On the evening of 24th October Emperor Charles I was informed that resistance by the "Group of Belluno" on Mount Grappa was giving the right results. Although the situation was desperate, in his heart he hoped that not everything was compromised and that the whole front could together withstand the Italian offensive. But as soon as operations on the Piave got under way, he understood that there was nothing else that could be done: on 27th October he informed Wilhelm II that he had requested the member states of the Triple Agreement for a separate peace.
When the attack on the Grave di Papadopoli started, the Austro-Hungarian troops panicked and many soldiers, even before the battle had really started, began to move towards the east without any coordination. The number of deserters multiplied in the next few hours and a whole Hungarian regiment that was facing the French bridgehead surrendered en masse to the Twelfth Army. General Borojevic therefore ordered the first withdrawal by seven kilometres.
During the morning of 30th October a large part of the Italian troops crossed the Piave and advance parties were about to reach Vittorio Veneto. Borojevic ordered the Fifth and the Sixth Army to retreat towards the river Monticano but in the following hours he decided to abandon the whole of Veneto and to line up his forces behind the line of Livenza.
But even here there was no time to wait for the Italians. The war had been lost and any further attempts at resistance made no more sense. General Arz von Straussemburg therefore ordered an immediate and definite withdrawal from the Italian front.
