Isolated Front: The Great War in Italy

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Isolated Front: The Great War in Italy This page gives insights and explores the history of the Italian Front during The Great War.

It will mainly cover the Austro-Hungarian perspective of the war from 1915-1918.

During the days just before Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary, the Austro-Hungarian military and officials were tryi...
22/08/2021

During the days just before Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary, the Austro-Hungarian military and officials were trying to launch a massive counter intelligence operation. They wanted Italian spies to report back that the Austro-Hungarian military presence was much larger and powerful than what it truly was. While this was done along the Isonzo in the form of civilians lying to the invading Italian army, in the Carinthian and Tyrolean sectors they would bring in the same unit by train to make it seem more and more troops were arriving and reinforcing the frontiers daily. Fritz Weber gives an example in Isonzo 1915: They would bring a train in to Hermagor and a Landsturm battalion would march to Kötschach, however instead of going to the Plöcken pass, they would march north to the Pustertal valley. At night they would cross the Gailberg saddle to Oberdrauburg and then were taken back to Hermagor via Villach. It was over a 40km march done daily to pull off the illusion. The other piece of information passed amongst everyone was that due to the great victory on the Eastern front in Gorlice, there would be over 300,000 battle tested soldiers from the Ortler to the Adriatic.

Of course the truth was that Austria-Hungary was pulling its final reserves in militia (Landsturm and Standschützen), police and border guard units, training and replacement units, and sending whoever they could to defend the frontiers. It seemed that this counter intelligence operation was a success as the Italian army advanced very slowly and very cautiously. Most military tacticians and analysts were expecting the Italian army to advance past all lines of defense and were expecting a deep breach into Austrian territory. An Austrian officer in Tyrol wrote “If the Italians knew their business, they would march overnight and reach the Puster valley inside of Austria by morning”. It seems that this small victory was brought on by two conditions, the Austro-Hungarian counter intelligence operation, and Italian military incompetence.

One of the instrumental units on the Dolomite front for Austria-Hungary was Kaiserjäger Regiment Nr III. They played a k...
04/08/2021

One of the instrumental units on the Dolomite front for Austria-Hungary was Kaiserjäger Regiment Nr III. They played a key part in the defenses in Rayon V of South Tyrol. More will be discussed about this unit and their contribution to the defensive victory from 1915-1917.

02/06/2021

With the passing of the start of the Italian front on the 24th of May, there are many myths and legends that are associated with it. The first, and one I will address for the moment, is still circulated in Italian popular history and is ingrained in Italian culture to this day. It is a song known as "La Leggenda del Piave". This song is a highly known, patriotic Italian song, which for a short period had served as its national anthem. The song establishes a long lasting lie that the Italians defended their homeland against a foreign enemy. During the first part of the song, which is supposed to represent the 24 May 1915, it claims that "a wall is being formed against the enemy..." and that "the foreigner shall not pass..." It adds to this claim in the next part of the song representing the 12th Isonzo battle continuing: "the foreigner is returning!... " And, "returns the enemy moved by his pride and hunger, he wanted to vent all his desires".

The song makes no mention of the true fact that Italy joined the war aggressively for land, and invaded Austria-Hungary on the 24 May 1915. It was easier for propaganda and national unity to invent this small lie, especially after the tremendous defeat of the 12th battle. Italy's propaganda machine had to switch from the Irredentists saying "Trento and Trieste" to "defense of the nation" this twist certainly helped Italian morale at the time, but sadly that twist and lie, still lives to this day.

This, and other myths and legends I will work to dispell on this page, as sadly there are many that need to be addressed in modern history, and given that in the English speaking world most sources concerning the history of the Italian front come from the Italians and not any other point of view.

Good morning everyone, this page is not dead! I am trying to orchestrate and film the first episode. However, I will sta...
22/11/2020

Good morning everyone, this page is not dead! I am trying to orchestrate and film the first episode. However, I will start posting interesting facts here.

06/07/2020

Hello everyone, while this has been an idea for a very long time, I have finally decided to lay the groundwork for a page and channel that dives into the history of the Italian Front during WWI. I have not yet created any episodes, but I plan on releasing information and photos, and other things that might not make it into the YouTube episodes here.

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