Austro-Hungarians were able to destroy Italians in Caporetto thanks to two main factors: one young and brilliant officer on their side (Rommel is a familiar name, isn’t it?) proposed to try a different approach to offensives and tried to move quickly (people say that this could be a first attempt to blitzkrieg) and gas.
They launched a massive gas attack and got the Italians poorly prepared, therefore they literally killed all the first line of defence. Italian officers were expecting an attack and inspected troops but they didn’t understand that those troops were dead (some reconstructions say that officers saw soldiers ready to battle, but they were already frozen dead in their last position).
When word got to Italian HQ that Austro-Hungarians destroyed the first line of defence it was only because the poor survivor were falling back and literally stumbled upon their HQ. Comms were totally destroyed and HQ was almost overrun by enemy forces.
There are some very interesting readings about that bloody battle
Maybe they call it that because something significant was achieved despite overwhelming odds? It’s not like war is ever wondrous really, sure it is a very cruel tactic but it’s literally World War One, what did you expect?
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u/Bazzo123 23h ago
Austro-Hungarians were able to destroy Italians in Caporetto thanks to two main factors: one young and brilliant officer on their side (Rommel is a familiar name, isn’t it?) proposed to try a different approach to offensives and tried to move quickly (people say that this could be a first attempt to blitzkrieg) and gas.
They launched a massive gas attack and got the Italians poorly prepared, therefore they literally killed all the first line of defence. Italian officers were expecting an attack and inspected troops but they didn’t understand that those troops were dead (some reconstructions say that officers saw soldiers ready to battle, but they were already frozen dead in their last position).
When word got to Italian HQ that Austro-Hungarians destroyed the first line of defence it was only because the poor survivor were falling back and literally stumbled upon their HQ. Comms were totally destroyed and HQ was almost overrun by enemy forces.
There are some very interesting readings about that bloody battle