DEFEAT ON THE KOLOVRAT CHANGES INTO CATASTROPHE

Restored Italian trench line atop Na gradu – Green mountain in background is Mrzli vrh.

Standing in the renewed Italian positions of the open-air museum of the Kolovrat, you are rewarded with an all-world view over the Isonzo River valley with the Krn-MonteNero massif rising dramatically on the other side. Of the Bovec-Kobarid open-air museums, the view from here is only matched by what you gain at the former Austrian artillery base on Čelo above Bovec.

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GAS, SILENT KILLER, CAVES IN THE FRONT AT BOVEC

Sheep huddling on side of airfield - Men of Italian 87th Regiment died in gulley just below the trees behind.
Bovec sheep huddling on side of airfield – Men of Italian 87th Regiment died in gulley just below the trees behind.

Early in the morning of 24 October 1917, the newly constituted Austro-German 14th Army launched the Caporetto Offensive – known on the Austrian side as the Das Wunder von Karfeit or the Miracle of Caporetto. An integral part of the “miracle” was “Der Durchbruch bei Flitsch” – “The Breakthrough at Bovec”. In the two-pronged offensive, the use of gas shaped the deadly results in both zones of the attack.

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