4 - 1916 – Setback and success

Summary

Who would have imagined a catastrophe like this and lasting so long?

Luigi Cadorna, 17 January 1916

From his post-war vantage point, Cadorna wanted the year 1916 to be judged according to what turned out to be the fundamental characteristic of modern war – lengthy battles of attrition which consumed men and munitions in large amounts without winning much ground. That was not exactly how he conceived of his war at the time, though it was accurate enough as far as the front-line soldier’s experience went. On the ground, his armies would come perilously close to defeat in May – chiefly, critics later pointed out, because of the same failings in command that would have such dramatic consequences seventeen months later – before winning a prize in August. Tested under ever more extreme conditions, parts of the army failed, broke and mutinied. Cadorna’s unhesitating response was to introduce the most extreme form of exemplary punishment – decimation.