After the first week of November the greater part of the army found itself behind the line of the Piave. The situation was, however, still very precarious: the right bank, from the zone of Montello up to its estuaries, had to be completely adapted to the overall objective of a defensive war within a very short span of time.
The Austro-German troops were aware of these problems and began by taking the maximum advantage from the disarray in which the Italian army found itself. There were rumours, that became stronger, that some French and English battalions were about to arrive to give a hand to the Italian soldiers. It was therefore necessary to proceed with haste: their hope was that they would successfully be able to push the Italians up to the Adige and to the Mincio. On 11th November 1917 Archduke Eugene agreed to go ahead with the advance and ordered the armies coming from the Isonzo to attack the area of Basso Piave pointing towards the southwest (towards Venice) while the 14th Army Corps (the Krauss Group) would attack between the Piave and the Brenta. At the same time an offensive would take place on Mount Grappa and on the Asiago plateau where the front had not moved after the defeat of Caporetto.
In the middle area of the Piave the Austro-Germans made an effort to strengthen the bridgehead at Vidor, to the northwest of Montello, but the operation was unsuccessful. The resistance by the Italians was surprisingly strong and after a few days of fighting, the German allies abandoned this initiative. On the line at Basso Piave instead the attacks were much more menacing: the heavy bombing around Grave di Papadopoli (a zone to the south of Montello where the valley is very wide) forced the Italian troops to retreat up to Salettuol while an Austro-Hungarian division tried to use the ferry in the zone between Musile and San Donà . Two bridgeheads were installed a few kilometres from the coast at Capo Sile and at Cortellazzo.
The Italian soldiers found themselves in difficulty but they were still able to resist in all the sectors. A division formed of some survivors from the front on the Isonzo and the Class of 99 was able not only to repel the attack around Fagaré but also to capture a group of 500 Austro-German soldiers. Although this was a small victory, it was the first one after Caporetto.
