"Isonzo: The Forgotten Sacrifice of the Great War" Topic

"This is the first account in English of a much-overlooked, but important, First World War battlefront located in the mountains astride the border between Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Not well known in the West, the battles of Isonzo were nevertheless ferocious, and compiled a record of bloodletting that totaled over 1.75 million for both sides. In sharp contrast to claims that neither the Italian nor the Austrian armies were viable fighting forces, Schindler aims to bring the terrible sacrifices endured by both armies back to their rightful place in the history of 20th century Europe. The Habsburg Empire, he contends, lost the war for military and economic reasons rather than for political or ethnic ones.

Schindler's account includes references to remarkable personalities such as Mussolini; Tito; Hemingway; Rommel, and the great maestro Toscanini. This Alpine war had profound historical consequences that included the creation of the Yugoslav state, the problem of a rump Austrian state looking to Germany for leadership, and the traumatic effects on a generation of young Italian men who swelled the ranks of the fascists. After nearly a century, Isonzo can assume its proper place in the ranks of the tragic Great War clashes, alongside Verdun, the Somme, and Passchendaele."
From here
link

Anyone has read this book?
If the answer is yes, comments please?

Thanks in advance for your guidance.

Amicalement
Armand

I have visited many of the battlefields here.
Chilling to think about walking around Redipuglia to this day.

The mountains still bear the scars to this day.

Thanks for share my friend.

Amicalement
Armand

To an audience used to reading about Third Ypres it's quite an eye-opener to get to a battlefield that has to adopt roman numerals to keep track of the engagement count…

I think it totaled out to some thirteen battles of the Isonzo.

I just wonder what people would make out of thirteen fights for the Somme or such like?

I have not read this book but I have read Caporetto and the Isonzo Campaign The Italian Front 1915-1918 by John Macdonald with Zeljko Cimpric. This book does mention the book by Schindler and uses many Slovenian sources including the museum at Kobarid. It covers the armies, terrain as well as the eleven battles of Isonzo and Caporetto. It provided many details along with photographs. Including information on many persons involved who became well known after the war.

The book also contains information on the battlefields today and how too visit them as they are in multiple countries now. The book does provide insight into the tragic nature of the war in Italy and the tactics often horrible as well as resourceful during the war. I found the book enlightening on a subject much overlooked.

I was reading an article about the battle fields in the mountains between the two countries. They are finding, when the snows melt, trenches, weapons, caves and preserved bodies (frozen since they were killed in battle). Italians and Austro- Hungarian. Amazing.

Yes, I got that book a few years back and have read it twice it is such a good military history. The incredible bravery of both sides and the horrible terrain they fought upon makes for a very good read.

I highly recommend this book!

In my opinion the White War by Mark Thompson is far superior to Isonzo. There are several errors in Isonzo, and while Schindler avoids the "cowardly Italian" stereotype, the analysis has a very strong anti-Italian bias. It's not surprising given Schindler's sources, but a lot of it doesn't make much sense. He also seems to pull casualty numbers out of thin air. It was a very frustrating read having studied more balanced works.

Schindler does provide a lot of details, and sometimes they clash with his analysis -- for example he notes that the 1916 Asiago offensive had run out of steam by the end of May, but then states that what saved the Italians was the Russian Brusilov offensive -- which began in June. That doesn't make much sense, and even General A. von Cramon rejected the idea that the Brusilov offensive saved the Italians.

The chapter on the June 1918 offensive was pretty balanced, I thought, and as I recall Schindler does a decent job of providing the occasional Austro-Hungarian soldier's viewpoint (for Italy, he's basically limited to Mussolini's memoirs). Nonetheless, I would not recommend it.

As cplcampisi wrote the book by Schindler is not historically balanced or complete. Yet it is very well written, I can say gripping, Schindler is not ashamed of making use of all possible ww1 stereotypes, from bloody assaults to butcher generals and heroic characters. I'd still recommend it for an easy to read overview of that front, definitely not balanced but a real page-turner. People looking for something more historically accurate should read the White War by Thompson