CERJE – SLOVENIA AND ITS HISTORY DEFINED IN TOWERING FASHION

The tower atop Cerje.
The tower atop Cerje.

To better understand the eleven Italian offensives of World War One on the lower Isonzo River, two highpoints should be among your tour stops – Monte San Michele (for the first six offensives) and Cerje (for the rest).  Atop the tower built on Cerje, one has a view over most of the Isonzo battlefields from Sabotin-Monte Santo to the final Austrian lines atop Monte Ermada.  The vastness of the Carso-Kras region lays out at your fingertips.  The Adriatic Sea glints in the distance to the southeast while the snowcapped Julians shine to the north.

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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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KÄRTNER SPERREN – LOCKING THE DOOR IN THE JULIAN ALPS

Looking down on Fort Kluže from Fort Hermann.
Looking down on Fort Kluže from Fort Hermann.

After the crushing loss suffered by the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the battle of Sadowa in 1866, The Empire lost more lands in Italy to the Kingdom of Savoy.  The entire Veneto added to earlier losses of Lombardy and smaller duchies in central Italy like Tuscany.  Austria’s old defense system centered around the forts of the Quadrilateral.  Those forts were all given up after 1866 with the loss of the Veneto and Friulian.  A totally new defensive system became needed – enter the Kärtner Sperren.

In the far northeast of Italy, Austrian fortifications were not as elaborate as those in South Tyrol.  Here, a modern fort system developed in the early 20th century to both defend and to serve as a potential base for offensive operations against potential Italian aggression – even though, Italy supposedly was an ally to Austria-Hungary.

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