After the unsuccessful operation on the Timavo, the Supreme Command declared that the Tenth Battle of the Isonzo was over. Given its initial objectives, this battle could be considered as yet another failure. Mount Santo remained under the control of the Austro-Hungarian forces while the notorious Trstelj-Mount Ermadaline was still unapproachable.
Quite understandably the soldiers continued to feel exhausted and disappointed after two years of war. Colonel Angelo Gatti, head of the Ufficio storico del Comando Supremo, wrote that during this battle the men were resigned and in despair: "they did not revolt: when they were ordered to leave their trenches, they went out; but they were in tears." (Angelo Gatti, Caporetto; Diario di guerra (maggio-dicembre 1917), Il Mulino, Bologna, 1997, page 71). The idea started to gain ground that by now, before the central empires could be defeated, many years of war would be required.
The Austro-Hungarian counter offensive that was meant to reconquer the ground that was lost in the previous days made the situation worse and also weakened the morale of the men. The new and precarious Italian line started from the zone of Fornaza, crossed the small village of Comarie, went past Flondar hill and then followed the road between Medeazza and San Giovanni di Duino.
On 03rd June all these localities started to be heavily bombarded. After twenty four hours, the military leaders of the Habsburgs launched their infantry on the attack. Although outnumbered by the Italians, the soldiers of Borojevic succeeded in three days in pushing back the Italian line by a kilometre and a half, moving them even further away from Mount Ermada. They had succeeded in conquering back the strategic Flondar hill and, bursting through in several places, they forced the soldiers of the Third Army to withdraw so as not to be surrounded. Even the slight success that had been obtained by Italy in the Tenth Battle of the Isonzo was therefore foiled.
