Why is it that the Italian army seemed to go from stalemating

>>2171096
Cadorna was pretty bad, but his ideas weren't that off the norm of the time. The real problem was that he refused to adapt after being faced with proofs of how woefully inadequate prewar military doctrine was. Diaz on the other hand had every reason to change direction, from sheer practicality to political advantage.
Also to be perfectly fair, the maneuver that started the austrian collapse was started by a disobedient general a week before Cadorna got sacked, so in a way it wasn't really just about Cadorna and Diaz.
Not to mention that Italy's bad performance in ww1 is absolutely overstated. We're talking of two more or less equally matched armies, trying to dislodge each other from extremely entrenched positions up and down the fucking Alps. The fact that italian assaults often resulted in stalemates rather than routes is really fucking remarkable (or really fucking bad austrian performance).

>>2171469
>the maneuver that started the austrian collapse was started by a disobedient general a week before Cadorna got sacked

who?

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>>2171469
>11 battles of the Isonzo
>Caporetto

Come on, even Robert Nivelle probably could've done better.

Hungary had told its soldiers to go home and the Slavic nations of Cisleithania had declared independence. The only reliable troops in late October 1918 were the few German Austrians. Winning that battle really wasn't some magic on Diaz' side, Cadorna would have probably succeeded too.

>>2171096
>Was Cadorna really that bad, or was that just a meme and there was something bigger going on?

a lot of both. Diaz was a much more competent man who proved his talent at Monte Grappa and the Piave, but by the time Cadorna was relieved of command, the Austro-Hungarians were breaking down as a coherent army fast, with soldiers from their respective provinces deserting to join their respective rebellions against the Emperor. and Hungary just flatout calling their troops back home to deal with the rebellions while the Austrians were left to hold down their last front in Italy.

It was a combination of the Austro-Hungarian meltdown and the competence of Diaz that led to the absolute crushing of Austria-Hungary's army at Vittorio Veneto, after that the Empire no longer had a standing army to put down the rebellions at home, leading to the collapse.

>>2171096
>Armando Diaz
you mean the minute France and Britain parked a bunch of divisions in Italy?