Eleventh Battle of the Isonzo

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Image:Italian Front 1915-1917.jpg

Date	August 18 to September 12, 1917
Location	Isonzo River, near Monfalcone, Italy
Result	Inconclusive

Combatants

Image:Flag of Italy (1861-1946).svg Italy

Image:Austria-Hungary flag 1869-1918.svg Austria-Hungary

Commanders

Luigi Cadorna,
Luigi Capello

Svetozar Boroević

Strength

600 battalions,
5,200 guns

250 battalions,
2,200 guns

Casualties

30,000 dead,
108,000 wounded

20,000 dead,
45,000 wounded,
30,000 missing,
20,000 captured

v • d • e Italian Front
1st Isonzo – 2nd Isonzo – 3rd Isonzo – 4th Isonzo – 5th Isonzo – Asiago – 6th Isonzo – 7th Isonzo – 8th Isonzo – 9th Isonzo – 10th Isonzo – Ortigara – 11th Isonzo – Caporetto – Piave River – Vittorio Veneto

The Eleventh Battle of the Isonzo was a World War I battle fought by the Italian and Austro-Hungarian Armies on the Italian Front between August 18 and September 12, 1917.

On the Isonzo River, Luigi Cadorna, the Italian Chief of Staff, concentrated three quarters of his troops: 600 battalions (52 divisions) with 5,200 guns. The attack was carried forth from Tolmin (in the upper Isonzo valley) to the Adriatic Sea, and the Italians crossed the river in several points on temporary bridges, but the main effort was exerted on the Bainsizza Plateau, whose capture was to further the offensive and break the Austro-Hungarian lines in two segments, isolating the strongholds of Mount Saint Gabriel and Mount Hermada.

After fierce and deadly fightings, the Italian Second Army, led by General Capello, pushed back Boroević's Isonzo Armee, conquering the Bainsizza and Mount Santo. Other positions were taken by the Duke of Aosta's Third Army.

However, Mount Saint Gabriel and Mount Hermada turned out to be impregnable, and the offensive wore out.

After the battle, the Austro-Hungarians were exhausted, and could not have withstood another attack. Fortunately for them (and unfortunately for their opponents), so were the Italians, who could not find the resources necessary for another assault, even though it might have been the decisive one. So the final result of the battle was an inconclusive bloodbath. Moreover, the end of the battle left the Italian Second Army (until then the most successful of the Italian Armies) split in two parts across the Isonzo River, a weak point that proved to be decisive in the subsequent Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo.