Now all roads lead to France and heavy is the tread
Of the living; but the dead returning lightly dance.
Edward Thomas, Roads

Sunday, July 31, 2016

Don't Give Up on the Italian Front!

Dear Readers,

When you operate a blog like Roads to the Great War, you have access to a lot of statistics.  I've been going over ours and have discovered a pattern I found a bit dismaying: whenever we publish an article about the Italian Front our readership dropped. [This could not possibly be connected to my including a photo of myself in the last article on the war in Italy, could it?] I'm also a little concerned that we are not getting any news accounts about centennial commemorations regarding the Italian Front here in the States.

I hope you will continue reading our postings on the subject. The war on the Italian Front is another dimension of the endlessly interesting War to End All Wars [NOT]. Here is a panel that makes the case I did for our La Grande Guerra website back when the Internet was the hot new thing.  

Signed,

Your Faithful Editor

P.S.  If this succeeds in stoking your interest, try entering "Italian Front" in the little search box at the top of the page.  You'll see a list of over two dozen articles we have published the past three years.


9 comments:

  1. Grazie, Paisano! While some may consider the Italian Front secondary to the Western Front, it had a significant impact on the demise of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and required support from the Germans. The British also were involved.

    Let's not forget some Americans also participated in Italy. Fiorello La Guardia and Ernest Hemingway spring to mind.

    Steve Miller
    f134kilmil@comcast.net

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  2. I agree, Steve, not to mention Erwin Rommel on the other side. And certainly, one of the most colorful characters to come out of any theater of the war was Gabriel D'Ununzio. One of the best recent series of historical fiction - by John Biggins - covers the Italian Front through the eyes of a Czech aviator and submariner.

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  3. Reminder: When you next visit the Air Force Museum in Dayton. OH, linger a bit longer and absorb the full story of American participation in the air over Italy. It is an outstanding, comprehensive exhibit.

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  4. Please continue research on the Italian front. From what I have read so far the mountain warfare as so tragic that it heart breaking to think of what they endured.

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  5. I agree wholeheartedly with Bruce Burge. Once you have looked into the "White War" you will never push it to one side again, even if the endless battles on the Isonzo front tend to reduce you to exasperation!

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  6. Please keep these articles coming. I learn a good deal.

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  7. I always read the Italian Front posts, as it's so little covered,

    Still it's all Italian biased, some views from the Austro-Hungarian side would be interesting.

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  8. It makes something similar come to mind re: WWII in the sense that the brutal Italian campaign from Sicily and Salerno on, and then the fighting from the Southern France invasion up and over the Vosges Mountains and into the Rhine Valley and Germany invariably get short-changed as all of the attention gets focused on Normandy, Bastogne, etc etc. Very uneven representations of the struggle.

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  9. I had relatives engaged in the air over the Piave and in the ski troops, as well as building trucks for the effort. So I enjoy articles about the Italian effort.

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