Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
remember Kobarid as the site of the decisive battle of 1917 in which the combined forces
of the Central Powers defeated the Italian army.
Kobarid lies in a broad valley on the west bank of the Soča River. The centre of town is
Trg Svobode, dominated by the Gothic Church of the Assumption and that famous bell
tower. Buses stop in front of the Cinca Marinca bar-cafe on the eastern side at Trg
Svobode 10.
THE SOČA (ISONZO) FRONT
The breakthrough in the Soča Front (more commonly known to historians as the Isonzo Front) by the combined
Austro-Hungarian and German forces near Caporetto (Kobarid) in October 1917 was one of history's greatest and
bloodiest military campaigns fought on mountainous terrain. By the time the fighting had stopped 17 days later,
hundreds of thousands of soldiers lay dead or wounded, gassed or mutilated beyond recognition.
In May 1915, Italy declared war on the Central Powers and their allies and sent its army to the strategically im-
portant Soča Valley; from there, they hoped to move on the heart of Austria-Hungary. However, the Austrians had
fortified the lines with trenches and bunkers for 80km from the Adriatic to the mountain peaks overlooking the
Upper Soča Valley. While the Italian's First Offensive was initially successful - including the occupation of
Kobarid - the attack stalled after the first month.
The Italians launched 11 offensives over the next 2½ years, but the difficult mountain terrain meant a war of at-
trition between the two entrenched armies. The fighting in the mountains and the limestone plateau to the south
was horrific, but the territorial gains were minimal. With the stalemate, much of the fighting shifted to Gorica
(Gorizia) on the edge of the Karst.
On 24 October 1917 the stalemate was broken when the Austro-Hungarians and Germans moved hundreds of
thousands of troops, arms and materiel (including seven German divisions) into the area between Bovec and Tol-
min, with Kobarid as the first target. The surprise 12th Offensive - the Austrians' first - began with heavy bom-
bardment.
The 'miracle of Kobarid' routed the Italian army and pushed the fighting back deep into Italian territory. The
sketches of one Lieutenant Erwin Rommel (later the 'Desert Fox' commander of Germany's North African of-
fensive in WWII) are invaluable for understanding the battle, but no account is more vivid than the description of
the Italian retreat in Hemingway's
A Farewell to Arms
. The novelist himself was wounded on the Gorica battle-
field in the spring of 1917 while driving an Italian ambulance.
The 12th Offensive was the greatest breakthrough in WWI, and it employed some elements of what would later
be called 'lightning war'
(blitzkrieg)
. The Italians alone lost 500,000 soldiers, and another 300,000 were taken
prisoner. Casualties on the Soča Front for the entire 1915-17 period, including soldiers and civilians behind the
lines, number almost a million.
