The Hungarian 20th division lost two-thirds of its effectives and was routed, partly because of the successive attacks and partly because of the unfavourable terrain. Bayonets, swords, knives, and various scrap metal and debris were all used in the terrifying melee. On the Karst Plateau took place an exhausting series of hand-to-hand fights involving the Italian Second and Third Armies, with severe casualties on both sides. The insufficiency of war material – from rifles, to artillery shells to shears to cut the barbed wire – nullified their numerical superiority caused by the recent arrival of 290,000 Italian soldiers. General Cadorna’s tactics were as simple as they were harsh: after a heavy artillery bombardment, his troops were to advance frontally against the Austrian trenches and take them, after having overcome their barbed-wire fences. The major role was assigned to the Duke of Savoy’s Third Army, that must conquer Mount San Michele and Mount Cosich, cutting the enemy line and opening the way to Gorizia. The overall plans of the Italian offensive were barely changed by the outcomes of the previous fight, besides the role of general Frugoni’ Second Army, which this time had, on paper, to carry out only demonstrative attacks all over his front. Second Battle of the Isonzo (18 July – 3 August 1915)Īfter the failure of the First Battle of the Isonzo, two weeks earlier, Luigi Cadorna, commander-in-chief of the Italian forces, decided for a new thrust against the enemy lines with a heavier artillery support.
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