Freepedia
is a series of free encyclopaedias. We currently specialize in history
but we intend to branch out into other areas. This section is about
Vittorio Veneto.
After
the Caporetto Offensive, where the Italian
Army lost over 300,000 men and most of its trench artillery, General
Luigi Cadorna was sacked and replaced by
General Armando Diaz. The new prime minister,
Vittorio Orlando, agreed to a new Allied
Supreme War Council that would help coordinate Italian operations.
Diaz managed to stabilize the front-line but was unwilling to undertake
an offensive of his own. Vittorio Orlando,
the Italian prime minister, was aware that he would need military victories
to strengthen his negotiating position to obtain territorial demands
after the war. He therefore pressurized General Armando
Diaz to launch an offensive in a war that would soon be over.
On the 23rd October 1918, Armando Diaz launched
an offensive at Vittorio Veneto. Diaz was able to put 57 Italian divisions
in the field. These were supported by soldiers from the French
Army and the British Army.
After initial difficulties crossing the Piave River, the Italian
Army took Vittorio Veneto. The Austro-Hungarian Army collapsed and
by the Armistice the Allied forces had
reached Trento in the west and Tagliamento in the east. When the ceasefire
was called on 2nd November, the Italians had taken 300,000 prisoners.
/FWWItalyF.jpg)
Illustration
from Neil Demarco's The Great War
