Postcard map of Trentino, Austria-Hungary, with Italy to the south and west. The Trentino had a large ethnic Italian population and was one of Italy's principal war aims. The Italian city of Asiago is on the Asiago plateau, site of the Austro-Hungarian Asiago Offensive from mid-May to mid-June, 1916. The Italians launched a failed offensive north of the city in June, 1917.

Trentino



Legend:

Confini di Stato

Strada princ.

Strada second.

Ferrovie

Mulattiere

Corsi d'acqua



National borders

Principal roads

Secondary roads

Railways

Mule tracks

Waterways

Scala di 1 a 875,000



Reverse:

Logo:

IPA CT

Cromo

50

Other views: Larger, Larger

Sunday, June 10, 1917

"[The offensive on the Asiago plateau] was a catastrophe: Italy's equivalent of the first day on the Somme. Low cloud cover meant that Italy's 430 guns and 220 mortars could not target the enemy wire. The general commanding the division directly below Ortigara realised the implications, and asked permission to delay the assault. This was refused by Mambretti, who was unaware that, as on the Carso, the Austrians had abandoned their trenches and excavated deep caverns for men and artillery, often three metres under the surface. The Austrian gunners on the adjacent summits had excellent sight of the Italian positions and the ground where the Sixth Army had to pass.

At 15:00 hours the men of 52nd and 29th Divisions went over the top."

Quotation Context

The Battle of Mount Ortigara, June 10 to 25, 1917, was fought on the Asiago Plateau, on Italy's northern border with Austria-Hungary. A year earlier, on May 14, 1916, the Austrians had launched the Asiago Offensive in the same region. Most of the land war between the two countries was fought on the Isonzo River, a rough and natural approximation of the border in Italy's northeast. The Carso Plateau was on the eastern, Austro-Hungarian side of the river. On June 10, the Tenth Battle of the Isonzo had just drawn to a close with heavy Italian losses. British forces suffered 60,000 casualties on the first day of the 1916 Battle of the Somme, nearly 20,000 of them killed. Mount Ortigara is roughly 40 kilometers east of Trento, Italy (in 1917 Austria-Hungary) and 20 km north of Asiago.

Source

The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915-1919 by Mark Thompson, page 259, copyright © 2008 Mark Thompson, publisher: Basic Books, publication date: 2009

Tags

1917-06-10, 1917, June, Trento, Asiago, Trentino, Battle of Mount Ortigara, Mount Ortigara, Ortigara