The historical campaign

 At 6 o’ clock in the morning of May 15th, 1916, from Rovereto, in the Adige Valley, to the Folgaria Plateau, the artillery of three Austro-Hungarian corps stormed the Italian soldiers of the first line, repaired in the weak trench lines, or sacrificed in the outposts. Few hours later the first waves of grey dressed infantry were advancing, and after two days of fierce struggles, they got the breakthrough.

After an year of war and five useless offensives against the Isonzo line, the Italians were hardly proved by the Austro-Hungarian offensive.

Since long time prepared by general Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, the offensive was launched by 16 divisions, including the elite of the Imperial Army, and almost 1000 guns over the Trentino plateaus, between Adige and Brenta rivers.

After the easy early successes, the fast arrival of large Italian reinforcements slew down the offensive to a stop, and after the last useless assaults to the most advanced strongpoints near the Vicenza plain, it was definitively stopped, to divert forces against the Russian offensive under general Brusilov in Galizia.

The fights were over inaccessible terrains, sometimes in very hard weather conditions, over the top of mountains with sadly famous names like Pasubio, Cimone d’Arsiero, Cengio, Novegno, and the mountains around the Asiago Palteau

Often ignored by history, this offensive and its failure decided the end of the military and political autonomy of the Austria-Hungary in front of its more powerful German ally.

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