Page - 519 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

The Attack 519 The news of the successes in the South Tyrol offensive even held people like Josef Redlich in thrall, who in the interim only very rarely occupied himself with military developments in his diary records. ‘Wednesday, 24 May. Magnificent progress by our splendid troops in South Tyrol : 24,000 prisoners, 250 cannon taken, almost the entire line from the Brenta to the Adige Rivers on Italian soil. What our old Austria is still ca- pable of after two years of war ! This will dampen the arrogance of those self-confident gentlemen in Berlin somewhat.’1224 There they were again, the German phantoms. The newspapers reported in as much detail as possible on the successes of the Imperial and Royal troops. The war reports were embellished, individual achievements emphasised and, once again, a sense of euphoria spread. However, towards the end of the month, the names of the localities alone revealed that the attack was grinding to a halt. With the slowing down of the Austrian offensive, for which to a certain extent it only had itself to blame, the Italians were able to gain time, and with the aid of their dense railway network set in motion a massive relocation of troops. They knew perfectly well that the war hung on a knife edge  – and perhaps it really had been lost for the Central Powers on Mount Pasubio and around Asiago. Imagine that Conrad’s concept would have proved successful, 250,000 Italians encircled and Italy were to have been overthrown ! During the last days of May, the two Imperial and Royal armies were now only able to make minor progress. And finally, the Italians were able to claim the two last massifs before the exit into the lowlands at Bassano and Thiene. A large number of peaks and mountain ridges that had achieved a symbolic character before had already been taken by the Imperial and Royal troops, or had finally come under their control after days and weeks of struggle : Monte Meletta, Monte Cimone, Monte Priafora and others. Al- most the entire plateau of the Sette Comuni was in Austrian hands. The Italian barrier forts, which, like the Austrian facilities, were the pride of the army command, Monte Verena, Campolongo and Campomolon, which in 1915 had fired their deadly barrages at the Austrian forts of Verle and Lusern, had in some cases been detonated, and in others had fallen almost undamaged into the hands of the Austro-Hungarian troops. However, the Austrians were then not only prevented from emerging into the lowlands, but in some sections were thrown back. The Army High Command sent further rein- forcements. One division was due to arrive from Boroević’s 5th Army on the Isonzo ; the prospect was held out of sending a further war-ready division from the Russian front.1225 However, it remained to be seen whether it could be made available, since in the interim, a very different crisis began to rear its head on the north-eastern front. It was then Italian members of parliament who in the Chamber of Deputies in Rome found words to express the essential connection between South Tyrol and Russia : they had been ‘saved by the Russians’.1226