Battles of Monte Grappa (1917–1918) | |||||||
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Part of the Italian Front of the First World War | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Austria-Hungary German Empire (1917 only) | Kingdom of Italy Romanian Legion | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Archduke Eugen of Austria (1st) Arz von Straußenburg (2nd and 3rd) | Armando Diaz | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
120,000 | 134,000 | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
21,000 during the first battle, 34,000 during the third battle | 12,000 during the first battle, 17,000 during the third battle |
The Battles of Monte Grappa were a series of three battles which were fought during World War I between the armies of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Kingdom of Italy for control of the Monte Grappa massif, as it covered the left flank of the Italian Piave front.
The first of these battles became the most famous as it brought the Austrian advance to a halt following the Austrian summer offensive of 1917. The Italian Chief of the general staff general Luigi Cadorna had ordered to construct fortified defenses on the Monte Grappa summit to make the mountain an impregnable fortress. When the Austrian summer offensive of 1917 routed the Italians, the Austrians, with help from the German Army's Alpenkorps failed to take the mountain's summit during the first battle of Monte Grappa from November 11, 1917, to December 23, 1917. Thus, the Italian front along the Piave river was stabilized and, although the Austrians could see Venice from their positions, they would never reach it. Italian casualties totaled 12,000 and Austrian casualties 21,000. [1]
The second battle of Monte Grappa was complementary to the wider Austrian summer offensive of 1918, which was the last offensive operation of the Austro–Hungarian Army in World War I.
The third battle of Monte Grappa started on October 24, 1918, as part of the final Italian offensive of the war, when 9 Italian divisions attacked the Austrian positions on Monte Grappa. The Austrians answered by increasing their forces on the mountain from 9 to 15 divisions and thus committing all remaining reserves. But the worn down Austrian Army began a general retreat on October 28, when Czechoslovakia declared independence from Austria-Hungary.
Monte Grappa appears in Electronic Arts' 2016 first-person shooter video game Battlefield 1 as a multiplayer map. The map is set during the final Italian offensive in the Third Battle of Monte Grappa pitting Austro-Hungarian forces against the Kingdom of Italy. The map is part of the "Iron Walls" operation set during the 1918 Italian offensive. [2] The map also appears in the game as part of the singleplayer campaign under the name Avanti Savoia
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Armando Diaz, 1st Duke della Vittoria, was an Italian general and a Marshal of Italy. He is mostly known for his role as Chief of Staff of the Regio Esercito during World War I from November 1917. He managed to stop the Austro-Hungarian advance along the Piave River in the First Battle of Monte Grappa. In June 1918, he led the Italian forces to a major victory at the Second Battle of the Piave River. A few months later, he achieved a decisive victory in the Battle of Vittorio Veneto, which ended the war on the Italian Front. He is celebrated as one of the greatest generals of the war.
Monte Grappa is a mountain of the Venetian Prealps in Veneto, Italy. It lies between the Venetian plain to the south and the central alpine areas to the North. To the west, it is parted from the Asiago upland by the Brenta river, and to the east it is separated from the Cesen-Visentin massif by the Piave river. To the north lie Corlo lake and Feltre valley. In the past, the mountain was called Alpe Madre, and is currently divided among three provinces: Vicenza to the west, Treviso to the south and Belluno to the northeast. It is the highest peak of a small massif, which also includes many other peaks such as Col Moschin, Colle della Berretta, Monte Asolone, Monte Pertica, Prassolan, Monti Solaroli, Fontana Secca, Monte Peurna, Monte Santo, Monte Tomatico, Meatte, Monte Pallon, and Monte Tomba.
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Viktor Graf von Scheuchenstuel was a colonel general in the Austro-Hungarian Army. He was a general staff officer and division commander until World War I broke out. During World War I he was a Corps and Army commander serving in Serbia, Albania and Italy. During World War I he was promoted to Graf in the Austrian nobility. Following the end of World War I and the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Scheuchenstuel retired from the military. He died in Vienna.
Gaetano Giardino was an Italian soldier that rose to the rank of Marshal of Italy and Italian Representative to the Allied War Council during World War I.
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Mino was the eighth ZDF-Weihnachtsserie, and aired in 1986. The series was broadcast in Germany on ZDF, and consisted of 6 episodes. Broadcasting in Germany began on December 25, 1986. The series was also broadcast in Italy, and consisted of 4 episodes. Broadcasting in Italy began on December 28, 1986. The series was an Italian-German co-production. It was inspired by the Italian novel The little Alpino by Salvator Gotta.
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The mines on the Italian front during the First World War comprised a series of underground explosive charges of varying sizes, secretly planted between 1916 and 1918 by Austro-Hungarian and Italian tunneling units beneath their enemy's lines along the Italian front in the Dolomite section of the Alps.
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The White War is the name given to the fighting in the high-altitude Alpine sector of the Italian front during the First World War, principally in the Dolomites, the Ortles-Cevedale Alps and the Adamello-Presanella Alps. More than two-thirds of this conflict zone lies at an altitude above 2,000m, rising to 3905m at Mount Ortler. In 1917 New York World correspondent E. Alexander Powell wrote: “On no front, not on the sun-scorched plains of Mesopotamia, nor in the frozen Mazurian marshes, nor in the blood-soaked mud of Flanders, does the fighting man lead so arduous an existence as up here on the roof of the world.”
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45°51′N11°44′E / 45.850°N 11.733°E