Battle of Caporetto The Battle of Caporetto ( also known as the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo or the Battle of Karfreit as it was known by the Central Powers ) , took place from 24 October to 19 November 1917 , near the town of Kobarid ( now in Slovenia ) , on the Austro - Italian front of World War I . The battle was named after the Italian name of the town of Kobarid ( known as " Karfreit " in German ) . Austro - Hungarian forces , reinforced by German units , were able to break into the Italian front line and rout the Italian army , which had practically no mobile reserves . The battle was a demonstration of the effectiveness of the use of stormtroopers and the infiltration tactics developed in part by Oskar von Hutier . The use of poison gas by the Germans played a key role in the collapse of the Italian Second Army . Prelude . In August 1917 Hindenburg decided that to keep the Austro - Hungarians in the war the Germans must help them to give the Italian army a severe beating . Ludendorff was opposed , but was overruled In September three experts from the Imperial General Staff led by the chemist Otto Hahn went to the Isonzo front to find a site suitable for a gas attack . They proposed the quiet Caporetto sector , where a good road runs west through a mountain valley to the Venetian plain . A new 14th Army was formed , with nine Austrian and six German divisions , commanded by a German , Otto von Below . The Italians helped by providing all needed weather information over their radio . Battle . Foul weather delayed the attack for two days , but on 24 October there was no wind and the front was misted over . At 02 : 00 , 894 metal tubes ( Gaswurfminen ) dug into a reverse slope were triggered electrically to simultaneously fire canisters containing 600 ml of chlorine and phosgene gases , smothering the Italian trenches in the valley in a dense cloud of poison . Knowing that their gas masks could protect them only for two hours or less , the defenders fled for their lives , though 500 - 600 still died . Then the front was eerily quiet until 06 : 00 when all the Italian wire and trenches to be attacked were peppered with mortar fire . At 06 : 30 , 2200 artillery pieces opened drumfire , many targeting the valley road along which reserves were advancing to plug the gap . At 08 : 00 two large mines were detonated under strong points on the heights bordering the valley and the infantry attacked . Soon they penetrated the almost undefended Italian fortifications in the valley , breaching the defensive line of the Italian Second Army between the IV and XXVII Corps . To protect these attacker ’ s flanks Alpine Troops infiltrated the strong points and batteries along the crests of the adjoining ridges , Mount Matajur and the Kolovrat Range , playing out their telephone lines as they advanced to maintain contact with their artillery . They made good use of the new German model 08 / 15 Maxim light machine gun , light trench mortars , mountain guns , flamethrower s and hand grenade s . The attackers in the valley marched almost unopposed along the excellent road toward Italy , some advanced a remarkable 25 km ( 16 mi ) on the first day . The Italian army beat back the attackers on either side of the sector where the central column attacked but von Below ' s successful central penetration threw the entire Italian Army into disarray . Forces had to be moved along the Italian front in an attempt to stem von Below ' s breakout , but this only weakened other points along the line and invited further attacks . At this point , the entire Italian position was threatened . 2nd Army commander Luigi Capello was Italy ' s best general but was commanding while bedridden with fever . Realizing that his forces were ill - prepared for this attack and were being routed , Capello requested permission to withdraw back to the Tagliamento . He was overruled by Cadorna who believed that the Italian force could regroup and hold out . Finally , on 30 October , Cadorna ordered the majority of the Italian force to retreat to the other side of the Tagliamento . It took the Italians four full days to cross the river , and by this time the German and Austro - Hungarian armies were on their heels . By 2 November , a German division had established a bridgehead on the Tagliamento . About this time , however , the rapid success of the attack caught up with them . The German and Austro - Hungarian supply lines were stretched to breaking point , and as a result , they were not able to launch another spearhead to pocket part of the Italian army against the Adriatic . Cadorna was able to retreat further , and by 10 November had established a position on the Piave River . Even before the battle , Germany was struggling to feed and supply its armies in the field . Erwin Rommel , who , as a junior officer , won the Pour le Mérite for his exploits in the battle , often bemoaned the demands placed upon his " poorly fed troops " . The Allied blockade of the German Empire , which the Kaiserliche Marine had been unable to break , was responsible for food shortages and widespread malnutrition in Germany and the Central Powers in general . When inadequate provisioning was combined with the gruelling night marches preceding the battle of Caporetto ( Kobarid ) , a heavy toll was extracted from the German and Austro - Hungarian forces . Despite these logistical problems , the initial assault was extremely successful . However , as the area controlled by the combined Central Powers forces expanded , an already limited logistical capacity was overstrained . By the time the attack reached the Piave , the soldiers of the Central Powers were running low on supplies and were feeling the physical effects of exhaustion . As the Italians began to counter the pressure put on them by the Central Powers , the German forces lost all momentum and were once again caught up in another round of attrition warfare . Aftermath . Italian losses were enormous : 10 , 000 were killed , 30 , 000 wounded and 265 , 000 were taken prisoner – morale was so low among the Italian troops , mainly due to Cadorna ' s harsh disciplinary regime , that most of these surrendered willingly . Furthermore , roughly 3 , 000 guns , 3 , 000 machine guns and 2 , 000 mortars were captured , along with an untold amount of stores and equipment . Rommel , then an Oberleutnant , captured 1 , 500 men and 43 officers with just 3 riflemen and 2 officers to help . Austro - Hungarian and German forces advanced more than in the direction of Venice , but they were not able to cross the Piave River . Although to this point the Italians had been left to fight on their own , after Kobarid ( Caporetto ) they were reinforced by six French infantry divisions and five British infantry divisions as well as sizeable air contingents . However , these troops played no role in stemming the advancing Germans and Austro - Hungarians , because they were deployed on the Mincio River , some 60 miles behind the Piave , as the British and French strategists did not believe the Piave line could be held . The Piave served as a natural barrier where the Italians could establish a new defensive line , which was held during the subsequent Battle of the Piave River and later served as springboard for the Battle of Vittorio Veneto , where the Austro - Hungarian army was finally defeated after four days of stiff resistance . The battle led to the conference at Rapallo and the creation of a Supreme War Council , with the aim of improving Allied military co - operation and developing a unified strategy . Luigi Cadorna was forced to resign after the defeat . The defeat alone was not the sole cause , but rather the breaking point for an accumulation of failures , as perceived by the Italian Prime Minister , Vittorio Emanuele Orlando . Throughout much of his command , including at Kobarid ( Caporetto ) , Cadorna was known to have maintained poor relations with the other generals on his staff . By the start of the battle he had sacked 217 generals , 255 colonels and 355 battalion commanders . In addition , he was detested by his troops as being too harsh . He was replaced by Armando Diaz and Pietro Badoglio . He had already been directing the battle 20 miles behind before fleeing another 100 miles to Padua . This led governments to the realization that fear alone could not adequately motivate a modern army . After the defeat at Caporetto , Italian propaganda offices were established , promising land and social justice to soldiers . Italy also accepted a more cautious military strategy from this point on . General Diaz concentrated his efforts on rebuilding his shattered forces while taking advantage of the national rejuvenation that had been spurred by invasion and defeat . After this battle , the term " Caporetto " gained a particular resonance in Italy . It is used to denote a terrible defeat – the failed General Strike of 1922 by the socialists was referred to by Mussolini as the " Caporetto of Italian Socialism " . Many years after the war , Caporetto was still being used to destroy the credibility of the liberal state . The Battle of Caporetto has been the subject of a number of books . The Swedish author F . J . Nordstedt ( i . e . Christian Braw ) wrote about the battle in his novel " Caporetto " . The bloody aftermath of Caporetto was vividly described by Ernest Hemingway in his novel " A Farewell to Arms " . Curzio Malaparte wrote an excoriation of the battle in his first book , " Viva Caporetto " , published in 1921 . It was censored by the state and suppressed ; it was finally published in 1980 .