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The infantry attack was launched at noon on 14 May. On the morning of the 13th, while the Italian artillery resumed its destruction fire, the Austro-Hungarian artillery reacted for the first time, starting counter-battery fire. During the night, the Italian artillery fired for interdiction on the Austro-Hungarian supply and ammo depots and on the communication lines. On the sectors garrisoned by the Third Army, the barrage opened at noon, and along the whole frontline lasted until evening.

Bad visibility - there was fog in the early morning - hampered observation and the rate of fire was low at first, only to rise as the fog cleared away. The Italian offensive started the 12 May, with an artillery barrage along the front held by the newly formed Comando della Zona di Gorizia. The second aim of the offensive was to conquer Mount Škabrijel, thus opening the way to the Vipava Valley. This time the Italians returned to the Karst Plateau south-east of Gorizia, setting in train an infantry advance along a 40 km front in order to achieve a breakthrough towards Trieste. The previous three Isonzo battles had seen Cadorna concentrate short, sharp initiatives against closely defined targets, generally aimed at extending their sole bridgehead east of Gorizia. The Italians, deploying 38 divisions – against 14 Austro-Hungarian divisions – switched tactics once again. Cadorna agreed and the tenth Isonzo offensive was launched with a preliminary artillery bombardment lasting two days on. With the contingency plan arranged the French pressed Cadorna to launch a major offensive of his own along the Soča (Isonzo) to generally co-ordinate with their own large-scale Aisne Offensive (deployed in April 1917). In the event the British and French agreed to rush aid to the Italians only in the event of an emergency – for example, large-scale German military assistance to the Austro-Hungarians a contingency plan was thus developed to meet with such an eventuality. However Lloyd George's own field commanders, including Commander in Chief Douglas Haig – along with the French – disagreed, arguing that resources could not be spared from the Western Front, particularly with French Commander-in-Chief Robert Nivelle's upcoming Aisne Offensive, aimed at ending the war in the west within 48 hours.Ĭonsequently, Nivelle dispatched Ferdinand Foch to meet with Cadorna and discuss their possible options.

Dubbed an "easterner" at home Lloyd George was nevertheless in favour of diverting British and French resources from the Western Front to the Italians along the Soča (Isonzo), to "knock the props out" from under the Central Powers. The UK's new Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, had long believed that the war could not be won on the Western Front alone. Casualties suffered to date were tremendous and with each renewed battle tended to be higher on the Italian attackers side.

With nine largely unsuccessful Isonzo battles conducted within an eighteen-month period to date, Italian Chief of Staff Luigi Cadorna – responsible for launching all nine – became increasingly uncomfortable at the prospect of German intervention to aid their weakening Austro-Hungarian ally on the Italian Front.įor while it was clear that the Austro-Hungarian Army was suffering in what had become a war of attrition, the same could be said of Cadorna's army. The Tenth Battle of the Isonzo was an Italian offensive against Austria-Hungary during World War I.