The Battle of Caporetto, in October 1917, was disastrous to the army, and on 8 November 1917, he was called to succeed Cadorna as chief of general staff by 9 November. Having recovered what remained of the army, he organised the resistance in 1917 on the Monte Grappa massif and along the Piave River, which successfully halted the Austro-Hungarian offensive in the First Battle of Monte Grappa. In the summer of 1918, he oversaw the victory in the Battle of the Piave River, and later that year, he led the 1.4 million Italian troops in the Battle of Vittorio Veneto, which ended the war on the Italian front. With his famous "Bollettino della Vittoria" (Victory Address), he communicated the rout of the Austro-Hungarian army and the victory of the Italians in the war.