After the several diplomatic meetings that were held between January and April 1917, the arrival of spring led to the resumption of military action. On the western front "Operation Nivelle" was a complete failure and the situation in Flanders did not change. In Italy instead preparations got under way for a new offensive on the Isonzo that would only be launched after having ensured that the Austro-Hungarian troops on the front in Trentino would not be able to move.
In the plans of Cadorna the Tenth Battle of the Isonzo should have been the conflict that would have allowed Italy to lay down the foundations for the conquest ofTrieste. For this reason a comprehensive plan for military action was prepared; this consisted of an attack by the Third Army on the line Trstelj-Mount Ermada while three army corps, led by General Capello who had been rehabilitated, would conquer Mount Sesto and Mount San Gabriele, the heights behind Gorizia.
The enterprising Capello proposed a variation to the original plan or the creation of a bridgehead ten kilometres to the north of Height 383 (near Plava) and an attack on the hills across the arid Bainsizza plateau, an inhospitable tract of land that had never been touched by war up till that time. Everything would hinge on the surprise factor; Borojevic, forced to deploy only a few men, would never have expected the Italians to descend from that zone which had no means of communication whatsoever.
On 12th May, as usual, a heavy bombardment on the Habsburg lines anticipated an imminent Italia attack that started exactly at noon. Capello launched all his men against Height 383 which, although defended by a single battalion, resisted for several hours before it was taken over. The advance towards the next peak, Mount Kuk, was more difficult given the very good defensive positioning of the Austro-Hungarian soldiers. For a long time the situation remained blocked despite the intervention by the battalions on Mount Sabotino, hidden inside the numerous tunnels that had been built during the previous year.
In the space of a few hours the peak was lost, reconquered and lost again. Capello therefore sent two battalions to the Plateau but they were unable to penetrate and so the action to outflank the line Mount Kuk-Mount Vodice-Mount Santo resulted in failure. Seeing how the situation was unfolding, Cadorna decided to suspend this attack but General Capello convinced him once again that the whole operation was possible.
Events initially proved him right: Mount Kuk fell on 17th May and on the 18th the Polish soldiers were forced to leave the top of Mount Vodice. But when the turn of Mount Santo came, the advance stopped: the Italian soldiers were no longer able to move out of their new positions and their attacks on the last ridge failed completely. On 20th May, therefore, the general suspended the action which, as on numerous earlier occasions, ended with the loss of thousands of men.
