Croatian Units in the Tenth Battle of the Isonzo in 1917

Abstract

Although more than one hundred years have passed since the Battles of the Isonzo at the Southwestern front, these events, due to their considerable complexity, remain a very interesting topic for scholarly and military research.

The Tenth Battle of the Isonzo unfolded over a much larger area than the previous nine, which were primarily focused on the southern part of the battle area. Most of the fighting was for control of the strategically important Banjšice Plateau.

The Italian High Command deployed around 280,000 front-line soldiers with around 5,100 artillery pieces and 8,200 machine guns. The Austro-Hungarian forces, deployed in the 5^th Army under the command of General Svetozar Borojević, had around 160,000 soldiers, 336 artillery batteries, 714 mortars and 1,765 machine guns at their disposal. 

The Italians hoped that this attack would put them in a favourable war position, no matter the cost. However, the brave and persistent defence of the Austro-Hungarian forces succeeded in frustrating this ambition. The battle was fought in very complex international relations: revolutionary events were unfolding in Russia and the Spring Offensive of the western forces at the Western Front failed. In spite of all this, Italy launched a new attack at the Isonzo River, which eventually failed.

The fighting was extremely brutal: the losses on both sides were tremendous. The overall losses of the Italian forces amounted to 159,000 soldiers; 36,000 dead, 96,000 injured and 27,000 were taken prisoners, whereas the Imperial and Royal 5^th Army had 7,300 dead, 45,000 injured and 24,000 missing and captured.

The participation of Croatian units in these two operations was significant, however, their activities – particularly the significant losses – have not been significantly explored. This paper addresses the most significant activities of the Croatian units, particularly the Imperial and Royal 22^nd Dalmatian, 79^th Lika and 96^th Karlovac Infantry Regiment as well as the Dalmatian Rifle Regiments (Schützenregiment): the 23^rd and 37^th.