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They were driven out by a counterattack. There were also the usual artillery duels. Italian batteries shelled the station at Santa Lucia di Tolmino and the Austrian lines in the Castaomavilla sector with good results. Not even minor engagements were reported on the following day, March 10, 1917.
Throughout the theater of operations bad weather limited, however, artillery action on the Isonzo, which was active only near Tolmino and the heights northwest of Goritz. Severe fighting took place on March 26, 1916, at several points. At the Goritz bridgehead the Austro-Hungarians captured an Italian position fronting on the northern portion of Podgora Heights, taking 525 prisoners.
The Catholic Bishop of Melbourne opposed and beat conscription in Australia, and it was Catholic propaganda of treachery among the ignorant peasant-soldiers from Sicily which caused the breaking of the Italian line at Tolmino.
The long series of Battles of the Isonzo, the journalists counted up to twelve of them in the first twenty-seven months in which Italy was at war, the succession of offensives "from Tolmino to the sea," which were only dimly realised in England and France, cost Italy the flower of her youth.
Along the whole front between Tolmino and the sea the Italians were active with artillery and mine throwers. The fire lasted through the entire night. It caused explosions and fires in the Austrian lines and was continued with unabated vigor in spite of prompt response from the Austrian guns during May 13, 1917.
Unimportant attacks on Italian positions on Malga Sugna, in the Vallarsa, on the Asiago Plateau, and on Monte Cauriol and Avisio, were repulsed. At Dolje, in the Tolmino sector, after preparation with hand grenades, the Austrians attempted to break through the Italian line, but were driven back immediately.
The loss of life during the month was comparatively light on both sides, but on June 26 the Italians already masters of Plava on the left bank of the Isonzo river, and the heights dominating that town were massing heavy bodies of troops before Gorizia and Tolmino for crucial battles at those two points, both of which blocked the way to the coveted Austrian seaport of Trieste.
South of Monte Nero, also on the east bank of the river, lies the town of Tolmino, the object of many fierce Italian assaults, but not yet taken. Here the Isonzo bends south-westward and continues to flow through a deep ravine past Canale and Plava, with the Bainsizza Plateau rising on its eastern bank.
The battle in the Tolmino sector continued on March 18 and 19, 1916, and to a slighter degree on March 20, 1916. On the first of these three days the Austro-Hungarian troops succeeded in advancing beyond the road between Celo and Ciginj and to the west of the St. Maria Mountain. Italian counterattacks failed.
It began with greatly increased artillery activity along the entire sector between Tolmino and Flitsch. Later that day the Austro-Hungarians launched an attack against the Italian forces which netted them considerable ground on the northern part of the bridgehead, as well as some 500 prisoners.
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