Tuesday June 18th, 1918
Reveille 4:30 far too soon to get up. ?? 6-10. Very hot again. Nothing much doing.
The Italian Front
There has been much speculation in the British press over the past couple of weeks that an Austrian offensive on the Italian Front was imminent. The Front largely comprised the border territories between Austria and Italy. The expectation was that the attack would be pressed in support of the latest of the Spring Offensives on the Western Front.
Indeed the Germans had launched Operation Gneisenau on June 9th, with a plan to extend the Blücher-Yorck attack westward. However this had been called off three days later, when the French successfully rebuffed the advance.
The Second Battle of the Piave River (June 15-23 1918)
On June 15th 1918, the Austrio-Hungarian attack began. Using Germany’s playbook, it had started with a heavy bombardment. They had some success on the Piave river where two important crossings (Nervesa and Fagare) were taken. However, the Italian were well prepared and managed to launch a counter-attack that neutralized some of the impact. Furthermore ‘Both the British and French armies in Italy were engaged, and won a complete success. At no part of the French front (which was in the neighbourhood of Monte Grappa) did the enemy make any impression. On the British right (which was on the Asiago plateau) the attack was equally unsuccessful; only on the left did the enemy succeed in effecting a temporary lodgement in our lines, and from this he has since been ejected.’²
The British consensus was that the first stage of the offensive would ‘hardly exhilarate the Austrians’. There was also a sense that the military action was only initiated under pressure from the Germans and was a dangerous move for the Austrian authorities. ‘The political situation in Austria is exceedingly critical and the results of failure in these attacks, or of modest success purchased at a heavy price, might well be disastrous.’²
This comment proved prescient. The Austro-Hungarian forces, faced with broken supply lines and armoured opposition, quickly lost all the territories they had briefly gained and the battle ended on June 23rd 1918. While the Italians had to wait some months before they could deal the knock out blow, it was indeed the beginning of the end for the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
13th (Service) Battalion War Diary – 18h June 1918 – La Marraine
All companies bathing Cugunci baths, otherwise work and fatigues as usual.
References & Further Reading
¹ The Second Battle of the Piave River on Wikipedia
² ‘The New Offensive’, The Guardian, June 17 1918, (page 4)