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Italian troops marching into the mountains where Italy fought much of its war against Austria-Hungary. A poster postcard encouraging the purchase of war bonds yielding 5.55%.
Photograph of four First World War Italian soldiers. The one on the far right wears a monocle.
Postcard from a painting by W. Partke of a village in the Pripet Marshes in Russia dated February 14, 1916. An Hungarian officer wrote of the Marshes, 'almost half of the territory is covered by wet, impassable, and uncultivated forest, wooded territory, most of it useless, bushy, and impenetrable. The ground itself is divided into different kinds of marshy lands, impassable muddy districts, immense weedy and grassy territories, also regions covered by some kind of more solid grassy substance, and other thousands and thousands of acres of land perpetually under water.' The card is field postmarked on April 9, 1917 by Minenwerfer (trench mortar) Company 282.
A call to Italians to buy war bonds to help fund the powerful weapons needed for the last push to Trieste, a mere 25 kilometers from the Italian front lines. It pays 5%, after all, tax free, for an effective rate of 5.55%!
Austrian Mountain Rangers 'resting in the shade of southern flora' on the Italian front. The card was postmarked from Berlin on January 5, 1916.
"The bombardment began early on 6 August, pounding the Austrian lines all the way from Tolmein to the sea, before drawing in to San Michele and Gorizia. Cadorna's gunners had never been so effective. The Austrian lines were shrouded in smoke, their command centres disabled, many observation posts destroyed, and communications wrecked. Boroević telegraphed the Army High Command for urgent reserves and heavy artillery. He had underestimated the enemy build-up, partly because it was well concealed (with Cadorna making highly visible visits to Trentino. The Austrians had assumed that the new government in Rome would want more time before launching its first offensive." ((1), more)
"The end of July and the first fortnight of August [1916] were a quiet and comparatively pleasant time for us. There were no attacks, and without attacks life in the trenches, however hard it may be, is nothing really to complain of. The whole drama of war lies in the moment of attack. In itself death is a normal happening and soldiers die without fear. But the thought of death, the certainty of its imminence, make the hours that precede it tragic. Why was it that two men of the 10th battalion had killed themselves? In ordinary trench life no one expects death or thinks it inevitable; and when it comes, it comes in kindly fashion, unheralded and unexpectedly." ((2), more)
"Offensives against Kowel were mounted on 8th August and at more or less fortnightly intervals for the next three months. The Russian superiority, overall, was two-to-one at least: north of the Pripyat, 852,000 to 371,000 and south of it, 863,000 to 480,000. On the Kowel front, a great local superiority was built up: III Army, the Guard Army and VIII Army had, together, twenty-nine infantry and twelve cavalry divisions to twelve Austro-German infantry divisions. This, rather than the Romanian front, constituted Stavka's main effort. It was a complete failure." ((3), more)
"On 9 August, the church bells of Friuli rang out for the first time since 24 May 1915. Patriots declared that a wholly Italian army had defeated a great foreign army for the first time since the fall of the Roman Empire. Italy's allies agreed that the capture of Gorizia was a mighty feat of arms. The enemy had been driven back four to six kilometres, along a 24-kilometre front. It was by far the biggest advance to date." ((4), more)
"More than 100 wounded came during the night. They have been arriving in numbers all day and in the late evening were still being brought in. We have all been working in tremendous haste; most of the bandaging has been left to our hospital-orderlies; we, the surgical staff, have been cleaning, operating, dressing. Austrians of all ranks were among the wounded. All night long, the operating-table was occupied: eight major operations had been performed before daylight." ((5), more)
(1) After facing five Italian offensives in one year along the Isonzo River in northeastern Italy, Austro-Hungarian Commander in Chief Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf launched the Asiago Offensive on May 14, 1916 in Trentino, striking behind the Italian armies, hoping to cut them off with a successful drive to the Adriatic Sea. Surprised by the successful attack, General Luigi Cadorna shifted troops from the Isonzo to Trentino, while the government pleaded with the Russians for a relief offensive against Austria-Hungary. Russian General Alexsie Brusilov responded with one of the greatest and most successful offensives of the war, one that threatened to destroy the Austro-Hungarian Army. Cadorna opened the Sixth Battle of the Isonzo, his most successful, on August 6, 1916.
The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915-1919 by Mark Thompson, page 170, copyright © 2008 Mark Thompson, publisher: Basic Books, publication date: 2009
(2) Emilio Lussu's Sardinia Brigade had been deployed from the Isonzo Front to the Trentino to stem the mid-May, 1916 Austro-Hungarian Asiago Offensive. Austro-Hungarian Chief of Staff Conrad von Hötzendorf stopped that attack on June 16 to turn east to deal with Russia's Brusilov Offensive. Italian Chief of Staff Luigi Cadorna took advantage of Conrad's focus on his Russian Front to strike again on the Isonzo on August 6, the sixth battle on that river, and Cadorna's greatest success. For Lussu in Trentino the weeks were quiet.
Sardinian Brigade by Emilio Lussu, pp. 132–133, copyright © 1939 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., publisher: Knopf, publication date: 1939
(3) One of the most successful campaigns of the war, Russia's Brusilov Offensive was launched on June 4, 1916 and overwhelmed the Austro-Hungarian front, but ground to a standstill by August with the addition of German troops and German commanders. The attacks against Kowel showed none of the innovation and surprise Alexsei Brusilov had demonstrated. Romania, long flirting with joining the Entente Allies, finally did so on August 27, too late to support Brusilov's advance. Stavka was the Russian High Command.
The Eastern Front, 1914-1917 by Norman Stone, page 271, copyright © 1975 Norman Stone, publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons, publication date: 1975
(4) Chief of the Italian General Staff General Luigi Cadorna launched his Sixth Battle of the Isonzo on August 6, 1916. It was his most successful offensive. Gorizia, the Austro-Hungarian city of Görz, had a population of 31,000 before the war. The civilian population was about 1,500 by the time the Italians took it.
The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915-1919 by Mark Thompson, page 176, copyright © 2008 Mark Thompson, publisher: Basic Books, publication date: 2009
(5) Florence Farmborough, an English nurse serving with the Russian Red Cross, advancing through Austria-Hungary in the Brusilov Offensive, and writing on August 10 (July 28 Old Style), 1916.
Nurse at the Russian Front, a Diary 1914-18 by Florence Farmborough, pp. 219-220, copyright © 1974 by Florence Farmborough, publisher: Constable and Company Limited, publication date: 1974
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