The Seventh Battle of the Isonzo was fought from September 14–17, 1916 between the armies of the Kingdom of Italy and those of Austria-Hungary. It followed the Italian successes during the Trentino Offensive and the Sixth Battle of the Isonzo in the spring of 1916.[2]
Seventh Battle of the Isonzo | |||||||||
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Part of the Italian Front (First World War) | |||||||||
Italian troops with a captured Austrian machine gun | |||||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||||
Kingdom of Italy | Austria-Hungary | ||||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
Luigi Cadorna (Chief of Staff of the Italian Army) Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia (Commander of Third Army) |
Archduke Friedrich (Supreme Commander of the Austro-Hungarian Army) Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf (Chief of the General Staff) Svetozar Boroević von Bojna (Commander of Fifth Army) | ||||||||
Strength | |||||||||
240 battalions 1,150 artillery pieces |
150 battalions 770 artillery pieces | ||||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||||
17,000-21,000 | 20,000[1] |
A short, sharp encounter fought from 14 to 17 September 1916, the Seventh Battle of the Isonzo saw Italian Chief of Staff Luigi Cadorna shift his focus from broad-based diversionary attacks to tightly focused initiatives directed at single targets.[3] This latest Isonzo battle saw the Italian Third Army, with a large amount of artillery, attack on the Carso toward Nova Vas. Following a successful first day, Nova Vas was assaulted on the second day with substantial artillery bombardments on German bunkers. Within minutes of the Italians ceasing fire, the Austro-Hungarian forces surrendered.[4]
Nevertheless, Cadorna's continued offensives along the Soča (Isonzo) did succeed in wearing away at Austro-Hungarian resources, both in terms of manpower and in crucial artillery availability. As each battle proceeded the Italians' war of attrition seemed ever more likely to wear the Austro-Hungarians into defeat, short of assistance from their German allies.
The Eighth Battle of the Isonzo followed on 10 October 1916.[5]
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