First World War.com - Battles - The Second Battle of the Isonzo, 1915

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Italian troops in a town on the Isonzo front Battles: The Second Battle of the Isonzo, 1915
Updated - Monday, 21 January, 2002

Just eleven days after the First Battle of the Isonzo was called off in failure by Italian Chief of Staff Luigi Cadorna he renewed offensive operations. For this second bout however he had taken note of the Italians' manifest lack of artillery strength and had taken steps to boost artillery availability. Unfortunately so had the Austro-Hungarians commanded by Boroevic.

For a single-article background to the Isonzo battles click here.

Running from 18 July-3 August 1915, in actuality the second Isonzo battle achieved little more than the first other than increased casualties: 60,000 on the Italian side, 45,000 Austro-Hungarian.

The Italian Second and Third armies made a number of trivial gains in the Carso following two days of often hand to hand fighting from 18 July, but were unable to maintain forward position gains around Gorizia.

Throughout the Isonzo battles Cadorna consistently persisted with a policy of massed frontal infantry attacks against well prepared defensive positions, despite clear evidence on the Western Front that such tactics were fruitless.

Cadorna called off operations in early August once it became clear that he had insufficient artillery shells to continue the attack. Once again he took note and arranged for increased shipment of artillery in time for the Third Battle of the Isonzo, which began two-and-a-half months later on 18 October 1915.

Click here to view a map charting the progress of the first eleven battles of the Isonzo.

Photograph courtesy of Photos of the Great War website.

A "creeping barrage" is an artillery bombardment in which a 'curtain' of artillery fire moves toward the enemy ahead of the advancing troops and at the same speed as the troops.