Along the Alpine (Isonzo) First World War battlefield of Soča River (from May 23rd 1915- October 24th 1917) are many graveyards and memorials. The only German ossuary (virtual excursion) is situated nearby the confluence of Tolminka and Soča rivers at the edge of town Tolmin. Twenty years after the end of the WWI - in 1938 the construction of this ossuary was completed where 965 German soldiers are buried.
The Isonzo front was a battle field between Kingdom of Italy and Austro-Hungarian (k.u.k) armies. Army of German Empire was involved with Battle of the Caporetto also known as the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo or the Battle of Karfreit ( Slovene: Bitka pri Kobaridu) from 24 October to 27. October 1917, near the town of Kobarid, now in north-western Slovenia.
Austro-Hungarian forces, reinforced by German units, were able to break into the Italian front line and rout the Italian army, which had practically no mobile reserves. The battle was a demonstration of the effectiveness of the use of stormtroopers and the infiltration tactics developed in part by Oskar Emil von Hutier (1857-1934). After the collapse of the Italian 2nd and 3rd Armies it was used for the Italian propaganda purpose that the use of poison gas by the Germans played a key role in the collapse of the Italian Army. Regarding the documents about 500 Italian soldiers died of poisonous gases (Hanslian R.1925, Der chemiche Krieg, E. S. Mittler & Sohn, 226 pages. ). After this battle, the term "Caporetto" gained a particular resonance in Italy. It is used to denote a terrible defeat. The Italian army was pushed to 90 km to the west, to the Piave River.
