Thursday,
November 13, 2008
Itay
The
ANNOTICO Report
The British and French BEGGED
It
was therefore unforgivable for the French and British who
were stymied in their Trench warfare over level ground, to launch severe
unforgivable criticism at the Italians, for not being able to make advances up
sheer cliffs in arctic weather against heavily fortified Austrian positions.
Some
motivation of the British and French might have
been to excuse territorial promises that they reneged on at the Versailles
Treaty. Those broken promises led directly to the anger felt by Italian
War Veterans, who saw their sacrifices demeaned, and led to the rise of
Mussolini.
Arthur
Conan Doyle in his book in 1916 "A Visit To Three
Fronts" documented the unfairness of the derogatory reports after visiting
all three fronts
Wednesday
November 12 2008
Extract
from A Visit To Three Fronts, by Arthur Conan Doyle. In May 1916, the Italian
authorities requested that an independent observer visit their lines and report
his impressions. Conan Doyle also visited the British and French lines
"for comparison".
I leave
The time has come
now when
From first to
last the Alpini have had the ascendency in the hill fighting. The spirit in the ranks is something marvellous. There have been occasions when every officer
has fallen and yet the men have pushed on, have taken a position and then
waited for official directions.
But if that is
so, you will ask, why is it that they have not made more impression upon the
enemy
Therefore, the
only possible policy is to hold the Austrians back. This they have
successfully done, and though the Austrians with the aid of shattering
heavy artillery have recently made some advance, they can never really carry
out any serious invasion. The Italians, then, have done all that could be
done in this quarter.
There remains the
other front, the opening by the sea. Here the Italians had a chance
to advance over a front of plain ... They cleared the plain, they crossed the
river, they fought a battle upon the slopes of the hills (taking 20,000
Austrian prisoners), and now they are faced by barbed wire, machine guns,
cemented trenches and every other device which has held them as it has held
everyone else.
But remember what
they have done for the common cause and be grateful for it. They have in a
year occupied 40 Austrian divisions, and relieved our Russian allies to that
very appreciable extent. They have killed or wounded a quarter of a million,
taken 40,000, and drawn to themselves a large portion
of the artillery.
As to the future,
it is very easy to prophesy. The Italians will continue to absorb large enemy
armies. Neither side can advance far as matters stand, but if the
Russians advance and
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