End of the Seventh Battle of the Isonzo

On 18 September 1916 the Seventh Battle of the Isonzo was dying down on the Karst plateau. General Luigi Cadorna had taken the decision to end it on the evening of 17 September. This is how the Austro-Hungarian official history dates the end of the battle, giving the dates 14–17 September. The British chronology of the war, as well as some German and Italian studies, adopts 18 September, however, the first day without major attacks, when both sides were only trying to improve their positions.

After four days of assaults, which had begun on 14 September, the Italian Third Army had gained little. On the northern edge of the plateau it took a projecting salient of trenches on the Nad Logem hill and the hill with the church of San Grado di Merna above the valley of the Vipava; in the south, a few sections of trench near Oppacchiasella and on Hill 208, while the summit of Hill 144 above the sea became no man’s land. Even on 17 September Italian brigades broke into the Austrian trenches several times near Lokvica, Oppacchiasella and Nova Vas, but each time they were thrown out. After 4 p.m. the infantry fighting stopped. The hills of Fajti hrib and Trstelj, the main objectives of the attack, remained in Austrian hands.

Cadorna explained the halt by bad weather and the need to consolidate the positions gained. He also admitted that the wear on his forces had compelled him to do so: he wrote that he had stopped the attacks before the exhaustion of the Third Army threatened its material and moral strength. He did not commit his reserves to the battle. The order of 17 September directed that the positions gained be consolidated, the units reorganised and everything prepared for the fighting to be resumed as soon as possible. The Austrians received this with relief. On the evening of 16 September the situation of the Fifth Army of General Svetozar Boroević had seemed serious to them, and reinforcements, a mountain brigade from the reserve and battalions from the Tyrol and Carinthia, were arriving slowly. The last battalions of the mountain brigade reached the front on 18 September itself.

The battle cost both sides very dearly. According to Italian figures cited by the Austrian official history, the Italians lost 706 officers and 16,864 men, while other Italian tallies give about 21,000. The Austrians estimated their own losses in the battle at about 15,000 men, and according to Cadorna the Italians took 4,104 prisoners. Cadorna blamed the modest result above all on the rain and fog, which hampered the observation of fire and prevented the use of gas shells. The Austrian official history saw the cause elsewhere: the Italian command directed large formations well, but the lower levels were unable to exploit the initial successes.

The fighting on the Karst did not stop at all. In the following days the Austrians tried in vain to retake Hill 144 and the trenches on Hill 208, while the Italians replaced exhausted brigades with fresh units. Both armies were preparing for the next clash, which was to come in only three weeks.