Product Description

The dilemma of the young Italian kingdom and the experience of her army in the Great War were unique among the combatant nations. Late to enter the war against the Central Powers, she faced a massively defended Austro-Hungarian front in the north, including strong mountain features, as well as distractions in the Balkans and a simultaneous rebellion in her Libyan colony. Costly and repeated battles on the Isonzo front culminated in the disaster of Caporetto in October 1917, followed by a remarkable revival and eventual victory in 1918. This concise study describes and illustrates the Italian Army's campaigns, organisation, uniforms, weapons and equipment – including the famous 'death companies' and Arditi assault troops.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #583395 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03-25
• Released on: 2003-03-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 48 pages

From the Publisher
Packed with specially commissioned artwork, maps and diagrams, the Men-at-Arms series is an unrivalled illustrated reference on the history, organisation, uniforms and equipment of the world's military forces, past and present.

About the Author
Dr David Nicolle was born in 1944. He worked in the BBC Arabic service before going 'back to school', gaining an MA from the School of Oriental and African Studies and a PhD from Edinburgh University. He later taught World and Islamic art and architectural history at Yarmuk University, Jordan. He has been a prolific author of Osprey titles for many years.

Customer Reviews

Lacks Detail, Specificity
Normally, Dr. David Nicolle, a prolific Osprey author and specialist in ancient and medieval history, concentrates on pre-modern topics. However, in Osprey's Men-at-Arms #387, The Italian Army of World War I, Dr. Nicolle makes a rare sortie into describing a modern military organization. Certainly, the Italian Army of the First World War is a neglected subject and certainly deserves one or more volumes in this series. Unfortunately, Dr. Nicolle does not really have the knack for writing about this kind of subject and the coverage is less organized than in other similar volumes on First World War armies. The Italian Army of World War I fills the vacuum of a short, English-language summary of the Italian army in 1915-1918, but it skims the surface a bit too thinly in too many important areas.

In terms of organization, The Italian Army of World War I begins with a short background on Italy's entry into the war, a chronology and the various fronts on which the Italians fought. Short sections then cover army mobilization and strength, line infantry, elite and specialist troops, weapons, cavalry and mechanized troops, artillery, engineers, support troops and colonial troops. The eight pages of color plates of uniforms are excellent and well worth the price of the volume. On the surface, this structure appears to address all the key points of the Italian Army in the First World - at least until one starts to compare it to other volumes in the same series. There are some glaring omissions - like an order of battle for the Italian Army in either 1915 or 1917-1918, or a table listing the rank structure.

Certainly the most glaring omissions come in terms of the lack of detail in the area of military organization. Dr. Nicolle fails to discuss the organization of Italian divisions or corps in any detail, noting for example that Italian divisions started the war with an organic artillery regiment, but then failing to note how many artillery pieces or what caliber these included. Similarly, Nicolle discusses changes in the Italian infantry battalions, but fails to discuss changes at division or corps level. Readers are not even given an authorized strength for any units above battalion level, so it is difficult using this source to compare Italian units with Austrian or German units (where they smaller? Did they have less firepower?). Nicolle does note some of the changes toward a more all-arms composition in the Italian Army, with battalions including less infantry in exchange for mortars and machineguns by 1918. It is also significant that there is absolutely no discussion of doctrine in this study - certainly the author could have made at least brief mention of the underpinnings of Italian strategy in the war.

Readers might also note that Dr. Nicolle treats the Italian theaters of war rather oddly, with equal attention given to the Isonzo and Balkan fronts, with virtually no mention of the Trentino front. The inclusion of the Libyan campaign - all two pages - was a waste of space, since the Sanussi tribesmen opposing Italian colonial rule were certainly not part of the Central Powers, nor was fighting there part of the First World War. Somehow, the author also managed to make it through this study without mentioning that Italy suffered over 460,000 military deaths in the war, yet found the space to tell us about what kind of buttons the Italian Army wore on its jackets. In sum, this volume lacks the detail and specificity of other similar Osprey short studies of First World War armies, and wanders about in search of relevance.

Italian Army of World War I (Men at Arms, 387)
If you are interested in finding hard to get information on Italian uniforms & equipment for WW1 , this book is a big help.
The illustrations are sharp and detailed. The information about the different units is also very helpful. Most of the information in this book I could not find in other books and anything on Italian soldiers WW1 is just plain hard to find.
A must have book to ad to library.