- See also Battle of Piave River (1809)
The Battle of Piave River was fought on 7 and 8 May 1809 during the War of the Fifth Coalition, between Franco-Italian forces under Prince Eugene de Beauharnais and Austrian forces under General of Cavalry Johann, in north-eastern Italy near the Piave River. The battle ended in a Franco-Italian...
The
Battle of the Piave River, known in Italy as
Battaglia del Solstizio (Battle of the Solstice),
Battaglia di Mezzo Giugno (Battle of Middle June), or
Seconda Battaglia del Piave (Second Battle of the Piave River, as the last part of the
Battle of CaporettoThe Battle of Caporetto , took place from 24 October to 19 November 1917, near the town of Kobarid , on the Austro-Italian front of World War I...
is considered to be the first), was a decisive victory for the Italian Army during
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
.
Background
With the exit of
RussiaThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia, and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
from the war in 1917, Austria-Hungary was now able to devote significant forces to the
Italian FrontThe Italian campaign refers to a series of battles fought between the armies of Austria-Hungary and Italy, along with their allies, in northern Italy between 1915 and 1918. Italy hoped that by joining the countries of the Triple Entente against the Central Powers it would gain Cisalpine Tyrol ,...
and to receive reinforcements from their German allies. At the
Battle of CaporettoThe Battle of Caporetto , took place from 24 October to 19 November 1917, near the town of Kobarid , on the Austro-Italian front of World War I...
and Battle of Longarone the Germans and Austrians had defeated the Italians who fell back to the
Piave RiverPiave is a river in north Italy. It begins in the Alps and flows southeast for 220 km into the Adriatic Sea near the city of Venice....
.
Italian Forces
Italy's defeat at Caporetto led to General
Luigi CadornaLuigi Cadorna was an ItalianField Marshal, most famous for being theCommander-in-Chief of the Italian army during the first part of World War I.-Biography:...
's dismissal and General
Armando DiazArmando Diaz, 1st Duca della Vittoria was an Italian general and a Marshal of Italy.-Biography:Born in Naples, Diaz began his military career as a student at the Military Academy of Turin, where he became an artillery officer. He was a colonel commanding the 93rd infantry during the Italo-Turkish...
replaced him as Chief of Staff of the Italian Army. Diaz set up a strong defense line along Piave River. Up until this point in the war, the Italian army had been fighting alone against the
Central PowersThe Central Powers was one of the two sides that participated in World War I, the other being the Entente Powers.-Member states:...
; with the defeat at Caporetto,
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
and
BritainThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name and the state form of the United Kingdom from 1 January 1801 until 12 April 1927...
sent reinforcements on the Italian front. These, apart for accounting for less than a tenth of the Italian forces in theater, had however to be redirected for the major part to the
Western FrontFollowing the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne...
as soon as the German
Spring OffensiveThe 1918 Spring Offensive or Kaiserschlacht , also known as the Ludendorff Offensive, was a series of German attacks along the Western Front during World War I, which marked the deepest advances by either side since 1914...
began on March 1918.
Austro-Hungarian Forces
The Austro-Hungarian Army had also recently undergone a change in command, and the new Austrian Chief of Staff,
Arthur Arz von StraussenburgArthur Freiherr Arz von Straussenburg June 16, 1857 - June 1, 1935, was an Austro-Hungarian Colonel-General and last Chief of General Staff to the Austro-Hungarian Army.- Early life :...
, wished to finish off the Italians. Straussenberg's
army groupAn army group is a military organization consisting of several field armies, which is self-sufficient for indefinite periods. It is usually responsible for a particular geographic area...
commanders,
Franz Graf Conrad von HötzendorfCount Francis Conrad von Hötzendorf . was an Austrian soldier and Chief of the General Staff of the Austro-Hungarian Army at the outbreak of World War I.-Biography:...
(the former Austrian Chief of Staff) and
Svetozar Boroević von BojnaSvetozar Boroević von Bojna was Austro-Hungarian Field Marshal .Boroević was born into a Serbian Orthodox family in the village of Umetići near Kostajnica, now Hrvatska Kostajnica, Croatia. The area was then part of the Military Frontier of the Habsburg Monarchy...
, both wished to make a decisive assault, counter the Italians, but not agree about the location of the attack, as Conrad wanted an attack on the
AsiagoAsiago is the name of both a minor township and the surrounding plateau region in the Province of Vicenza in the Veneto region of Northeastern Italy...
Plateaux between the Astico and the
BrentaBrenta may refer to:* Brenta , Italy* Brenta Valley* Brenta Group* Brenta...
rivers, directed to
VicenzaVicenza, a city in northern Italy, is the capital of the eponymous province in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, straddling the Bacchiglione. Vicenza is approximately 60 km west of Venice and 200 km east of Milan....
, while Boroević preferred an attack along the Piave River, and Straussenburg himself was in favour of an attack on the western part of the front (the "Giudicarie" sector) leading to
BresciaBrescia is a city in the region of Lombardy in northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, between the Mella and the Naviglio, with a population of around 191,000. It is the second largest city in Lombardy, after the capital, Milan...
. Conrad and Boroević had a dislike for each other, and Straussenburg, unable to decide between these two strong personalities, divided the army equally between them, reserving only a small part of the forces for a diversive action on the Giudicarie sector. The preparation of the offensive began on February 1918, after a meeting in Bolzano between Austrians and Germans high commands and was strongly recommended by the Germans, as Ludendorff hoped that it could force the increasing American forces in France to be diverted on the Italian front, so Straussenberg modeled the attack after
Erich LudendorffErich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff was a German Army officer, victor of Liège, and, with Paul von Hindenburg, one of the victors of the battle of Tannenberg. From August 1916 his appointment as Generalquartiermeister made him joint head of Germany's war effort...
's offensive on the
Western FrontFollowing the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne...
.
The tactics
The Austrians, differently from their previous success at Caporetto and from the subsequent attempts to breakthrough on
Mount GrappaMonte Grappa is a tall mountain in the Veneto region of Italy. Part of the Alpine foothills, the mountain is divided between the provinces of Vicenza, Treviso and Belluno. It was the site of a famous World War I battle....
, didn't prepare the attack as a pinpoint one, but as an all-out frontal attack, employing the entire residual strength of their army all along the front. The Austro-Hungarian formations were trained to employ the tactics developed by the Germans on the
Western FrontFollowing the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne...
for the
Operation MichaelThe 1918 Spring Offensive or Kaiserschlacht , also known as the Ludendorff Offensive, was a series of German attacks along the Western Front during World War I, which marked the deepest advances by either side since 1914...
as Austrian officials, returning from the
Eastern FrontThe Eastern Front was a theatre of war during World War I in Central and, primarily, Eastern Europe. The term is in contrast to the Western Front. Despite the geographical separation, the events in the two theatres strongly influenced each other...
, were extensively trained alongside their German counterparts. There were also innovations on the Italian side. Analyzing the defeat of Caporetto, the staff of Armando Diaz concluded that the main tactical causes of it were the lack of mobility of Italian units, caught in a too rigid defensive scheme, the too centralized command and control system, and the lack of depth of Italian defences, where too many soldiers were simply stuck on the frontline. The new schemes prepared for the battle led to the abolition of the
continuous entrenchmentTrench warfare was a form of warfare in which both combatants occupied static fortified fighting lines, consisting largely of trenches, in which troops were largely immune to the enemy's small arms fire and were substantially sheltered from artillery. It has become a byword for stalemate in...
and in the development of a highly mobile defence system, in which even the smaller units were allowed to freely move between previously recognized strongpoints, independently decide to retreat or counterattack, or directly call the support of the artillery. Moreover, 13 divisions, equipped with 6000 trucks, were organized in a central reserve, ready to be sent where it was needed.
The battle
General Diaz learned the exact timing of the Austrian attack: 3:00am on 15 June, so, at 2:30am, the Italian artillery opened fire all along their front, on the crowded enemy trenches, inflicting heavy casualties. In some sector the artillery barrage had the effect to delay or stop the attack, as Austrian soldiers began to revert to the defensive positions, believing to have to face an unexpected Italian attack, but on the great part of the frontline the Austrians still attacked. Boroević launched the first assault, moving South along the
Adriatic CoastThe Adriatic Sea is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan peninsula, and the system of the Apennine Mountains from that of the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges. The Adriatic Sea is a part of the Mediterranean Sea...
and in the middle course of the Piave River. The Austrians were able to cross the Piave and gained ground against the Italians in the face of heavy resistance, before Boroević was finally stopped and forced to order a retreat. On the subsequent days Boroević renewed the assaults, but the artillery barrage destroyed many of the river's bridges and the Austrian formations that crossed the river were unable to receive reinforcement and supplies. To make matters worse, the swollen Piave isolated a great number of units on the west bank of the river, which made of them an easy target for the Italian fire. An estimated of 20,000 Austro-Hungarian soldiers drowned while trying to reach the east bank. On 19 June Diaz counterattacked and hit Boroević in the flank inflicting heavy casualties. By 23 June the Italians recaptured all territory on the southern bank of the Piave and the battle was over. In the meantime Conrad attacked along the Italian lines west of Boroević, on the Asiago Plateaux, on the 15th, with the objective of capturing
VicenzaVicenza, a city in northern Italy, is the capital of the eponymous province in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, straddling the Bacchiglione. Vicenza is approximately 60 km west of Venice and 200 km east of Milan....
. Little came of Conrad's assaults except a further 40,000 casualties to the Austrian total. In the aftermath, Boroević was particularly critical about the behaviour of Conrad that, after the complete failure of the first attack, preferred to continue the assaults in the subsequent days, but with much minor strength, rather than to send reinforcements on the Piave sector.
Results
After the Austrian retreat Diaz was pressed by the allies, particularly by General
Ferdinand FochFerdinand Foch . OM GCB was a French soldier, military theorist, and writer credited with possessing "the most original and subtle mind in the French army" in the early 20th century. He served as general in the French army during World War I and was made Marshal of France in its final year: 1918...
, to not stop the action, and to try an assault to break the Austrian defences and gain a decisive victory over the Empire, but the Italian General recognized that the same tactic, that proved so effective on defence, prevented an immediate offence, as the Italian formations, at that time, were too scattered and mixed up to be effectively coordinated in a decisive assault. Moreover, once crossed the river, they'd have to face the same logistic problems of the Austrians. For these reasons, in the subsequent days, only limited actions were done, to gain better start positions for the future decisive assault.
On the other side, the Battle of the Piave River was the last great military offensive of Austria-Hungary.
The battle signalled both the end of its army as an effective fighting force, and the beginning of the collapse of the Empire itself, which was finished off at the
Battle of Vittorio VenetoThe Battle of Vittorio Veneto was fought between 24 October and 3 November 1918, near Vittorio Veneto, during the Italian Campaign of World War I...
, four months later.
In Popular Culture
Still today, to the Italian public two mottos recall the battle: those written upon broken walls of destroyed rural houses: "
E' meglio vivere un giorno da leone che cent'anni da pecora" ("[It] is Better to live one single day as a lion than a hundred years as a sheep") and "
Tutti eroi! O il Piave o tutti accoppati" ("Everyone a hero! Either (we reach) the Piave, or let all of us get killed"). The two pieces of wall are preserved in the military shrine of Fagaré della Battaglia, a
frazioneA frazione , in Italy, is the name given in administrative law to a type of territorial subdivision of a comune; for other administrative divisions, see municipio, circoscrizione, quartiere...
of
San Biagio di CallaltaSan Biagio di Callalta is a town in the province of Treviso, Veneto, Italy. It is located at around .It is the birthpalce of Pierre Cardin.
...
.
See also
- La Leggenda del Piave
"La Leggenda del Piave" is an Italian patriotic song written by E. A. Mario after the Battle of the Piave River in June 1918.-Text:The song is divided in four parts and is a brief history of the Italian front during World War I....
, a patriotic song written by E. A. Mario after the battle.
Sources