Dumbest offensive of the 20th century

And, IIRC, the Italian Army eventually mutinied and all but fell apart sometime in 1917... I haven't had the chance to look that up for sure though.

Yea that would be caporetto where 14 assault divisions devastated the 52 division Italian army and tarnished their reputation for a century.

Tidbits:

The Italians got rolled for several reasons; low morale following their previously failed offensives... horrible officer relations with the enlisted men and nco's... Cadorna insisting they pack all their troops in the front lines because he was going to take the offensive again (which left them severely vulnerable to central powers hurricane artillery barrages)... not providing their troops with proper gas masks... and insisting that they dig in as close to central powers lines as possible, even if the Austro-Germans where holding much higher ground where they could lob mortars and gas shells on top of them

265k prisoners they gave up or roughly 20-25 men prisoners for every 1 casualty it was a defacto mutiny, and rightly so Cadorna was a complete sociopath with a massive Napoleon complex

The French and British had to take a full field army (ten divisions) off the western front and use them to bolster the Italian army at the Piave and keep them from quitting the war
 

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Yea that would be caporetto where 14 assault divisions devastated the 52 division Italian army and tarnished their reputation for a century.

Tidbits:

The Italians got rolled for several reasons; low morale following their previously failed offensives... horrible officer relations with the enlisted men and nco's... Cadorna insisting they pack all their troops in the front lines because he was going to take the offensive again (which left them severely vulnerable to central powers hurricane artillery barrages)... not providing their troops with proper gas masks... and insisting that they dig in as close to central powers lines as possible, even if the Austro-Germans where holding much higher ground where they could lob mortars and gas shells on top of them

265k prisoners they gave up or roughly 20-25 men prisoners for every 1 casualty it was a defacto mutiny, and rightly so Cadorna was a complete sociopath with a massive Napoleon complex

The French and British had to take a full field army (ten divisions) off the western front and use them to bolster the Italian army at the Piave and keep them from quitting the war


To be fair to the Italians, once Cardorna was sacked and the Piave was reached they held without the help of the French or Brits. Of course by then the Germans and Austrians were so far beyond their rail heads that kittens probably could have kept them from crossing....
 
To be fair to the Italians, once Cardorna was sacked and the Piave was reached they held without the help of the French or Brits. Of course by then the Germans and Austrians were so far beyond their rail heads that kittens probably could have kept them from crossing....

The OHL besides not having the necessary equipment or men for a crossing also felt (and not unjustfiably) that they had decisively beaten the Italians, and that they would be better served sending the battering ram somewhere else

I don't question Italian courage or discipline at all there. The had failed for 3 years and suffered tremendous losses under unresponsive and downright crazy leadership... 1917 was a breaking point for all armies... Russia; France hell even the British got really paranoid about morale and loyalty in their commonwealth/territorial forces after 3rd Ypres
 
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