Battle of Caporetto
| Battle of Caporetto | |||||||||
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| Part of the Battles of the Isonzo (World War I) | |||||||||
Battle of Caporetto and Italian retreat | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Italy | |||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Units involved | |||||||||
| 2nd Army | |||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| 70,000 |
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600,000 internally displaced people | |||||||||
The Battle of Caporetto (also known as the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo, the Battle of Kobarid or the Battle of Karfreit) took place on the Isonzo front of World War I.
The battle was fought between the Kingdom of Italy and the Central Powers and took place from 24 October to 19 November 1917, near the town of Kobarid (now in north-western Slovenia, then part of the Austrian Littoral), and near the river Isonzo. The battle was named after the Italian name of the town (also known as Karfreit in German).
Austro-Hungarian forces, reinforced by German units, were able to break into the Italian front line and rout the Italian forces opposing them. The battle was a demonstration of the effectiveness of the use of stormtroopers and the infiltration tactics developed in part by Oskar von Hutier. The use of poison gas by the Germans also played a key role in the collapse of the Italian Second Army.
The rest of the Italian Army retreated 150 kilometres (93 mi) to the Piave River; its effective strength declined from 1,800,000 troops down to 1,000,000 and the government of Prime Minister Paolo Boselli collapsed.