Military Operations, France and Belgium 1918, vol. 1

24 October – 19 November 1917

Battle of Caporetto

PRELUDE. 1917

eight divisions in the Caporetto offensive, the latter replied that, in view of the Flanders battle in progress, it was scarcely possible to detach so many (“ Der Durchbruch am Isonzo ” ii., p. 13), and he provided six. In his book, “ My War Memories ” (English translation), he says (p. 491), that, owing to the heavy casualties in Flanders in mid-October he was compelled to divert to France two divisions on their way from the Eastern Front to Italy. On page 531 he mentions that another division which it was desired to send from France to the Trentino could not be spared. And on page 496 he asks what would have been the judgment on the Italian campaign if the initial success of the British at Cambrai on 20th Nov. had been exploited.

DEBATES AND NOTES

3 This was correct. Six divisions had taken part in the Caporetto offensive and a seventh had been sent to Italy on 11th Nov.

G.H.Q. PLANS

1 General Otto v. Below at the beginning of the war had commanded the I . Reserve Corps in the Tannenberg campaign, and then the Eighth Army at the northern end of the Eastern Front until Oct. 1916, when he was sent to command in Macedonia. In April 1917 he had superseded General von Falkenhausen in command of the Sixth Army on the Western Front after the latter’s defeat in the Battle of Arras. In September he was sent to Italy to command the German contingent in the Caporetto campaign. He returned to France in January.

GERMAN PLANS

On the 28rd October 1917, the day before the battle of Caporetto, the Operations Section of the Supreme Command put forward proposals for an offensive on the Western Front in 1918. But not until the success of the offensive in Italy was assured, and it grew obvious that the French and the British must send divisions to the assistance of the Italian Army, thereby reducing their reserves, and not until it was evident that Russia would shortly be out of the War, did Ludendorff take the matter definitely in hand. It was the failure of Italy and Russia which brought about the crisis ; as will presently be seen, Ludendorff did not give the final decision for the great offensive until the 21st January 1918, when it was quite certain that hostilities on the Eastern Front had ceased.