Page - 788 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

788 The Pyrrhic Victory : The Breakthrough Battle of Flitsch-Tolmein Isonzo, but where, until that point, no major fighting had occurred. Everything had been concentrated on Trento and Trieste. While planning for the offensive from the area between the two major operational sections to date, no more ambitious goals had been addressed. The aim had merely been to eject the Italians from the Bovec Basin and, in so doing, to threaten the sectors to the south of it. In the most favourable scenario, an advance up to the Tagliamento River was envisaged, thus removing the risk of an Italian breakthrough to Trieste once and for all. To the north of the Bovec Basin, the area around Gemona and Cividale was given as a possible long-term objective. Naturally, it was not only fresh troops that were mustered for the undertaking ; alongside these troops, weapons were used that had either not been seen on this front at all or, if so, at least not to this degree of concentration. The breakthrough forces were gathered in the Bovec Basin, to the south and above all in the Tolmin area. With the insertion of an army, however, a massing of artillery was also achieved that had never occurred before. 1,845 guns, of which 500 were of heavy to extremely heavy calibre 44 mortar batteries, including the German 24-cm mortars that were intended for the destruction of the obstacles in the Bovec Pass, and finally, a German gas projector bat- talion, created a local superiority of forces that corresponded to a ratio of 3 :1 or more. All this took place in the utmost secrecy. Even the staffs themselves were not to be informed for a long time of the deliberations that formed the basis of the deployment. And the soldiers were given no specific information until the last. However, they also in- terpreted developments in their own way. Suddenly, poison gas grenades were assigned to the artillery. For the first time, all troops at the front were given helmets. It was noted with alarm that the postcards that had been obligatory since the end of August 1916 with the pre-printed statement : ‘I am healthy and well’ were being distributed in all languages of the Monarchy.1836 Every soldier was issued with ten of these cards. Even so, they continued to be in short supply. There was too little to eat, no salt, and no cig- arettes. Instead, on 28 September, the ‘Red Baron’, Manfred von Richthofen, suddenly appeared, and clearly sent shock waves through the Italian ranks.1837 Word spread of an Austrian-German offensive. Now, the Italians were also using poison gas  – the first occasion had been on the upper Isonzo. The Imperial and Royal troops were then given beer, matches and potato soup. Unsalted. Warm meals only reached the positions at higher altitudes every three to four days. It rained. The Bora blew. And the ammunition kept arriving.1838 Everyone expected that the offensive would begin any day. On the other side, the Italians were also certainly aware that something was being prepared and, naturally, they had also not failed to notice the presence of German troops. However, in their deeply staggered, excellently constructed fortifications from the Carinthian border through to the Adriatic, and in light of the possibility of being able to move troops quickly on the inner line in the lowlands of Friuli and Veneto, they felt secure enough to tolerate even this threat. However, they had only insufficient