Rommel's Stunning Caporetto Victory

On October 24, 1917, a combined German and Austrian force began a ferocious attack on the Italian lines near the town of Caporetto. The attack was intended to follow new tactics in the hope of surprising the Italians; in this, it succeeded. Among its most dramatic episodes was the progress of Captain Erwin Rommel's Württemberg Mountain Battalion, which captured three peaks south of Caporetto and 9,000 Italian soldiers in just over two days.