French troops in Italy

On 3 November 1917, according to the British chronology of the war, it was publicly announced that French troops had arrived in Italy. A week earlier the Germans and Austrians had broken through the front at Caporetto, and the Italian army was retreating through Friuli. The first French troop trains had been unloading at Italian stations since 31 October. On the day their arrival was announced the Italians were still holding on along the Tagliamento, but their commander-in-chief, General Luigi Cadorna, was already thinking of a further retreat to the Piave.

The French decided quickly. According to the British official history (Edmonds), the government in Paris decided to send four divisions before Cadorna, on 27 October, answered the question of the Chief of the General Staff, General Ferdinand Foch, whether he needed help. Sent to Italy were the staff of General Denis Duchêne’s Tenth Army, the staff of General Rozée d’Infreville’s XXXI Corps and the 46th, 47th, 64th and 65th Divisions. The 47th Division was made up of chasseur battalions. Seven groups of French heavy artillery, which after the September Boulogne conference were just returning from Italy to France, were held back to cover the bridges on the Tagliamento, and six more were sent to join them. The trains ran on two lines across the Alps, along the coast through Ventimiglia and through Modane.

On 30 October Foch arrived at the Italian supreme command’s headquarters in Treviso, and a day later he was joined by the British Chief of the Imperial General Staff, William Robertson. Both concluded that Italy did not need the twenty divisions Cadorna had asked for. In a joint note they recorded that Allied troops in Italy could only supplement the Italian army, which remained responsible for the defence of the country. There was long hesitation over where to place the French. Cadorna wanted them first near Bassano, then on the Montello hill on the Piave, and finally, fearing a blow from the Tyrol, asked for two divisions near Brescia. In the end two divisions took up positions north-east of Brescia and two in Verona, far behind the front line.

According to the French timetable quoted by Edmonds, the 64th and 65th Divisions of XXXI Corps detrained from 31 October to 5 November, the 47th Division by 10 November and the 46th Division by 12 November. On 8 November, after the talks at Rapallo, the French decided to send General Nourrisson’s XII Corps with the 23rd and 24th Divisions as well. Command of the whole French contingent was then entrusted to General Marie Émile Fayolle, until then commander of the Centre Army Group, who arrived in Italy on 21 November. Duchêne remained commander of the Tenth Army.

The French divisions went into the line only at the beginning of December. From 3 December the 65th and 47th Divisions relieved the Italians in the Grappa massif, on the sector including Monte Tomba, next to the British on the Montello. On 30 December the 47th Division retook Monte Tomba, taking more than 1,500 prisoners. The November attacks on the Piave and Grappa line, however, the Italians had repulsed on their own.