The Reading Warehouse

Although Italy lost as many men as Britain (as a percentage of the population), its perceived status as the least of the Great Powers may account for its near absence from British histories of the war. This book details the steps by which Italy became a belligerent alongside Britain and France, rather than remain an ally of Germany and Austria-Hungary within the Triple Alliance. However, having elected to fight with the Entente - but not declaring war on Germany until 1916 - Italy effectively waged a 'separate' war, much to the frustration of the Allies. Then, in October 1917, the Italians suffered a crushing defeat when the Austro-German assault at Caporetto smashed the Isonzo front; now the British and the French had to send divisions from Flanders to support their southern ally.

Using official documents and reports, as well as the personal letters and accounts of individual soldiers, this book draws out the demonstrable differences in the experience of those Tommies who fought on the Western and Italian fronts. But Italian military and political leaders did not make it easy for their allies to work alongside them. In the words of Sir William Robertson, 'Allies are a tiresome lot', and this account outlines why, for him and Sir Douglas Haig, their Latin ally fell into that camp.

Following the war, and the coming to power of Mussolini and the Fascists, Italian military historians were perceived by their British colleagues to have overemphasized their own country's achievements, while playing down those of their British and French allies. This, and their alliance on the side of Germany in the Second World War, may also account for Italy's near absence from British histories of the Great War. This book turns a spotlight on a theater of the war away from the Western Front; it broadens the narrative beyond the mud and flat farmland of Flanders and recognizes the experience of those who fought and fell so much closer to Venice than to Ypres.