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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