With the conquest of Mount Sabotino in the north east and of Mount San Michele in the south west, the strong Austro-Hungarian defensive line around Gorizia crumbled rapidly. Mount Calvario, considered for more than a year as a stronghold that could not be overcome by the Italian soldiers, fell during the night between 07th and 08th August. The counterattacks, even after the arrival of the first reinforcements on 11th August, did not change the fate of this battle.
On the right bank of the Isonzo there was only one Croatian regiment led by General Zeidler who ordered the withdrawal to the east of the city on the morning of 08th August. In this manner Gorizia remained defenceless (with the exception of a few men who guarded with their machine guns the only bridge that was still standing on the Isonzo) and the first platoons of the Pavia Battalion began to gather on the left bank of the river.
On that same day a young non-commissioned officer, Aurelio Baruzzi, was granted permission to swim across the Isonzo, carrying an Italian flag with him. On reaching the other bank, after a short while Baruzzi raised the flag near the railway station and decreed the conquest of Gorizia by the Italian army. This was the first tangible victory that was obtained after almost fifteen months of war.
Never before this moment had the Austro-Hungarian army seemed so much in difficulty: enthusiastic after the victory, the Supreme Command ordered the attack to continue so that even the second defensive line at the back of the city would be reached. But Borojevic, aware that he would not be able to keep the city on the Isonzo, had already ordered his men to retreat further to the east, in a valley running in a north-south direction called Vallone. Strategic positions on the western Karst such as Mount Sei Busi, the zone around Doberdò del Lago and Mount Cosich, to the north of Monfalcone were thus abandoned.
On 17th August military action was definitely suspended in the midst of great celebrations. The enthusiasm involved the Italian population and soldiers who finally, after more than a year at war, could celebrate for the first time. But at a military level, the truth was very different: the advance was equivalent to some five kilometres along a front that was 25 kilometres long and meant the loss in ten days of fighting of around 100,000 men.
