Ličani u Velikom ratu. Jedanaesta sočanska bitka, 17. kolovoza – 12. rujna 1917.
People of Lika in "the Great War". Eleventh Isonzo Battle, 17th august – 12th september 1917

Summary/Abstract: This paper is dedicated to the hundredth anniversary of the First World War and the members from Lika of the 79th Infantry Regiment Joint Forces from Otočac (K.u.K. Otočaner Infaterie regiment Graf Jellačić Nr. 79., abbreviated: IR 79), known as the "Jelačićevci". In it is described their participation in the 11th Isonzo Battle, one of the most horrific battles of the war. At the same time it is a memorial to the many victims of the regiment in this terrible war. Before leaving for the Isonzo battlefield the "Jelačićevci" led bloody battles in Serbia in 1914, in the Carpathian Mountains in the winter and spring of 1915, Galicia and Volhynia (today’s Ukraine and Poland) until the summer of 1916. After the disastrous defeat of the Austro-Hungarian and German forces by the Russians on the Eastern Front in the famous "Brusilov Offensive" in the summer of 1916, there came a regrouping of the broken Austro-Hungarian and German forces, the stabilisation of the battlefield and a partial sending of surplus forces to the other front. So the 1st and 2nd battalions of the 79th regiment entered into the structure of the 11th mountain brigade/48th infantry division from Sarajevo which arrived here from the Italian – southwest front – in the system of emergency forces. At that time they were located in the surroundings of the town of Sokal in the then province of Volhynia. With the return of the 48th division to Soča the "Jelačićevci" would also arrive. The 3rd Regiment would arrive first, and would participate in the Eighth Isonzo Battle in October 1916. The rest of the regiment would arrive during the late autumn and winter of 1916-17 and participate in all the subsequent battles right up until the victorious Twelfth in which the Italian forces were pushed back to the River Piave. Based on the available literature and archival material from the holdings of the Austrian State Archives – Österreichisches Staatsarchiv (ÖeStA) – Kriegsarchiv (KA) and the Croatian State Archives in Zagreb (HDA), primarily from preserved operational documentation, battle reports, lists of losses, death registers and other available documentation, the author examines the flow of the 11th Isonzo Battle, and in particular the military activity of the "Jelačićevci". All the horrors and heavy casualties of this battle of both warring parties are presented. The military terminology is adapted to present official Croatian terminology, and there where it was not possible the comparative Croatian and Austrian terms are given, especially for military ranks and formations.

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