The Battle of Pozzuolo was fought during the First World War between 29 and 30 October 1917, between two brigates of the Italian army and two divisions of the German Army and one division of the Austro-Hungarian Army.
The significance of the battle was in that the Italians managed to avoid the Austro-Hungarian and German troops to cut the retreat of the Italian army from the disastrous Battle of Caporetto. As a result while the two brigates deployed by the Italians were destroyed by the far larger German and Austro-Hungarian divisions, the Third Italian Army could gain precious time to cross the Tagliamento River to re-organize and prepare defences to counter the enemy's advance. The fact that merely two brigades had to face three advancing enemy divisions meant evident defeat for the Italian brigades. Due to this the Italian army commemorates this episode as an act of patriotic heroism.
References[]
- Mario Silvestri, Caporetto, una battaglia e un enigma, Mondadori, 1984, ISBN 88-04-34116-5
- Italian Defence Forum, accessible at: http://www.paginedidifesa.it/2008/apicella_080414.html
- Italian Wikipedia Page, accessible at: http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battaglia_di_Pozzuolo_del_Friuli#cite_note-3
The original article can be found at Battle of Pozzuolo and the edit history here.