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%!
La Banca d'ItaliaRiceve e agevola le sottoscrizionial Prestito Consolidato 5% nettoEsente da imposte presenti & futureReddito Effettivo 5,55 per centoItaliani!I nostri avamposti sono a 25 Km da Trieste — date loro armi potenti per l'ultimo sbalzo, sottoscrivendo al Prestito Nazionale Consolidato 5%.The Bank of ItalyReceives and facilitates subscriptionsBorrowing 5% Consolidated NetExempt from present and future taxes5.55 percent effective incomeItalians!Our outposts are 25 Km from Trieste - give them powerful weapons for the last rush, by subscribing to the National 5% Loan Consolidation.
"The initial bombardment, when it started on 12 May [1917], was more intense than anything the Austrians had seen before. With more than 3,000 guns, it was on a scale familiar in France and Flanders, and it built to a fearsome climax. Crossing into the Isonzo valley at dawn on the 14th, the Scottish Quaker volunteer George Barbour was struck by the contrast between the serenity of the Bainsizza plateau, stretching away in front of him, and 'this extraordinary strip of hell, right down 2,000 feet below like a volcanic rift in the ground, full of noise and black smoke with the silver stream of the river waggling like a snake in the underbrush.'"
Italian commander in chief Luigi Cadorna launched his Tenth Battle of the Isonzo on May 12, 1917. Italian deserters had given the Austro-Hungarians notice of the impending attack and, with the Russian front quiet after the February Revolution, the Austrians could transfer reinforcements from the east. The defenders held the peaks; the attackers fought to drive them off. Even when the Italians did so, the Austro-Hungarians could fall back to comparable positions.
The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915-1919 by Mark Thompson, page 251, copyright © 2008 Mark Thompson, publisher: Basic Books, publication date: 2009
Tenth Battle of the Isonzo, Tenth Isonzo, Isonzo, 1917-05-12, 1917, May, Battles of the Isonzo
