At the start of June Cadorna realized that the advance by the Austro-Hungarian army would not go ahead in the absence of troops. As a result he could at last devise a counter offensive to reconquer lost ground and to push back the new front on the plains. The situation that had arisen was in fact very dangerous: a new attack would again have placed the northeast of Italy in serious danger. The First Army was given the task to begin a pincer action, in other words an advance on both sides of the forces that were being deployed that would compel the enemy to withdraw. The two main places that needed to be reached were Colsanto to the west and Cima Portuale to the east. It was also necessary to proceed swiftly in a way that would surprise the enemy and avoid the start of a war of attrition even on this front.
Archduke Eugene, head of the Austrian sector, knew that there would be an Italian counter offensive and on 16th June ordered his men to position themselves along this new defensive line. This line started from the village of Matassone to the range of Ortigara passing through Fort Pozzachio, Mount Pasubio, Mount Maggio, Mount Majo and all the northern area of the Asiago plateau. This meant that the southern and central areas were abandoned.
Although in its first days the advance by the Italians reached several objectives, it went ahead very slowly. The speed of the retreat and of the setting up of new fortifications by the Austro-Hungarians led to the failure of the plan to encircle the enemy and also made the Italian soldiers suffer great losses to reconquer some valleys and hills.
The furious battle at Vallarsa, for example, destroyed the Alpine battalion of Vicenza in the zone of Mount Corno, south of Rovereto. Several soldiers were captured including Cesare Battisti and Fabio Filzi, irredentist supporters from Trento who, as soon as their identity was discovered, were immediately put on trial and hung for high treason on 12th July 1916 in the square of Castello del Buon Consiglio in Trento. Many other losses took place in failed attempts to reconquer the important peak at Mount Pasubio, not far from Adige.
Near Arsiero, the small village that was destroyed at the end of May, the Italians tried to conquer back Mount Cimone, to the south of the plateau of Tonezza. After the peaks at Mount Cavioio were taken, on 23rd July the Alpine battalion Val Leogra finally succeeded in climbing up again the steep sides on the southern section of Mount Cimone without however being able to advance further towards the north. Two months later, the Austro-Hungarian troops excavated a tunnel that was 28 metres long under the peak and filled it with 14 tons of explosives. The explosion completely destroyed the peak and about two hundred soldiers of the infantry battalion Sele were killed.
The action on the Asiago plateau continued for more than a month. On 11th July an attack was launched to the east of Cima Portule and to the south of Valsugana, on a line between the hills Forno, Chiesa, Campigoletti and Ortigara, at an altitude of about 2,000 metres. The advance had a partial and short-lived success but at the end the Austro-Hungarian defence turned out to be impenetrable. Even in this sector, therefore, the front turned into a fixed line that served to wear down the troops.
