To the left, caricatures of a fallen King Albert of Belgium, Tsar Nicholas of Russia, President Poincare of France, generic (?) caricatures of an English man and a Japanese soldier, Kings Peter of Serbia, and Nikola of Montenegro engaging in a tug of war, the rope being held on the right by a German (in gray) and an Austro-Hungarian soldier. Between the teams and behind the rope stands the diminutive caped figure of King Victor Emmanuel of Italy, all hat, mustache, and chin.

Das Europaische Gleichgewicht 1914



The European Equilibrium, 1914

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Sunday, May 30, 1915

"The insatiable war machine had an additional 40 million bodies to draw upon for cannon fodder, a new front was created from Switzerland to the Adriatic, and the stalemate continued. It was a very difficult front, much of it in the high Alps, in a setting of natural grandeur, but truly more suited to the destruction of human life than to it preservation."

Quotation Context

Until May 23, 1915 when it declared war on Austria-Hungary, Italy was the only great power not at war. The Entente Allies expected that Italy's entry in the war would quickly lead to the defeat of first Austria-Hungary, then Germany. As René Albrecht-Carrié writes, the Italian front was very difficult terrain.

Source

Italy from Napoleon to Mussolini by René Albrecht-Carrié, page 102, copyright © 1950 Columbia University Press, publisher: Columbia University Press, publication date: 1960

Tags

1915-05-30, 1915, May, Italy