Caporetto and the Isonzo Campaign

[MJames]

The Italian Army and the Great War in Italy 1915 - 1918 are one of my particular interests and given the limited number of English language books available on these subjects, any new book is welcome.

This shortish book (190 pages or so) describes itself on the back cover as "A graphic introduction to one of neglected fronts of the world war", a description that accurately sums it up. I can recommend this book to anyone new to, or trying to gain an understanding of, this often overlooked part of the Great War.

I was particularly impressed with the quantity and scope of the photographs in the book, something the other books on the subject do not have, and how they bring out the sheer scale of the mountainous terrain the 12 battles of the Isonzo were fought over.

The size and introductory purpose of the book means that the individual battles are not covered in detail but this is offset by the number and quality of the illustrations. The first 11 battles are succinctly summarised and bring out the attritional nature and indecisive outcome of the fighting.

The size and scope of the book are understandably insufficient to cover the 1916 Austrian Trentino offensive, the Caporetto campaign and the subsequent battles on the Piave in much detail and are more fully covered elsewhere such as the Wilks' 'Rommel and Caporetto' and J.R. Schindler's 'Isonzo'.

Overall, a short but informative and well illustrated introduction and overview of the Isonzo Campaign.

[mmckay395]

Thanks for the review.

I've browsed through the book. Not sure if I'll purchase it yet as it doesn't really offer anything new. Although it is a lot cheaper than Cassar's and Schindler's book.

[Robert Dunlop]

I finished reading this book yesterday. It is a nice overview, with many photographs. The author's style makes for an easy read, apart from the frequent re-use of certain phrases. This tendency, however, reflects the repetitive nature of the battles. In addition to MJames' comments above, I would add that the pen-portraits of the key commanders on both sides were very useful. The book is a fitting epitaph to the author, who died soon after its publication.

Robert