The Second Battle of the Piave River was fought from 15 to 23 June 1918 on the Italian front of World War I when the Austro-Hungarian Army launched a failed offensive against the Royal Italian Army on the Piave River. The Austro-Hungarians' defeat at the Piave marked the beginning of the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Background[]
After the Central Powers' victory at Caporetto in October 1917, Italy's leaders worked hard to restore the morale of Italian troops and civilians. While Italian General Armando Diaz had restored army morale after Italy's defeat at Caporetto, in Austria-Hungary food and fuel shortages led to popular unrest. In April 1918, Italy hosted a Congress of Oppressed Nationalities in Rome, at which ethnic groups including Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, and Serbs asserted a right to independence from Austria-Hungary. The Allies sent troops to support the Italians while German forces were moved from Italy to the Western Front.
Battle[]
The Austro-German breakthrough at Caporetto in October 1917 had placed major Italian cities, including Venice and Verona, under threat. In June 1918, Austria-Hungary prepared an offensive to capture these prestigious prizes and drive Italy out of the war. According to the plan, troops under Field Marshal Svetozar Boroevic would cross the Piave River, while, farther north, Field Marshal Conrad von Hotzendorf advanced from the mountainous Trentino region. The ambitious plan ignored the change in the relative strength of the opposing armies on the Italian front since Caporetto. The transfer of German troops to fight on the Western Front from spring 1918 left Austria-Hungary reliant on its own forces, which were short of food and weakened by desertions. In addition, formations recruited from Austria-Hungary's Slav minorities had become unreliable. The Italian forces, meanwhile, had been bolstered with Allied troops and equipment. Under the command of General Armando Diaz, they were dug into defensive positions prepared in depth.
Failure on the Piave[]
On 10 June, Boroevic's Fifth and Sixth Armies crossed the Piave River on pontoon bridges and made inroads into Italian defenses near the Adriatic coast. Conrad's offensive in the Trentino region followed on 15 June. Within a week, however, both operations had failed. The bridges across the Piave came under attack from Allied aircraft and many were swept away in the current. The Austro-Hungarian armies came under counterattack. Forced to abandon their bridgeheead, they suffered heavy losses as they retreated across the river. In the Trentino region, the Austro-Hungarian onslaught caused panic in the British-held sector of the Asiago, but defensive discipline was soon restored. Conrad's costly frontal assaults barely dented the Allied line before the offensive was called off, just six days after it had begun.
Aftermath[]
With General Diaz content to sit on the defensive, there was little action on the Italian front through summer 1918. On 9 August, Italian patriots were enthused when the poet and nationalist Gabriele d'Annunzio led an air squadron on a long-distance flight to the Austrian capital, Vienna, where it dropped leaflets informing the population that they were losing the war. This was not news to the Austro-Hungarians. The failure of the offensive on the Piave revealed the poor state of Austria-Hungary's armed forces. The collapse of its economy was evident in the malnutrition on the streets of Vienna.