Battle in 1915–1917 on the Italian Front during the First World War
The Battle of Hill 383 was a military engagement between the armies of Austria-Hungary and Italy on the Italian front of World War I, lasting from June 1915 to May 1917. The battle took place on a hill later called Mount Prižnica (Italian: "Poggio Montanari"), located across the river Soča (Italian: "Isonzo") from the town of Plave in Austria-Hungary (present-day Slovenia). The Italian and Austro-Hungarian armies clashed for two years in an attempt to occupy it; the bloodiest clash occurred on 17 June 1915 when General Luigi Cadorna wanted to offer king Victor Emmanuel III a conquest which he could witness in person. This "demonstration" caused the death of over 8,000 men who were massacred in a frontal attack against Austrian machine guns. The fighting was continuing for the next two years, until Mount Prižnica was taken by Italians during the Tenth Battle of the Isonzo.
Background.
After 23 May 1915, when Austro-Hungarian empire declared war on Italy, Italian High Command led by general Luigi Cadorna planned the first offensive actions on the hard mountain terrain on the Austro-Hungarian-Italian border. As one of the targets they chose Austrian-held "Poggio Montanari" hill on the border south Austria. This hill, termed Hill 383 (its metric elevation), was meant as a first step towards taking the nearby Mount Kuk, then Gorizia and the Banjšice Plateau. To the Italians, Hill 383 was a key objective to take in the beginning of the war.
To impress the Italian king Victor Emmanuel III, Cadorna invited the monarch for a visit on the front, where he could present him a spectacular Italian victory. During an inspection of the front lines by the king, General Cadorna decided to offer him the spectacle of the conquest of Hill 383, so he prepared an observatory set up on Mount Korada at altitude of 800 meters. Forces chosen for attack were also from 2nd Army Corps commanded by General Gustavo Reisoli. The defenses were commanded by Major General Guido Novak von Arienti.
Battle.
On the evening of June 9, 1915, two battalions of the "Ravenna" Brigade of the 3rd Division crossed the Isonzo river on a pontoon bridge, establishing a bridgehead on the eastern bank, and began the climb up the hill. The wooded terrain was defended by a single company of 200 Austrian riflemen from the 1st Mountain Brigade of the 18th Infantry Division. The Italian assault was quickly crushed by accurate rifle and machine gun fire, and the assault was postponed until the next day.
On June 10, the Italian artillery began a heavy bombardment of the enemy area; at 9:30 pm, after sunset, the entire Ravenna Brigade (6 companies) of the 3rd Division, composed of 6000 men, assaulted the Austro-Hungarian defenders of Hill 383. The defenders managed to repel the assault up the now-bare hillside. The Austro-Hungarian lines were then reinforced with a battalion from the 22nd Regiment of Croat and Serb soldiers from Dalmatia.
On June 12, the Italians tried to attack again with six battalions to challenge the Austro-Hungarian resistance; the soldiers reached the slopes of the mountain undisturbed and while they were crossing the first line of wire fences, they were surprised on open ground by machine guns and were forced to a hasty retreat towards the river. Having reached the banks of the Isonzo, the Italian soldiers were surprised by a fire support of the Austro-Hungarian armored train brought from Gorizia, which targeted them with its cannons and machine guns; under this crossfire the Italian units left over a thousand dead on the ground.
On June 16, after another highly costly assault, the Italians captured the summit, with soldiers of the 2nd Battalion of the 43rd Division raising the Italian flag over the battlefield. Early on the morning of the 17th, after the Italian soldiers had celebrated and went to sleep, the Austro-Hungarian forces counter-attacked, re-taking the hill.
On June 17 he had 6 regiments of veterans of the "Ravenna" and "Forlì" brigades and of the "La Spezia" special corps brigade transferred beyond the Isonzo, watched by Cadorna, Victor Emmanuel and the other members of Italian General Staff. Cadorna declared to the king, then Italians will take this height at any cost. The following assault on a completely exposed and uphill terrain against the Austrian machine gun nests caused thousands of Italian soldiers found death in relentless actions.
After 4 of the 6 regiments having completely lost in the clash, Cadorna decided to interrupt the assault and contented himself with digging his most advanced line about 300 meters from the Austrian lines. In a few days, officially on 23 June 1915, the First Battle of the Isonzo started, as the first main military acton on the Italian World War I theatre. Battle also "de facto" opened the so-called White War warfare, where Austro-Hungarians and Italians were fighting in a steep and high-altutude terrain of the Alps and the Dolomites.
Italian Victory.
The fight for the conquest of Hill 383 and the surrounding territories resumed in the following months of 1915, including the First and the Second Battle of the Isonzo. The Italian army finally managed to occupy the hill during the beginning of the Tenth Battle of the Isonzo, a major Italian offensive that Began on 12 May, 1917. The final engagement consisted of five attacking Italian regiments from the 3rd Division against the 52nd Hungarian Regiment. Attacking uphill in lines, pre-sighted artillery and machine guns wreaked havoc among the attackers. Command of the Udine Brigade's leading battalion changed hands 5 times in half an hour. Having taken 1,521 casualties and outnumbered fifteen to one, the defenders had little chance of holding the hill and the Italians finally attained victory after twenty-three months of fighting.
Prižnica Memorial Park.
Remains of the battle are preserved on Prižnica and are connected by a walking trail. Visible elements include military cemeteries and military infrastructure like trenches, a dressing station, and a cabin near a cave used by the Avellino Brigade.
Citations.
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