Italy 1915 1919

Although the third member of the Central Powers triple alliance before the Great War, Italy wisely held aloof from the conflict which began in August 1914. But pressure from the western Allies - particularly France - caused her to abandon neutrality and join the war on the Allied side. This volume recounts what followed as it affected the British troops involved in supporting our tottering ally after the disastrous defeat at Caporetto in 1917. The preliminary chapters provide a sketch of the events that brought Italy into the war and the operations that took place before the arrival of the British divisions in November 1917. In all, five British and four French divisions with supporting arms and services (including air) came to the aid of the ltalians in 1917/1918, enabling her to recover and drive her German and Austrian foes back into the Alps by the armistice in November.

In May 1915, Italy declared war on the Habsburg Empire, hoping to seize its 'lost' territories of Trieste and Tyrol. The result was one of the most hopeless and senseless modern wars - and one that inspired great cruelty and destruction. Nearly three-quarters of a million Italians - and half as many Austro-Hungarian troops - were killed. Most of the deaths occurred on the bare grey hills north of Trieste, and in the snows of the Dolomite Alps. Outsiders who witnessed these battles were awestruck by the difficulty of attacking on such terrain. General Luigi Cadorna, most ruthless of all the Great War commanders, restored the Roman practice of 'decimation', executing random members of units that retreated or rebelled. Italy sank into chaos and, eventually, fascism. Its liberal traditions did not recover for a quarter of a century - some would say they have never recovered. Mark Thompson relates this nearly incredible saga with great skill and pathos. Much more than a history of terrible violence, the book tells the whole story of the war: the nationalist frenzy that led up to it, the decisions that shaped it, the poetry it inspired, its haunting landscapes and political intrigues; the personalities of its statesmen and generals; and also the experience of ordinary soldiers - among them some of modern Italy's greatest writers. A work of epic scale, The White War does full justice to one of the most remarkable untold stories of the First World War.

In May 1915, Italy declared war on the Habsburg Empire. Nearly 750,000 Italian troops were killed in savage, hopeless fighting on the stony hills north of Trieste and in the snows of the Dolomites. To maintain discipline, General Luigi Cadorna restored the Roman practice of decimation, executing random members of units that retreated or rebelled. With elegance and pathos, historian Mark Thompson relates the saga of the Italian front, the nationalist frenzy and political intrigues that preceded the conflict, and the towering personalities of the statesmen, generals, and writers drawn into the heart of the chaos. A work of epic scale, The White War does full justice to the brutal and heart-wrenching war that inspired Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms.

The Legend of the Mutilated Victory is the first book in any language to analyze Italian diplomacy from the outbreak of World War I to the Paris Peace Conference.