Battle of Hill 383
| Battle of Hill 383 | |||||||
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| Part of the Italian Front (World War I) | |||||||
Austrian illustration of fighting on Hill 383 in June 1915 (1915) | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| Italy | Austria-Hungary | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Luigi Cadorna (Chief of Staff of the Italian Army) Gustavo Reisoli (Commander of 2nd Army Corps) |
Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf (Chief of the General Staff) Archduke Eugen of Austria-Teschen (Commander of Southwest Front) Svetozar Boroević von Bojna (Commander of Fifth Army) Guido Novak von Arienti (Commander of 1st Mountain Brigade) | ||||||
The Battle of Hill 383 was a military engagement between the armies of Austria-Hungary and Italy on the Italian front of World War I, lasting from June 1915 to May 1917. The battle took place on a hill later called Mount Prižnica (Italian: Poggio Montanari), located across the river Soča (Italian: Isonzo) from the town of Plave in Austria-Hungary (present-day Slovenia). The Italian and Austro-Hungarian armies clashed for two years in an attempt to occupy it; the bloodiest clash occurred on 17 June 1915 when General Luigi Cadorna wanted to offer king Victor Emmanuel III a conquest which he could witness in person. This "demonstration" caused the death of over 8,000 men who were massacred in a frontal attack against Austrian machine guns. The fighting was continuing for the next two years, until Mount Prižnica was taken by Italians during the Tenth Battle of the Isonzo.