ACROSS THE PIAVE - BRITISH FORCES IN ITALY 1917-1919

A PERSONAL ACCOUNT OF THE BRITISH FORCES IN ITALY 1917 - 1919.

This is a very hard to find publication that usually has a  high asking price when available.  Don't miss this great opportunity to pick up a very cheap copy.

The Italian Front was, in terms of the number of British troops involved, the smallest of the 'side shows' of the First World War.  It was also the one where the British soldier stood the greatest chance of survival.  No fewer than five out of every nine men sent to the Western Front were killed or wounded.  In Italy the casualty rate was only one in twenty-one.

Norman Gladden served in Italy with the 11th Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers, from November 1917 until the end of the war, having previously seen action on the Somme and at Passchendaele.  As he explains Across the Piave,  Italy, with its snow-capped mountains and its ancient cities, seemed a paradise after the rain and mud and desolation of Flanders.  The welcome which the British troops received as they marched through Italy on their way to the line recalled the enthusiastic scenes in Northern France in the heady days of August 1914.  Conditions, both in and out of the trenches, were infinitely better than those on the Western Front.  The Austrians, though some of their divisions were of high quality, were not such formidable opponents as the Germans:  they were less aggressive, more inclined to live and let live.  The Austrian air force was timid and unenterprising, and the sleep of troops in the rest areas was seldom disturbed by enemy bombings.  At times the Italian Front was so quiet that it was difficult to believe there was a war on.

By the end of 1917 it was clear that the Austrian attempt to break into Italy had failed.  The Germans withdrew their divisions, and for the next nine months the trench line remained more or less stationery.  In June 1918 the Austrians launched a major offensive in a desperate bid to knock Italy out of the war.  They were driven back after fierce fighting, in which Dr Gladden's battalion played a notable part.  In his viviid account of the battle, Dr Gladden observes that this was the first occasion in two years of warfare on which he actually saw and fired at the enemy.  The 11th Northumberland Fusiliers also  distinguished themselves in the forcing of the Piave by Lord Cavan's Tenth Army in October 1918, the first and most important phase in a series of operations which were to culminate in the victory of Vittorio Veneto and the complete collapse of Austria-Hungary.

For those unfamiliar with the course of the Italian campaign the author has prefaced each main section of his book with a short historical introduction.

This 220 page softcover is illustrated with black and white photographs.  The cover has a corner crease and light edgewear and there are light creases to spine and the book is very slightly askew - there is original price sticker on back.  There is a brown mark on bottom of side page edges (this does not impact on page face at all), but it is otherwise in a good, tight, clean condition inside with no marks, tears or stains.

Don't miss this opportunity to pick up a copy of this, the second in the Imperial War Museum's personal experience series, at a fraction of the normal asking price.

Postage quoted is for items posted within Australia. Overseas customers are more than welcome to email me for a postage quote. Local Pick-up is not available.

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