit and it went down in a steep dive, hitting the ground and disappearing
into a thousand fragments.”
And something I haven’t had time to mention happened recently on the Italian front.
In the Sugana Valley there had been fighting in 1915 and 1916 until the front stabilized
near Carzano.
It was actually kind of strategically important, but had been quiet for over a year.
So in July, an Austro-Hungarian soldier had slipped through the wire there and presented
himself to the Italians.
He had a sealed envelope and said he came to parley.
The envelope contained plans of the Austrian defenses in the region and a note signed “Paulino”
that said he wanted to help the Italians.
Major Cesare Finzi was the Italian head of information there, and his data confirmed
that the maps were authentic.
Eventually, a meeting with Paulino was arranged.
Paulino turned out to be Ljudevit Pivko, a Slovene Lieutenant, and he was a member of
a sort of secret society within his army called the Sokol.
It was a Slavic nationalist society and their goal was for Italy to win the war.
The treasonous Pivko pointed out that an Italian breakthrough in the Sugana Valley would take
Trento and, combined with an Italian attack from the west, cut the Trentino salient in
half.
He thought some of his officers would support him, as well as the Serbs, though not the
Bosnian Muslims and the Croats.
Finzi says that if Pivko can get support and feed him information, maybe they can do something.
Finzi was fairly unusual among Italian officers in that he wanted to see the Austro-Hungarian
Empire destroyed, not just defeated.
Pivko did what he said he would and with a network of 52 contacts by August, outlined
his plan to open the front at Carzano.
The Italians would attack with 30 or 40,000 men and if they could overrun the city before
reinforcements arrive, they’ll have the lower Trentino.
Finzi is worried, though, that word will get out if he goes to High Command through the
normal channels, so he tries to get the ear of Army Chief of Staff Luigi Cadorna.
Cadorna, however, is busy planning the offensive that just ended last week, so Finzi goes to
his sector commander, General Etna, instead.
Thing is, Austria has anticipated Cadorna’s offensive and has taken away forces from the
Tyrol to prepare for that, and Pivko says this is a golden opportunity.
Etna, however, doesn’t really take the idea seriously, and only thinks of a small, local
attack.
Pivko by now has a detailed plan for the Italian attack involving timelines, troop strength,
how to sabotage the Austrian phone lines and barbed wire, everything.
The loyal Austrian troops are even going to be drugged with opiates in their brandy and
the forward troops chloroformed.
Finzi finally gets Cadorna’s ear early in September, but Cadorna takes Etna’s recommendation
for a limited sortie along the Sugana Valley without the concurrent attack from the west,
frustrating Finzi.
Meanwhile, Pivko’s plot is denounced by a Czech acquaintance, but the authorities
end up arresting the accuser for lying.
Austrian Emperor Karl even said to Pivko in person shortly afterward, “I regret that
somebody wished to cast a shadow over one of my most valiant officers.”
(White War).
On September 15th, Pivko brings news that his battalion will soon be transferred, so
the Italians need to attack NOW.
Finzi says it’ll happen within two days and Brigadier Zincone, in command of the troops,
agrees to this.
The Italians have seven well-equipped army Corps, a huge advantage.
The Austrian side of the plan goes off like clockwork and the road across no-mans land
is open for the taking.
However, the Italian troops don’t trust their Austrian guides, and though the advance
troops take Carzano, the main force hasn’t arrived and the road is deserted.
It turns out that Zincone has sent his men single file along a twisting lateral trench
instead of up the undefended road.
As dawn approaches, the main Italian thrust still hasn’t arrived.
In fact, Zincone suspends the operation, calls back his men, and abandons the forward troops
and their guides.
Pivko and 300 Bosnians are taken prisoner by the Italians, and the forward troops surrender
to the Austrians.
There is an enquiry into the matter, and Etna and Zincone are relieved of command.
The whole thing was a fiasco, and Cadorna even said long after the war that nothing
during the whole war had angered him as much as Carzano.
He had good reason to be angry, for what could have been a decisive breakthrough and a huge
morale boost became instead a complete debacle, because of incompetence within the high command
structure of the Italian army.
And as the week ends, British forces defeat the Ottomans on the Euphrates River near Ramadiya,
capturing the Ottoman commander, 3,455 prisoners, and 13 big guns.
So, all in all, a good week for the British in the Far East and the west, and a rough
week for the Germans.
And a fa#iled attempt to give Italy an advantage by treason against Austria-Hungary, though
that was actually last week.
Something else happened this week.
Well, today now in 2017.
Today is September 28th, which means it’s my birthday, and actually, today when this
episode comes out is my 50th birthday, which means I am exactly half as old as the events
that I’m talking about.
When you think about it like that, this stuff didn’t really happen all that long ago at all.
Let’s hope we learned something.
And happy birthday to me.
If you want to learn more about Cadorna, one of the secret stars of our show, you can click
right here for our biography episode about him.
Our Patreon supporter of the week is Bernd Schumacher.
Thank you for your support on Patreon, we couldn’t do this show without you.