Changing partners; The History of Italy during the 19th Century is clearly anti-Hapsburg. The Entente offered old Hapsburg territories in South Tyrol and some down the Adriatic coast for Italy to join the war. Since France and Italy had earlier reached an agreement about the colonies in North Africa and the fact that Italy had this anti-Hapsburg feelings made it easy for her to change partner 1915 – from the Triple Alliance to the Triple Entente.

When the war broke out 1914 Italy declared neutrality. In May 1915 Italy joined the war on the Entente side – after she had been promised Trento, South Tyrol, Trieste, Dalmatia and some other areas along the Adriatic coast.

War of attrition; The Italian campaign started with an attack along the line of the river Isonzo (north-west of Italy). Austria-Hungary occupied a line of mountainous defensive positions. Italian Historian P. Pieri said; “the river could not be crossed until the mountains had been seized and the mountains could not be seized until the river had been crossed.” Between June 1915 and August 1917 the Italian troops engaged in 11 separate battles along the Isonzo river without being able to break this stalemate situation. Italy lost nearly a third of her army strength and it was fairly easy for a few Austrian divisions to keep the Italian Army down. This meant that the Entente ( Italy) saw no success at the Italian front and it was not good for diversion either…

Battle of Caporetto; In October 1917 a combined German-Austrian/Hungarian offensive at Caporetto (near Kobarid in todays Slovenia) nearly defeated Italy. She lost territory, the morale was low due to the high casualties (over 300 000 men) and so was the ammunition. An allied campaign in the Balkans, an exhausted Austrian army and domestic problems inside the Dual Monarchy diverted the attack. This gave the Italians a chance to regroup. First of all - the Italian Supreme General Luigi Cadorna was replaced by General Armando Diaz. He was the one that now reorganized the troops, blocked the enemy advance and stabilized the front-line around the Piave River. This situation would remain over half a year.

Battle of the PiaveRiver; The main assault, fought 15-22 June 1918, was a response to German demands upon their ally to launch an offensive across the Piave River. The Austro-Hungarian army of June 1918 was quite different from the one that had triumphed at Caporetto eight months earlier.  It was demoralized, equipment and other supplies were perilously low, and even if Austria-Hungary had as many divisions (or even a few more) they were weak. The attack failed and the Austro-Hungarian Army had to go back into their old positions after loosing over 190 000 men…

Battle of Vittorio Veneto; As part of an all Entente offensive in September 1918 the Entente Command tried to talk General Diaz to launch an attack over the Piave River. He had after the success of the Battle of the Piave River preferred smaller local operations. Now the Entente leaders tried to convince him to launch a bigger advance. After the continuous success of the Entente on the Western front and the fact that it seems like the war was close to an end it was important for Italy to gain as much as possible before the Peace Treaties would be discussed. The attack opened on 23 October 1918 with an Italian advance in the mountains. After some initial problems the Italian army managed with the help of British and French forces to advance. A week later Vittorio Veneto fell. This split the defending Austro-Hungarian Army. With the Allies' succeeding in advancing 24km along a 56km front a truce was finally agreed on 2 November with the capture of Tagliamento; an armistice came into effect the following day, signed at Padua.  Hostilities were formally concluded on 4 November 1918. The Italians lost some 38,000 casualties, a figure dwarfed by the 300,000 prisoners suffered by the Austro-Hungarians.  Simultaneous political turmoil completed the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The war was over for the Dual Monarchy!