The Beginning of Futility: Diplomatic, Political, Military and Naval Events on the Austro-Italian Front in the First World War 1914-1917 Volume I

By Gaetano V. Cavallaro

Since Picketts failed charge at Gettysburg, the frontal infantry assault had been known as obsolete. Nevertheless fifty years later, Allied military leaders in the Great War persisted in using it as a military tactic. Italian military leaders were no exception not even accepting the deadly effect of machine guns or quick-firing artillery. The Battles of the Isonzo on the Austro-Italian Front have now been classified with Verdun as to intensity and casualty lists. Mountain warfare on the Isonzo River Valley resulted in almost two million casualties from avalanches, frostbite, malaria, cholera, as well as prisoner-of-war starvation. Using the attacco frontale the blood of the illiterate fanti was used as coin to purchase terrain pushing the enemy back leading to Vienna's request to Berlin for help, leading to Caporetto.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 30, 2009
• ISBN: 9781462827435

Gaetano V. Cavallaro

Since early childhood in family gatherings the author has been exposed to discussions on warfare on the Austro-Italian Front. Subsequently he attended and graduated from Fordham University College of Pharmacy and medical school in Bologna , Italy , followed by Post-Graduate training ending at the Lahey Clinic in Boston. After almost a half-century of practice he embarked on writing this work by visiting archives in Vienna, London and Rome. He has lectured in major American universities, museums as well as abroad and is recognized as an authority on warfare on the Austro-Italian Front in the Great War.HE IS CURRENTLY WORKING ON A TV DOCUMENTARY ON THE BATTLE OF CAPORETTO.

Book preview

Copyright © 2009 by Gaetano V. Cavallaro.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2002096156

ISBN: Hardcover 978-1-4010-8426-4

Softcover 978-1-4010-8425-7

eBook 9781462827428

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

Xlibris Corporation1-888-795-4274www.Xlibris.com

16723

Contents

ACADEMIC FOREWARD

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

TOPOGRAPHIC GLOSSARY

ARCHIVAL AND TEXT GLOSSARY

List of Maps

SHORT BIOGRAPHIES OF THE MAJOR PROTAGONISTS ON THE AUSTRO-ITALIAN FRONT IN THE GREAT WAR

16723-CAVA-layout.pdf

OTHER BOOKS BY GAETANO V. CAVALLARO

FUTILITY ENDING IN DISASTER

DISASTER ENDING IN FINAL VICTORY

Dedication

To Those Who Fought and Died for a NationWhose Language They Did Not Speak, Whose Citizens Spoke a Language They did not Understand.Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine

ACADEMIC FOREWARD

DR. GAETANO CAVALLARO’S three-volume study of the diplomatic, military, and social developments related to the Austro-Italian Front during the First World War represents an extraordinary labor of love. Based on half a century of interviews with surviving veterans, research trips to official archives in Vienna, Rome, London, Paris, and Berlin, many visits to the sites of battle, and a close reading of secondary sources, this work takes the reader on almost a day-by-day journey alongside the Italian peasants in uniform, and their Austrian and German counterparts, who fought and died in the mountains of Northern Italy during the Great War. The author recounts the complicated military events from the perspective of both sides, assessing the strategic and tactical decisions that led to such carnage on this often overlooked front in the war. He also devotes a great deal of attention to the social context of the fighting, noting the wide disparity between the impoverished, illiterate Italian soldiers and their privileged, well-bred officers who did not hesitate to sacrifice the lives of their troops for dubious goals. Finally, Cavallaro traces the long-term consequences of the events on the Austro-Italian front, noting for example that the concept of blitzkrieg was successfully tested at Caporetto and influenced the thinking of young German officers on the Italian front such as Erwin Rommel and Heinz Guderian who would later put it into practice in the next world war.

The author’s interest in this long-neglected subject was originally sparked by conversations with aging survivors of the war he encountered as a young boy. His passion for history in general and for the history