Before the long winter of 1916/1917, the Italian army had launched nine Battles of the Isonzo
River, hoping to breakthrough the Austro-Hungarian defenses.
And now winter is over, and that means it’s time for the 10th Battle of the Isonzo River.
I’m Indy Neidell; welcome to the Great War.
Last week the Allied five-nation army attacked and lost all along the line in Macedonia.
The French took Craonne in the west, and the British took heavy casualties at Bullecourt,
prompting Winston Churchill to ask Parliament why the British weren’t waiting for American
help to arrive before attacking.
But if there was any uncertainty in the British government, it was nothing compared to that
in Russia.
On the 12th, General Lavr Kornilov, Commandant of Petrograd, and Alexander Guchkov, Minister
of Marine and War, resigned.
The 16th saw a new coalition cabinet, with Alexander Kerensky the new Minister of War.
Now, the day before that, the Petrograd Soviet, one of two factions vying for control in Russia,
issued a manifesto demanding a platform of peace without annexations or indemnities.
The Provisional Government, the other faction, rejected calls for peace, and Kerensky even
wanted to renew offensive operations.
As if that wasn’t confusing enough, Leon Trotsky arrived in Petrograd this week.
Also, the Provisional Government admitted six moderate members of the Petrograd Soviet
into its ranks this week.
They were Mensheviks, a socialist faction in Russia, whom Trotsky had once led, and
whom the Bolsheviks under Lenin vehemently opposed.
Trotsky now agreed with much of the Bolshevik positions, but did not join them at this point.
Also in Russia, in Kronstadt Naval Base in the Gulf of Finland, the Kronstadt Soviet
- led by 3,000 Bolshevik sailors - declared independence from the Provisional Government.
This infuriated Lenin because he didn’t think the Bolsheviks were ready to make their
move and he didn’t want anyone jumping the gun.
He ordered them to call off their actions, which they soon did.
But whether or not there would be more Russian attacks in future, there were British ones
this week.
But the Battle of Arras did finally come to an end on the 17th, the day the British army
took the village of Bullecourt after over a month of trying.
The British had taken 159,000 casualties in 39 days (Cheerful Sacrifice), which works
out to 4,000 per day.
That’s over 1,000 more per day than they took at the Somme last year, and is actually
the highest daily average casualty total the British army would take in any of its major
offensive battles of the whole war.
Jonathan Nicholls in “Cheerful Sacrifice” estimates the German losses at around 120,000.
However, in spite of the tremendous casualties, the British had managed to push the Germans
back between 3 and 9 km on a front of over 30km.
British Commander in Chief Sir Douglas Haig’s men had made advances greater than at any
time since the beginning of trench warfare in 1914, had taken over 20,000 prisoners and
254 big guns, and the tank was now a part of an infantry advance.
Speaking of tanks, a side note here - this week on the 14th at Mainz, the first German
tank trial was held.
But the British Offensive wasn’t the only one coming to an end.
As I mentioned last week, the spring actions in Macedonia were now winding down, the Allies
unable to advance.
After unsuccessful attacks this week, they withdrew beyond the Struma River and made
a series of easily reinforced bridgeheads should the Bulgarians attack.
The Bulgarians welcomed the rest, though, and put out placards that read, “we know
you’re going back to the hills, so are we” (Gilbert).
One thing of note that happened there this week, though, was the Battle of Raviné Hill.
This was the first engagement of the Greek army under the Salonika government, so not
the Greek Royal government.
After a French artillery barrage, three Greek companies attacked Bulgarian positions on
May 14th and captured the hill.
The counter bombardment was fierce, the Greeks taking 75% casualties and being forced to
abandon the hill, but French and Greek forces did retake it that night.
This helped the Greek reputation in Entente countries, who often viewed Greece as an enemy
after armed Royalist confrontations with allied troops last December.
There was even action this week elsewhere in the region.
The Serbian rebels had been defeated in the Toplica Rebellion a few weeks ago, but those
remaining had resorted to guerilla warfare.
On the 15th, rebels under Kosta Pechanac set fire to several Bulgarian border villages
and the Serbian town of Bosilegrad, which was predominantly inhabited by Bulgarians.
They could move pretty freely because some of them were dressed in captured Bulgarian
uniforms and if they were questioned they said they were escorting captured Serbian
bandits.
Their number is unclear, with reports ranging from a few dozen up to around 200.
We do have a better report of the death toll - 33 civilians - who were killed before the
houses were set on fire.
317 houses in Bosilegrad were burned.
But if things were winding down in the Balkans, they were heating up on the Italian front.
The 10th Battle of the Isonzo River began this week, and this time the Italians were
also using British artillery.
At dawn on May 12th, over 3,000 big guns began to pound the Austro-Hungarian positions.
They fired all that day and the next, and till noon on the 14th.
This was a bigger barrage than anything they’d tried before and it destroyed fortified positions
all over, killing thousands of the enemy.
When it stopped, three divisions of the Plava Corps charged the slopes of Hill 383 and attacked
its Hungarian defenders.
Hill 383 was known as Bloody 383 and was true to its reputation, machine guns, mortars,
and artillery tore apart the massed Italian infantry.
The defenders also took huge losses, though, and they were unable to bring up any more
ammunition or reserves, so eventually, determined and repeated Italian attacks took the hill.
It had taken two years for them to do so.
Downriver, Zagorra fell after a brave defense by Serbs and Croats, but it wasn’t the worst
loss that day for the Imperial Austrian army.
A few more kilometers down the Isonzo River, a barrage of high explosive shells rained
down on the Hungarians holding Mount Santo and a surprise attack put it in Italian hands.
The news of these victories spread through the army and Parliament, and were in fact
victories to rival those at the beginning of the 6th battle last August.
And much like that battle, Italian celebrations now were premature.
See, Mount Santo was kind of a pivot for the whole front, so Austrian Major General Guido
Novak von Arienti assembled all the mountain troops he could get his hands on and launched
a surprise attack at midnight, taking back the summit.
Over the next few days the Italians would repeatedly try and retake it, but it remained
in Austrian hands.
For the rest of the week, Luigi Capello’s Army of Gorizia attacked on the central front
again and again.
On the 18th, the “Iron General” Maurizio Gonzaga did manage to capture Mount Vodice,
but otherwise the enemy lines held firm and most of the Bainsizza Plateau remained Austrian
territory.
This was not the Italian plan for phase one of the battle, as a breakthrough would ideally
cause the Austrians to move troops northward, so in phase two the Italians could breakthrough
further south on the Carso Plateau.
Here’s an Italian soldiers’ jingle from the battle I found in Martin Gilbert’s “The
First World War”.
General Cadorna wrote to the queen, “If you want to see Trieste, buy a postcard”.
And the week comes to an end, with more confusion in Russia, the Allies ending offensives in
the west and in the Balkans, and the Italians beginning a huge new one.
I’ve mentioned the British and Russian leadership today, so I’ll end with that of the Germans.
The German General staff had such huge war aims that they could only be realized with
a German military victory.
Hopes for that were running very high at this point.
The Western Front was holding, Russia was in disarray, and sinkings at sea were growing
and growing.
Admiral Eduard von Capelle told the Reichstag, “I am fully and firmly convinced that the
war will end by October.”
Chief of Staff Paul von Hindenburg wrote that Germany had become so strong that the Western
Front could stand up to any attack.
And all this month German intelligence reported increasing concern in Allied Capitals.
Quartermaster General Erich Ludendorff said that he had info that “England could, under
no conditions, prosecute the war for more than three months longer, and this, on account
of the shortage of foodstuffs.”
At a champagne dinner this week, the Kaiser himself toasted the Allied defeats in Arras,
on the Aisne, and in Champagne, saying, “We have gained a famous victory!”
Even Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg, often the voice of pessimism or reality, told the Reichstag
this month that Germany’s military situation had never been more favorable.
Well... maybe.
I mean, the country had serious food and supply issues by now.
We’ve talked before about the Turnip winter and civilian starvation, and the Hindenburg
Programme was not working out as expected by this time.
It was supposed to ease the burden on the troops by substituting machines, but Germany
could not keep up with British and French combined production, and the men, horses,
and everything else taken from agricultural production for the army and munitions caused
food shortages and inflation.
The workers were in the streets.
And Germany’s allies?
Except Bulgaria, who wasn’t interested in fighting anywhere except the Balkans, they
were in worrisome condition.
But hey, as Bethmann-Hollweg said, “Germany’s MILITARY situation had never been more favorable”.
Well, then it must be time to celebrate!
If you want to learn more about Paul von Hindenburg and why he was so confident check out our
biography episode right here.
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