"Who knew attacking a mountain position could be so hard?" - Cadorna and Joffre, probably.
Either way, excellent work writing this. Really shows the hardship, futility, and just plain grossness of war.
Thanks. I worried that I wouldn't get the tension and emotions of the combat scene right-- glad to know I've done okay.
The only point of attention is that Robilant OTL is the general even more than Cappello and Badoglio, more independent and less obeying the indications of Cadorna: for example, he used to use the orders of the Supreme Command to ignite the cigars. This is because, due to his bonds of friendship with the King, Cadorna could not drive him out. As proof of his acting on his own terms, following the breakthrough of Caporetto he was ordered by General Luigi Cadorna to retire near Mount Grappa, but Robilant, caring highly, ordered to resist indefinitely, which caused the capture of about 11,500 men, trapped by the forces of Otto von Below. But since Robilant, another since you can keep ITL, was scandalously lucky, when it was decided to give the order to retreat, he took the wrong road,
confusing the Germans and managed to avoid the encirclement ... Fortunately, obeying Cadorna for once, that it is not true that he did not know how to learn from his mistakes (unlike the French and the English, he hastens to reply and better, the tactics of the sturmtruppen with the Arditi), Robilant accepts both to abide by Cosenz's plans (yes, always him, who had a plan just in case) to set up a defensive line on the Piave, and to adopt an elastic defense, thus stopping the German offensive ...
He will definitely be lighting some Supreme Command orders ITTL! That's a great mental image.
Thanks for the information-- this will become helpful in trying to characterise the man. Hopefully he will retain some of that "scandalous luck" here.
Dumb and Dumber: a study on the leadership of the Franco-Italian front in WWI
Dumb yes, but also the result of a lack of good options and functional fixedness. Immensely frustrating for all officers faced with what appears to be an unsolvable problem.
And the subject of the 1994 dramatic war film starring Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels and directed by, oh hey, Steven Spielberg.
Agreed. Couple the sheer futility of the offensives
(something
1917 captured very well-- GREAT movie) with the iconic landscape (something which I think lends itself well to drama) and you have the basis for a great film.
French and Italian cultural perceptions of the war will produce a wealth of literature, memoirs, etc, describing the emotional toll it took on the participants. Much of that will get filmed when the time comes.
For a moment I had the strangest feeling-
Wait, what? Let me have another look at this.
Huh... Must be imagining things.
Now a bit more seriously, am I the only one who is seeing certain parallelisms?
This is a very interesting response- thank you for posting it.
I didn't write this intending Pierre Soilon to be a Hitler copypaste (
Jake Featherston was more than enough for me). I intended for Pierre Soilon to be an 'average' soldier- he wants to look after his friends, takes pride in his unit, wants to get back to "Julie", worries about what happens after he dies, etc. Yet you're right- he
does come off as someone similar to wartime Hitler in his cynicism, fatalism, and hatred of useless/disinterested officers.
What that says about the Man with the Moustache, I don't know. Food for thought and thanks for bringing it up.
Next two updates will concern stuff in the Balkans. After that we have (provisionally):
-The colonial war: fighting in North Africa, the Senussi Revolt, the Horn of Africa, and good old Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck
-The war at sea, obviously focussing on the Mediterranean
-Italy's attempted amphibious assault on Corsica as per the Cosenz plan
-Something to do with the Italian economy/home front/domestic politics
-Something to do with the Ottoman Empire?
All subject to change and suggestions are actively requested.
-Kaiser Wilhelm the Tenth