Italy's armed forces at the ready in a 1915 postcard. In the foreground the artillery, infantry, an Alpine soldier (in feathered hat), and a Bersaglieri (in plumed headgear). Behind them are a bugler and lancer; in the distance marines and colonial troops. The Italian navy is off shore, an airship and planes overhead. On the reverse are the lyrics of a patriotic Italian March by Angelo Balladori, lyrics by Enrico Mercatali. It ends with a call to the brothers of Trento and Trieste, Austro-Hungarian territory with large ethnic Italian populations.
Reverse:Marcia ItalicaD'Italia flammeggin le sante bandiereBaciate dal sole, baciate dal vento,Su l'aspro sentier di Bezzecca e di TrentoDe l'alma Trieste, sul cerulo mar.. . . Fratelli di Trento, Triestini fratelli,La patria s'è desta alla grande riscossa!Dell'aquila ingorda la barbara possaDai liberi petti domata sarà!Parole di Enrico MercataliMusica di Angelo Balladori.Casa Editrice Sonzogno - Milano. 1915.
"Operations petered out in the first week of December [1915], when heavy snowfalls obliterated trenches and wire. The Fourth Battle [of the Isonzo] had added 49,000 casualties to the 67,000 from the Third. Austrian losses were 42,000 and 25,000 respectively. Summarizing the reasons for the failure, the Italian official history of the war blamed the barbed wire, which was 'practically impossible' to destroy. Many months would pass before the Italians found a remotely effective solution."
Italian Commander-in-Chief Luigi Cadorna launched the Third Battle of the Isonzo River on October 18, 1915 on a 50-kilometer front with 1,300 guns, most of them 75 mm. field guns that neither cut barbed wire nor destroyed entrenchments. He followed hard on the end of the Third with the Fourth Battle on November 10 with even less artillery preparation.
The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915-1919 by Mark Thompson, pp. 134, 135, copyright © 2008 Mark Thompson, publisher: Basic Books, publication date: 2009
1915-12-02, 1915, December, Fourth Battle of the Isonzo, Isonzo, Battle Isonzo, casualities
