1. By Abe, Gisele. and Alycia
Italian Front
By Abe, Gisele. and Alycia

3. Fifth Battle of Isonzo
Italian Chief of Staff Luigi Cadorna was under pressure from French Commander-in-Chief Joseph Joffre to help out the Germans from their attack on Verdun.
Italian Chief of Staff Luigi Cadorna launched the Fifth Battle of Isonzo on March 11, 1916
One of the least costly battles and very short lived
Halted right before it was about to begin because of poor weather conditions in March 17, 1916
Held a 350 to 100 advantage in infantry battalions and a 1,400 to 467 advantage

5. Tenth Battle of Isonzo
The first nine Battles of Isonzo were unsuccessful and took 18 months to fight.
These battles were conducted by Italian Chief of Staff Luigi Cadorna, who didn’t like the idea of of Germany intervening to help their ailing Austro-Hungarian ally on the Italian Front.
Cadorna discussed with France’s Ferdinand Foch that in the case of an emergency, Britain and France would come to Italy’s aid against the German and Austro-Hungary powers.
The Italians deployed a force of their own, 38 divisions, against Austro-Hungary’s 14. Cadorna set his force to return to the Carso and and set an infantry advance along a 40km front.
However, there was a large Austro-Hungarian counter-offensive on June 3, and it reclaimed almost all lost ground, so when Cadorna called off the battle of June 8, barely any territory was gained.
157,000 Italian losses, 75,000 Austro-Hungarian.

7. Eleventh Battle of Isonzo
Launched on 19 August 1917 and was the last initiative by the Isonzo River by the Italians and Luigi Cadorna.
Cadorna summoned 51 divisions and 52,000 guns the aim was the Carso and around the Italian bridgehead at Gorizia.
There were gains on the Italian coastal zone and in the north 10km of ground were taken from the Austro-Hungarians by Luigi Capello’s Second Army. The advance was actually executed and succeeded so well that the army outran its artillery and supply lines, which prevented the further advancing of the Italian army, which could have finally broke the Austro-Hungarian army.
No more attempts were made along the Isonzo and all eleven battles were delivered by Cadorna.

9. 12th Battle of Isonzo Took place on October 24 at 2am
Austria-hungary opened an artillery attack with poison gas near Bovec
Italian defence trenches were overrun on the 24 of October by Austria- Hungary
Italians were forced to retreat to the Tagliamento River
On October the 1st Isonzo army attacked a successful barrage against Italy
888 days of warfare
10,000dead
30,000 wounded
265,000 captured
3,152 artillery pieces

11. Importance of the Italian Front
The Italian Front helped occupy the Austro-Hungarian forces and even succeeded in pushing them back for a time.
However, Italian involvement in the war was a mistake. 650,000+ soldiers were killed, and more than a million were gravely wounded. Italy was severely bankrupted, and its national debt soared up to 85 billion. More than half of a million civilians died as well.