Asiago Plateau in the First World War
After the annexation of Veneto region to Italy in 1866, Asiago Plateau found itself on the border between the Regno d’Italia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Because of this, at the outbreak of the First World War, it was quickly occupied by Italian troops looking to reach the Adige Valley and Trento.
Being this one of the most mountainous front and so very difficult to manoeuvre troops, both the opposed armies decided to spend little efforts against enemy positions. During the first year the area of the Plateau interested by the conflict was just the north-western, were the old fortifications kept on shelling each other in an attempt to demolish the entanglements and free the way to the infantry. A couple of Italian assaults in May and August 1915 revealed how little the Austro-Hungarian troops have been affected by Italian artillery and so the positions remained on the same spot until May 1916.
At this time the Imperial Army decided to organize a massive offensive through the Plateau, in an attempt to reach Vicenza and then Venice and so catch on the rear the whole Italian array deployed along the Isonzo river.
The offensive, also known as “Strafexpedition” (Punitive expedition), lasted from 15th May till the end of June and allowed the Austro-Hungarian troops to occupy most of the Plateau but not to reach the decisive breakthrough. Italian counterattacks were a mere waste of soldiers and the frontline remained more or less the same for the rest of the war.
Being this one of the most mountainous front and so very difficult to manoeuvre troops, both the opposed armies decided to spend little efforts against enemy positions. During the first year the area of the Plateau interested by the conflict was just the north-western, were the old fortifications kept on shelling each other in an attempt to demolish the entanglements and free the way to the infantry. A couple of Italian assaults in May and August 1915 revealed how little the Austro-Hungarian troops have been affected by Italian artillery and so the positions remained on the same spot until May 1916.
At this time the Imperial Army decided to organize a massive offensive through the Plateau, in an attempt to reach Vicenza and then Venice and so catch on the rear the whole Italian array deployed along the Isonzo river.
The offensive, also known as “Strafexpedition” (Punitive expedition), lasted from 15th May till the end of June and allowed the Austro-Hungarian troops to occupy most of the Plateau but not to reach the decisive breakthrough. Italian counterattacks were a mere waste of soldiers and the frontline remained more or less the same for the rest of the war.
Italian defensive system
Austro-Hungarian troops were now on an advantaged position, closer to the Venetian plain and so, to avoid a similar bad surprise as the one in May, Italian High Command decided to strongly fortify all the Plateau. Since the end of the year the Plateau became a vast building site were four subsequent trench lines were implemented, along with aqueducts, barracks, cableways, new tracks and streets, warehouses, munitions dumps, etc.
These trenches were continuously reinforced, improved and enhanced in order to be defended even with few troops. All of them had several dugouts carved in the rock, machine gun and artillery emplacements and barbed wire entanglements. |