Battle of San Matteo 1918
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Year | 1918 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
|---|---|---|
| Era | World War I era (1914–1918) | derived from year |
| Location | Italy | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Italian Front, World War I | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Austro-Hungarian Army, Royal Italian Army | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 46.3789, 10.5667 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of San Matteo took place in the late summer of 1918 on the Punta San Matteo (3,678 m) during World War I. It was regarded as the highest battle in history until it was surpassed in 1999 by the Kargil Conflict at 5,600 m.
At the beginning of 1918 Austro-Hungarian troops set up a fortified position with small artillery pieces on the top of the San Matteo Peak. The base of the peak lies at 2800m altitude and it takes a four-hour ice climb up a glacier to reach the top. From this position, they were able to shell the road to the Gavia Pass and thus harass the Italian supply convoys to the front line.
On August 13, 1918, a small group of Alpini mountain troops (308th Company, Battalion "Monte Ortler") conducted a surprise attack on the peak, successfully taking the fortified position. Half of the Austro-Hungarian soldiers were taken prisoner; the other half fled to lower positions.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of San Matteo (revision 1372198941), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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Other battles of the World War I
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- Eleventh Battle of the Isonzo 1917
- Operation Albion 1917
- Second Battle of Heligoland Bight 1917
- Action of 14/15 February 1918 1918
- Battle of Baku 1918
- Battle of Belleau Wood 1918
- Battle of Cambrai (1918) 1918
- Battle of Cantigny 1918
All 138 battles of the World War I →
Browse more: battles in Italy · Europe · World War I era battles