The Tiroler Volksbund — the Tyrolian People's League — kicking Italian irredentists out of the region. Bozen, Trient, and Gatren See are now Bolzano, Trento, and Lago di Garda, Italy. Die Sieben Gemeinden — the Seven Churches — was a German-speaking enclave on the Asiago plateau, and included the town of Asiago.
Die deutsche grenze treu gewahrtDas ist der Deutsch-Tiroler Part!Tiroler VolksbundDie sieben GemeindenThe German border faithfully preservedThat is the German-Tyrolean's Part!Tyrolean People's Leaguethe Seven ChurchesirredentaTiroler VolksbundDie sieben Gemeinden1915Druck, Wagner, InnsbruckReverse:Der Tiroler Volksbund den Truppen in Tirols BergenEs gab kein 'Trentino' und wird nie eines geben!The Tyrolean People's League of the troops in the Tyrol MountainsThere was no 'Trentino' and will never be one!
"On 25 June [1916], the Austrians withdrew to well-prepared defenses. Arsiero and Asiago were ransacked, burned and abandoned, their streets strewn with rubble, faeces and dead horses. Cadorna dissolved the Fifth Army, its task fulfilled. But the Italian counter-attacks were hasty, uncoordinated, and very costly; only a third to a quarter of the territory lost since 15 May was regained."
Austro-Hungarian Commander-in-Chief Conrad von Hötzendorf began his Asiago Offensive against Italy on May 15, 1916, halted it on June 16, and then pulled back to the new defensive position above. Italian Commander-in-Chief Luigi Cadorna had created the Italian Fifth Army to stop Conrad even as Russian General Alexsei Brusilov's offensive smashed through Conrad's troops on the Eastern Front.
The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915-1919 by Mark Thompson, page 166, copyright © 2008 Mark Thompson, publisher: Basic Books, publication date: 2009
1916-06-25, 1916, June, Asiago Offensive, Cadorna, Luigi Cadorna, Tyrol, Tyrolia
