Fourth Battle of the Isonzo

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Image:Italian Front 1915-1917.jpg
Eleven Battles of the Isonzo
June 1915 — September 1917

Date	November 10—December 2, 1915
Location	Isonzo River, northeast Italy
Result	Repulsed Italian Offensive

Combatants

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

Image:Austria-Hungary-flag-1869-1918-naval-1786-1869-war.svg Austria-Hungary

Commanders

Luigi Cadorna,
Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Aosta

Conrad von Hötzendorf,
Svetozar Boroević

Strength

370 battalions
1,374 guns

155 battalions
626 guns

Casualties

49,500 dead or wounded

32,100 dead or wounded

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 Fourth Battle of the Isonzo was fought between Italians and Austro-Hungarians on the Italian Front in World War I, between november 10 and december 2, 1915.

[edit] Overview

Differently from the other Battles of the Isonzo, this offensive lasted a short amount of time, and is sometimes considered a continuation of the previous one.

Most of the clash concentrated in the direction of Gorizia and on the Kras Plateau, though the push was distributed on the whole front. The 2nd Italian Army, aiming to Gorizia, was able to capture Oslavje (Italian: Oslavia), while the Third Army, covering the rest of the front up to the sea, launched a series of large and bloody attacks which brought no significative gain. Mount Sei Busi was attacked five times by the Italian forces, always in vain.

The intensity of the fighting increased until the end of November, when the bridgehead of Tolmin (Italian: Tolmino) was heavily bombed by both the parts and the casualty ratio reached its apex. In the first fifteen days of December, however, the fighting was reduced to small scale skirmishes.

An unsigned truce arrived together with the first great cold in the mountains of the Kras, and operations were arrested due to lack of supplying.

The Austro-Hungarian High Command, worried by the huge losses, for the first time requested troops to the German Empire, which was not formally in the war against Italy at this point. Anyway the Germans intervened in the Italian front only starting from the Eleventh Battle of the Isonzo.