Battle of Bezzecca
| date | July 21, 1866 |
|---|---|
| place | near Bezzecca , Italy |
| output | Italian victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 13,000 soldiers | 4,500 men |
| losses | |
|
1640 men, 1070 of them prisoners |
207 men, including 100 prisoners |
At Bezzecca (northwest of Lake Garda ) on July 21, 1866 a strong Italian volunteer corps under Giuseppe Garibaldi defeated the Austrian troops of General Franz Kuhn von Kuhnenfeld . It was Italy's most striking military success during the Third Italian War of Independence .
background
In 1866 the German war broke out between Prussia and Austria. Italy allied itself with Prussia, in the hope that the after the Battle of Solferino in the Empire of Austria remained Veneto integrate. Italy attacked in three areas: from Lombardy the Austrian fortress quadrangle Mantua - Peschiera del Garda - Verona - Legnago ; from Emilia-Romagna from Veneto; in the area of the Alps the Trentino , where it came to the battle of Bezzecca.
Course of the battle
After several weeks of fighting over Monte Suello and in Condino, Garibaldi's volunteers captured the Forte d'Ampola. This allowed Garibaldi to penetrate into the Valle di Ledro , where he, however, met the bitter resistance of the troops of the Austrian General Kuhn von Kuhnenfeld. The imperial brigade Montluisant counterattacked in the direction of Forte d'Ampola despite being numerically inferior. Its westernmost column under the command of Major Grünne climbed the Monte Pichea, the middle column under Major Julian Ritter von Krynicki tried to advance over the Monte Saval in the direction of Lensumo. Major Grünne with three companies of Kaiserjäger and two companies of the 14th Infantry Regiment threw back the enemy between the heights of Locca and Bezzecca. Garibaldi's commander, Colonel Chiassi, was wounded and 500 men were taken prisoner. When General Montluisant noticed a strong superiority of 12,000 opponents in the area between Tione and Ampola, he had to go back to the surrounding mountains as quickly as possible to save himself. Garibaldi went over to the counterattack, after a first unsuccessful encircling attack on Bezzecca, he stormed the place head-on after artillery preparations and took it after bloody hand-to-hand fighting.
The Austrian losses in combat amounted to 6 officers and 19 men dead, 7 officers and 75 men wounded, and around 100 prisoners.
Garibaldi's tactical victory cost him 100 dead, 250 injured, and he lost more than 1,100 prisoners, including 2 senior and 17 lower officers. During the following advance on Trento and the fortresses of Lardaro, Garibaldi received news of the armistice between Prussia and Austria. The preliminary peace on July 27 made it possible for Austria to move troops to the Italian theater of war. Garibaldi's campaign on Trento was thus obsolete, he obeyed orders from La Marmora's headquarters and also ordered his Alpine hunters to retreat.
Further course
The subsequent withdrawal from the Trentino had important consequences for Italy (and also for Austria). Although Austria had to cede Veneto to Italy after the lost battle of Königgrätz , because the treaties between Italy and the war winner Prussia provided for it. But the Trentino and the area around Trieste remained with Austria, which later led to irredentism and Italy's entry into the First World War .
literature
- Ugo Zaniboni Ferino: Bezzecca 1866 - La campagna garibaldina fra l'Adda e il Garda . Saturnia, Trient 1966. (New edition 1987)
- Guerzoni, Giuseppe: Garibaldi . Barbera, Florence 1882.
- Alexander Hold: History of the campaign in Italy in 1866 , Carl Gerolds son, Vienna 1867
- General Staff Bureau for War History: Austria's Battles in 1866 , Carl Gerold's Sohn publishing house, Vienna 1869.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Austria's fights in 1866, Verlag Carl Gerold's Sohn, Vienna 1869, p. 46