End of the First Battle of the Piave

On 26 December 1917 the Austro-Hungarian troops abandoned the bridgehead at Zenson, the only patch of ground they had held since 12 November on the western bank of the lower Piave. Three days earlier Conrad’s troops had made the last attack of that autumn on the Asiago plateau, and the Italian counter-attacks died down on Christmas Day. With this day we close the First Battle of the Piave, in which the Italian army halted the forces of the Central Powers, victorious after Caporetto.

The British chronology of the war records under 26 December the end of the “Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo”. The British treated the whole autumn campaign, from the breakthrough at Caporetto on 24 October to the December fighting in the mountains, as a single battle. The Italians, Austrians and Germans, however, separate the breakthrough and the pursuit to the Piave from the later defence of the new line. Even the British official history itself (Edmonds) takes the Central Powers’ decision of 2 December as the end of the offensive and links the abandonment of the Zenson bridgehead with it, but according to the Austrian official history (Österreich-Ungarns letzter Krieg) the bridgehead was abandoned only on 26 December.

The last attacks

Although on 2 December Emperor Karl ordered the offensive halted, fighting for positions in the mountains suitable for wintering went on all month. In the Grappa massif General Ludwig Goiginger’s corps attacked Col della Berretta and Monte Asolone from 11 December. On 18 December, in snow and fog, the Carinthian 7th Infantry Regiment finally took Asolone, which overlooks the road to the summit of Grappa. The Italians counter-attacked until 22 December, throwing in, according to Austrian figures, 33 infantry regiments and 26 battalions of Alpini, but regained only the southern slopes of the mountain and lost more than 8,000 prisoners. Only thickening fog and a snowstorm brought a pause in the fighting on 22 December.

On 23 December, on the Asiago plateau, the left wing of the Austro-Hungarian Eleventh Army struck the line Monte Valbella – Col del Rosso – Col d’Echele. The attack had been carefully prepared: during the night the artillery, numbering about 550 guns, shelled the Italian batteries and assembly areas with gas shells, and in the morning, over snow on which the targets were clearly visible, the 6th and 18th Divisions took the first line of the Italian 2nd Division. The Verona Brigade was pushed back over the cliffs of the Frenzela gorge and mostly surrendered. The Austrians took more than 8,000 prisoners. In the following days the Pisa, Regina and Sassari Brigades and the Bersaglieri tried to retake the lost heights. According to the war diary of the Austrian Eleventh Army the counter-attacks only increased the number of prisoners by another 2,000, while according to the British official history the Italians somewhat improved their positions on Christmas Day. With this the army group of Field Marshal Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf ended its operations.

26 December

On the lower Piave there was relative calm throughout December. The bridgehead at Zenson, in a bend of the river about 25 kilometres from its mouth, was nevertheless a thorn in the Italians’ side: they attacked it many times without success, but inflicted losses on the defenders. When the Austrians noticed that the Italians were bringing up heavy guns and trench mortars, they decided to abandon the bridgehead and on 26 December withdrew to the eastern bank. As the Austrian official history noted with satisfaction, observers reported for several more days that the Italians were shelling the abandoned earthworks.

The same day there was a celebrated clash in the air. According to the British official history, in retaliation for a Royal Flying Corps raid on Christmas Day, about 25 enemy aircraft bombed the airfield at Istrana near Treviso on 26 December. The attackers lost eleven machines, while the British suffered no losses. Edmonds writes of Austrian aircraft, many other studies attribute the raid to the Germans, and the numbers of machines shot down vary. Also on 26 December General Marie Émile Fayolle, commander of the French forces in Italy, drew up a report on the state of the Italian army. He reckoned that Italy could immediately use about 1.6 million men in 50 divisions on its front. He criticised the staffs for crowding too many soldiers into the front line, for the lack of reserves and defence in depth and for relieving units too rarely, but judged that the soldiers’ morale was good.

After the battle

The line of the Piave and the Grappa massif held. The Central Powers had taken several peaks in the mountains and tens of thousands of prisoners, but had not come down into the Venetian plain. Winter set in in the mountains, the Germans were withdrawing their divisions to the Western Front, and an ever larger part of the front was being taken over by the French and British. Just four days later the French 47th Division carried out the first Allied attack in Italy, on Monte Tomba. Austria-Hungary tried once more to break the Piave line in June 1918 and was defeated.