Battle of Asiago Strafexpedition
Part of the Italian Front (First World War)
Date May 15 – June 10, 1916 Location Trentino, today part of Italy Result Curbed Austro-Hungarian offensive
Combatants
Italy	Austria-Hungary
Commanders
Luigi Cadorna	Conrad von Hötzendorf
Strength
172 battalions + 800 guns	300 battalions + 2,000 guns
Casualties
150,000 (of whom 50,000 prisoners)	200,000 (estimates vary)

The Battle of Asiago or Battle of the Plateaux (in Italian: Battaglia degli Altipiani), nicknamed Strafexpedition ("Punitive expedition") by the Austrians, was a counteroffensive launched by the Austro-Hungarians on the Italian Front on May 15, 1916, during World War I. Unexpectedly, it took place in Trentino (now in northeast Italy, then part of Austria-Hungary) after the Fifth Battle of the Isonzo (March 1916). The Italian campaign refers to a series of battles fought between the armies of Italy and Austria Hungary along with their allies in northern Italy between 1915 and 1918. ... Combatants Allied Powers: Russian Empire France British Empire Italy United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary German Empire Ottoman Empire Bulgaria Commanders Nicholas II Aleksei Brusilov Georges Clemenceau Joseph Joffre Ferdinand Foch Herbert Henry Asquith Douglas Haig John Jellicoe Victor Emmanuel III Luigi Cadorna Armando Diaz Woodrow Wilson John Pershing Franz... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1242x961, 211 KB) Map of the Italian Front, 1915-1917. ... May 15 is the 135th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (136th in leap years). ... June 10 is the 161st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (162nd in leap years), with 204 days remaining. ... Year 1916 (MCMXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar). ... Trentino-Alto Adige or Trentino-South Tyrol (in German: Trentino-Südtirol, in Italian: Trentino-Alto Adige) is an autonomous region in northern Italy. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Italy_(1861-1946). ... Austria-Hungary, also known as the Dual monarchy (or: the k. ... This article needs to be wikified. ... Graf Conrad von Hötzendorf Franz Graf Conrad von Hötzendorf, or Count Francis Conrad von Hötzendorf. ... The Italian campaign refers to a series of battles fought between the armies of Italy and Austria Hungary along with their allies in northern Italy between 1915 and 1918. ... The First Battle of the Isonzo was fought from June 23 through July 7 of 1915 between Italy and Austria. ... Combatants Italy Austria-Hungary Commanders Luigi Cadorna Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Aosta Conrad von Hötzendorf Svetozar Boroević Strength 260 battalions 840 guns 105 battalions 420 guns (25 other battalions arrived later) Casualties 42,000 46,000 The Second Battle of the Isonzo was fought between Italians and Austro-Hungarians... The Third Battle of the Isonzo was fought from October 18 through November 3 of 1915 between Italy and Austria. ... The Sixth Battle of the Isonzo also known as the Battle of Gorizia was a decisive Italian victory along the Isonzo River during World War I. Franz Graf Conrad von Hötzendorf had reduced the Austro-Hungarian forces along the Isonzo front to reinforce his Trentino Offensive. ... Combatants Italy Austria-Hungary Commanders Luigi Cadorna Arz von Straussenberg Strength 300,000 + 1,600 guns 100,000 + 500 guns Casualties 23,000 - 30,000 (estimates vary) 9,000 The Battle of Mount Ortigara was fought from June 10 to June 25, 1917 between the Italian and Austro-Hungarian armies... Combatants Italy Austria-Hungary Commanders Luigi Cadorna Luigi Capello Svetozar Boroević Strength 600 battalions + 5,200 guns 250 battalions + 2,200 guns Casualties 40,000 KIA, 108,000 WIA, 18,000 MIA 10,000 KIA, 45,000 WIA, 30,000 MIA, 20,000 POW, 28,000 sick The Eleventh Battle... Combatants Austria-Hungary German Empire Italy Commanders Otto von Below Luigi Cadorna Strength 35 divisions 41 divisions Casualties 20,000 dead or wounded 40,000 dead 20,000 wounded 275,000 captured Difficult Progress In Alps The Battle of Caporetto (or Battle of Karfreit as it was known by the... Combatants Italy France Great Britain Austria-Hungary Commanders Armando Diaz Arz van Straussenberg Strength 58 Italian divisions 6 French divisions 5 British divisions 57 divisions Casualties 87,500 dead or wounded 35,000 dead 90,000 wounded 25,000 captured The Battle of the Piave River was a decisive victory... Combatants Italy Austria-Hungary Commanders Armando Diaz Svetozar Boroevic von Bojna Strength Casualties 38,000 300,000 The Battle of Vittorio Veneto was fought between 24 October and 3 November 1918, near Vittorio Veneto, during the Italian Campaign of World War I. The Italian victory determined the collapse of Austria... Austria-Hungary, also known as the Dual monarchy (or: the k. ... The Italian campaign refers to a series of battles fought between the armies of Italy and Austria Hungary along with their allies in northern Italy between 1915 and 1918. ... May 15 is the 135th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (136th in leap years). ... Year 1916 (MCMXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar). ... Combatants Allied Powers: Russian Empire France British Empire Italy United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary German Empire Ottoman Empire Bulgaria Commanders Nicholas II Aleksei Brusilov Georges Clemenceau Joseph Joffre Ferdinand Foch Herbert Henry Asquith Douglas Haig John Jellicoe Victor Emmanuel III Luigi Cadorna Armando Diaz Woodrow Wilson John Pershing Franz... Trentino-Alto Adige or Trentino-South Tyrol (in German: Trentino-Südtirol, in Italian: Trentino-Alto Adige) is an autonomous region in northern Italy. ...

The idea came from Conrad von Hötzendorf, who had been maintaining for years (even before the outbreak of the war) the need of a punitive action against Italy, distrusting Italian loyalty to the Triple Alliance. Now, after Serbia's collapse and a series of Russian defeats on the Eastern Front, he had been allotted the resources to put that idea into practice. His plan consisted in a quick attack from Trentino toward the Adriatic Sea, cutting off Venetia and ensnaring General Cadorna's army in a giant trap. Graf Conrad von Hötzendorf Franz Graf Conrad von Hötzendorf, or Count Francis Conrad von Hötzendorf. ... , Italian: Triplice Alleanza) was the treaty by which Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy pledged on 20 May 1882 to support each other militarily in against any of them by two or more great powers. ... Combatants German Empire Austria-Hungary Russian Empire Romania Commanders Paul von Hindenburg Erich Ludendorff Conrad von Hötzendorf Nikolay II Grand Duke Nicholas Constantin Prezan The Eastern Front was a theatre of war during World War I in Central and, primarily, Eastern Europe. ... A satellite image of the Adriatic Sea. ... Venetia is a name used mostly in a historical context for the area of north-eastern Italy formerly under the control of the Republic of Venice and corresponding approximately to the present-day Italian administrative regions of the Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia. ... This article needs to be wikified. ...

It was not so easy, however, because the Italians had deployed in the area about 250,000 troops (General Brusati's First Army and part of the Fourth Army). Hötzendorff had asked Germany for help, but his request was denied because Germany was not yet at war with Italy (which would declare war on Germany three months later), and because redeploying German units on the Italian Front would have diminished German offensive capability against Russia.

Italian intelligence had been gathering information about an impending enemy offensive in Trentino — and a big one — for about a month, but Cadorna dismissed those reports, persuaded as he was that nothing could happen in that region.

On May 15, 2,000 Austrian artillery guns suddenly opened a heavy barrage against the Italian lines, setting Trentino afire. The Austrian infantry attacked along a 50-km front. The Italian wings stood their ground, but the center yielded, and the Austrians broke through, reaching the beginning of the Venetian plain. With Vicenza about 30 km away, all the Italian forces on the Isonzo faced outflanking. May 15 is the 135th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (136th in leap years). ... Vicenza is a city in northern Italy, is the capital of the eponymous province in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monti Berici, straddling the Bacchiglione. ...

Cadorna hastily sent reinforcements to the First Army, and deployed the newly formed Fifth Army to engage the enemy in case they had succeeded in entering the plain. The situation was critical.

However, on June 4, the Russians unexpectedly took the initiative in Galicia, where they managed to break into Austrian soil. Although they were effectively countered by German troops, Hötzendorf was forced quickly to withdraw half of his divisions from Trentino. With that, the Strafexpedition could no longer be sustained, and failed. Anyway, the Austrians retired in good order, keeping some of the positions they had initially conquered, so the number of Italian troops needed in the region to confront them had to be increased to 400,000. June 4 is the 155th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (156th in leap years), with 210 days remaining. ... Coat-of-arms of Galicia or Galicja Galicia (Ukrainian: , Polish: , German: , Hungarian: , Czech: , Turkish: ) is an historical region in East Central Europe, currently divided between Poland and Ukraine. ...

Although the Strafexpedition had been checked somehow, it had some political consequences in Italy: the Salandra Cabinet fell, and Paolo Boselli became the new Prime Minister. Antonio Salandra (Troia, Foggia province, 1853 - Rome, 1931) was a conservative Italian politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy between 1914 and 1916. ... Paolo Boselli (Savona, June 8, 1838 - Rome, March 10, 1932) was an Italian politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy during World War I. Boselli, a relatively undistinguished politician of the right-center who, at 78, was one of the oldest deputies in the Italian parliament, was appointed Prime...