How significant and impactful were the geographical and military strategies of Italy and the Central Powers in the outcome of the battle of Caporetto?

History

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Major Commanders involved-
Austria-Hungary- Arz von Straussenberg
Germany- Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff
Italy- Luigi Cadorna

dates- 24 Oct 1917 – 19 Nov 1917
Location- Kobarid, Austria- Hungary(present day Slovenia), Matajur, Soca
Combatants- Italy, Austria-Hungary, Germany



















Consequences-
The Italian Army suffered major losses at Caporetto in terms of prisoners taken and equipment lost.


Italy won previous Isonzo battles but only to have no man power left.


Several changes were made after this Italian disaster. There was change in military command
A new ministry was assigned


The battle ended on December as the snows came in

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Start- On October 24, after four hours of shelling with gas and one hour of general bombardment, the Battle of Caporetto began

The Central powers launched a massive revolt at Italy's North- Eastern Border










Reason- They wanted to seize the Italian speaking areas surrounding the border


Italian gas masks proved unable to deal with the German gasesThe fight was an exhibit of the viability of the utilization of stormtroopers and the infiltration tactics mostly developed and effectively introduced by Oskar von Hutier.
Cardona was a bad leader who did not listen to his subordinates. He had poor leadership and lacked military skills. Soldiers weren't motivated because of him

battle-of-caporetto-large-56a61c005f9b58b7d0dff5ac (1)

Diary Entry

The role I played- General of the Italian army LUIGI CADORNA

How Did I feel?

I felt anger

I felt disgust upon my failed battle strategies

I felt absolutely helpless

Where did my army go wrong?

What was the outcome and what caused it?

We were overpowered

We did not have a definite strategy

The central powers easily captured our territory and we lost

The enemy had sused their land well and had strategised the event

We did not adequately use the land we had

We did not know how to use the weather as an element for war

We had fought several battles which were not needed and thus had a deducted workforce and a rather tired army

My feeling before the battle

I felt patriotism

I was a little scared as our men were tired and the opponent was huge

Battle of Caporetto-October 24–December 19, 1917
It was between the Central powers- Germany and Austria Hungary and Italy





300,000 casualties and 265,000 prisoners

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The battle was fought october onwards- The weather was very cold at this period. By December from 16 degrees it came to 0 degrees celsius. The soldiers were extremely tired.

Location- Kobarid, Austria-Hungary; (present day Slovenia). This was North- Eastern Italy


The Austrio- Hungarians took advantage of this elevated region and based their defense on their location.
Something Italy failed to do.








German and Austro-Hungarian tactics


infiltration tactics


saturation bombardments combining high-explosive and gas shells


swift penetration at weak points

Ahan Saraf 8a- Mind Map

Battle_of_Caporetto

What led to the outcome+ conequences
The battle proved as an Italian disaster as they had no strategy.
They were easily beaten my several tactics and faced many consequences.
The Italian transport had been outrun


The country was damaged and significantly purged


There was a change in military command and a formation of a new ministry.

What I learnt from the outcome
I learnt that an army needs to be fully prepared for a battle.
I also learnt that sometimes battles are not necessary and can be avoided.

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Content, Research and Inter- disciplinary Synthesis- /5

Link to the research question and 3 bullet points- /5

Creativity,Design and Layout-/5

total- /15