Luigi Cadorna (4 September 1850 – 21 December 1928) was a Marshal of Italy who served as Chief-of-Staff of the Italian Army from 1915 to 1917. During his tenure, he commanded the Italians during the defeat at the Battle of Caporetto.
Biography[]
Luigi Cadorna was born on 4 September 1850 in Verbania Pallanza, Piedmont, Sardinia-Piedmont (present-day Italy) to Raffaele Cadorna, a general of Sardinia-Piedmont. In 1860 he joined the Teulie Military School in Milan and in 1865 joined the Turin Military Academy, graduating in 1868 and becoming an artillery lieutenant. He served in various peacetime roles during the late 19th century, rising to become Colonel of the 10th Bersaglieri Regiment in 1892 and becoming known for strict discipline and harsh punishment. In 1898 he was promoted to Lieutenant-General, and in May 1915 he accepted his appointment as Chief-of-Staff of the Italian Army after previously turning down the post in 1908. He was in command of 875,000 troops (36 divisions) with only 120 modern artillery pieces, and four offensives on the Isonzo River against the fortress of Gorzia in Austria-Hungary left 250,000 Italians dead for no gain. In October 1917 the armies of Austria-Hungary and the German Empire launched an offensive against Italy at the Battle of Caporetto, and the battle was a disaster, with 275,000 Italian soldiers surrendering. On 9 November 1917 he was dismissed at the insistence of the United Kingdom and France, a far better fate than those officers executed on his orders by the "battle police" for separation from their troops, alleged cowardice or desertion, or for their orders of retreating. Cadorna was regarded as callous and incompetent for the execution of 750 of his officers, the dismissal of 217 officers under his command, and the decimation of units (killing one out of every ten Italian troops in a regiment that performed poorly). His son Raffaele Cadorna, Jr. fought against the Axis Powers as an Italian Resistance leader in World War II.