Why?

In four short years, from 1914 to 1918, over 10 million men and women serving in armed forces on fronts around the world were killed, while double that number were wounded, disabled and disfigured; and at least another 7 million civilians lost their lives as well. Most died horrific deaths. But as time passes by we tend to forget, a century later, how many sacrifices were made day after day on both sides of one the most deadly conflicts in human history. Civilized Productions has produced a wonderful choral album, Sacrifice and Solace, which features an octet called the Toronto Valour Ensemble who sang these carefully selected and uniquely composed songs from that era. It is available on CD Baby. The simple translation of the Arabic word "jihad" is struggle.

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

The Struggle for the Italians

Not all battles in 1916 were being waged along the Western Front. While the Somme Offensive was nearing its conclusion, slowing in the mud, and French forces were still fending off the Germans at Verdun, the Italian army on 10 October launched the Eighth Battle of the Isonzo against the armies of the Austro-Hungarian empire, trying to extend the bridgehead gained in prior months at Gorizia.
The various battles fought along the Isonzo River fell in the eastern sector of the Italian Front, in present-day Slovenia. During #WW1 the river - running north-south - was located mainly inside the borders of Austria, its head was, however, at the head of the Adriatic in Italy, flanked on both banks by mountains. The Austro-Hungarians held the higher ground and had fortified their positions. The Italians were fighting an uphill battle from the outset.
Following promises made by Allied leaders during the Treaty of London (26 April 1915), Italy then entered the war intending to annex Littoral and northern Dalmatia, as well as the territories of present-day Trentino and South Tyrol with a surprise offensive. Unfortunately, their actions soon bogged down into trench warfare at high altitudes, amid extremely cold winters.
At the time of the Eighth Battle 100 years ago, keeping in mind the regions sought by Italy when the Treaty was signed over 45% of the 1.5 million people were Italian speakers (the rest were Slovenes, Germans and Croats), many thousands of re-settled civilians were dying of malnutrition and facing the prospect of freezing to death in refugee camps in the mountains.
With respect to the fighting along the coastal plain of the Isonzo, the Italians, led by Chief of Staff Luigi Cadorna, could not achieve any success and, as with their earlier attacks, heavy casualties required that their 2-day initiative be called off pending the army's recuperation. The year prior, from October to November, the Italians amassed 1,200 heavy guns and had launched their Third and Fourth Battles of Isonzo, which ended in early December due to lack of munitions and much-needed supplies for the troops.
Although nothing strategically was gained by taking Gorizia during the Sixth Battle, apparently morale and spirits along the Italian line were boosted. The subsequent battles of the Isonzo in the following months accomplished little - except wear down the simply exhausted armies of both nations.
It should be noted discipline in the Italian Army was harsh, with severe punishments for infractions not known in the German, French, and British armies. Also, shellfire in the rocky terrain caused 70% more casualties per rounds expended than on the soft ground in Belgium and France. Thus, as with the forces on the Western Front, tunnels were built into the rock of the Dolomites, and even through glacial ice, attempting to break the stalemate by going underneath No Man's Land and placing explosive charges beneath enemy positions.
Sadly, on 13 December 1916, a day known as 'White Friday', 10,000 soldiers were killed by avalanches in the Dolomites. In a war of attrition, the Italian soldiers who survived the nine offensives waged through to the end of 1916 had seen 70,000 of their comrades killed and in the two offensives of 1917 they would see another 76,000 more die.
Not surprisingly, the number of casualties during the numerous and admittedly disappointing battles of the Isonzo were enormous for the Italians from 1915 to 1916, but the worst was yet to come. In 1917, with the Pope calling for an end to the war, a joint German and Austro-Hungarian assault broke through the Isonzo line, which destroyed the Italian Second Army and removed 275,000 Italian soldiers from the battlefield, almost all of them captured.
In total, incredibly, there were 1.2 million casualties suffered along the Isonzo.

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