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.
"The Third Battle [of the Isonzo] was suspended on the evening of 4 November, but Cadorna was unreasonably convinced that Boroević's army teetered on the edge of collapse. Knowing that 24 fresh battalions were due to arrive within a week or two, he felt sure that Gorizia could still be taken. After a week's pause, the Fourth Battle was launched with a short bombardment. The infantry did their best to charge up the open slopes of Mrzli, Podgora, Sabotino and San Michele, swept by machine-gun fire. The rain pelted down, the temperature sank, and then — on 16 November — heavy snow fell. There would not be a proper thaw until spring 1917, when corpses were revealed after a year and a half."
Italian Commander-in-Chief Luigi Cadorna had launched the Third Battle of the Isonzo River on October 18, 1915, with artillery inadequate to the tasks of cutting barbed wire and destroying entrenched troops. Repeating the attempt to begin the Fourth Battle on November 10 with even less artillery preparation proved deadly to Cadorna's men.
The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915-1919 by Mark Thompson, page 132, copyright © 2008 Mark Thompson, publisher: Basic Books, publication date: 2009
1915-11-10, 1915, November, Fourth Isonzo, Fourth Battle of the Isonzo, Cadorna
