Comments by "" (@neutronalchemist3241) on "The Great War" channel.

  1. Cadorna was not really more stupid than his western front counterparts.
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  2. While at the Somme....
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  3. And what was the "provocation" exactly?
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  4. Douglas Haig by a wide margin.
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  5. Despite the efforts of this channel to make him look like that, Cadorna was not worse than his western front counterparts.
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  6. +Jacob99 First, cause Austria and Germany backed Italy's colonialistic claims over parts of Africa (over which they had no interest), that were instead hindered by France and UK. French occupation of Tunisia in 1881 in particular was seen as a slap in Italy's face, and a real threat (note that, with the occupation of Tunisia, Libya was the only part of the mediterranean border of Africa that was not in French or British hands), not by chance the Triple Alliance was signed a year after. Second, it's a case of "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer". Italy and Austria did not thrust each other (see the Austrian Chief of Staff proposal to start a war vs. Italy in 1908 taking advantage of the Messina earthquake "to punish Italy for it's Irredentism"), Italy fought all of his Independence Wars vs Austria and there were still Italian speaking regions left in the Empire. The alliance was seen as a way to delay what was considered an inevitable "redde rationem" betwseen the two.
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  7. Note that he had been considered "brilliant" for ordering attack after attack, in WWI, cause he wanted to end the affair first than to die.
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  8. Still in June 1918 the Battle of the Solstice, was organized indipendently by the Austrians.
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  9. +dan l Or at least that's what he wrote in his memories, written in 1937.
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  10. As the clip says, the Arditi were supposed to take a trench and hold it until they were relieved by regular troops. They were effective in this. They could, take a trench much more easily than a "human wave" assault, but that tactic could bring only to very limited territorial gains. In 1917 (not first) the Germans developed the right tactic for the Stormtrooper to work more effectively "do not stop. Do not worry about the pockets of resistance that you leave behind. Keep going forward. Aim for the backlines, communication and supply lines". In 1918, the Arditi used the same tactic against the Austrians. It has to be noted, however, that the same Germans and Austrians tried to use the same tactic after nov. 1917, in the subsequent attempts to break through the Piave line, and failed, as the Italians at that point had learned to have much deeper defensive lines and less dependent to central command. So that, in June 1918, in the last attempt to broke the Italian defense (Battle of the Solstice) the Austrians had practically gave up to use that again, and resorted back to the massive frontal attack.
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  11. Yes, but stabbing was only a marginal part of the job of a bayonet in the two world war. They were mostly used as cutlery, can openers, wooden box openers, levers, and so on. Is for that reason that artillerymen were issued with the moschetto TS. They were not really expected to fight with the bayonets, but they needed a "real" bayonet anyway.
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  12. Is not that, at the same time, you are seeing some more brilliant strategy on the western front.
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  13.  @josephdalelio6684  No. The original message I answered (that you can read) was: "A Sicilian and a venician STILL don't understand each other. Yes they STILL speak mostly dialect and no Italian. Yes IN THE 21TH CENTURY IS STILL LIKE THAT." No. It's not like that at all. Everyone in Italy speaks standard italian.
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  14. While at the same time, on the western front, there were great minds at work...
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  15. Really what Lloyd George said is exactly what happened, only four years later.
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  16. The Battle of the Somme lasted for more days that 11 battle of the Isonzo combined. The battles on the Italian front tended to be brief and furious affairs that ended when limited successes had been achieved, or it was evident they could no more be reached. Cadorna was even justified in thinking "if the next time I can use more artillery, materials and men, I can break through". On the Westeren front, where the battles lasted for months, a similar justification is not possible. You couldn't send men to die day after day, for weeks and months, to conquer the same trenches thinking it could be different from the day before. Every week of the Battle of the Somme, or Verdoun count as a worse mistake than one of the battles of the Isonzo.
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  17. More days of calm water. Many coasts whose conformation is favourable to ambushes (balcanic coast, Aegean islands...).
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  18.  @thexalon  How do you know? Have you checked any newspaper in history? (raven paradox)
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  19. When you were above the ridge of an enemy trench you were supposed to already have the pistol in hand and the finger on the trigger.
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  20. The Brits didn't get tired to attack the Somme over and over? the only difference is that the Italians numbered the different attacks.
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  21. I sneezed yesterday. I fear that destabilized the Balkans.
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  22. Usually battles are named with the name they had at the time. IE the battle of the Catalaunian Plains had not been renamed "Battle of Champagne". These are just silly nationalistic tantrums.
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  23. On the Italian part there was the "milizia territoriale" (territorial militia). Same thing.
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  24. Actually the average Italian soldier's equipment in WWI was very modern. "simple to manufacture" shouldn't be mistaken for "old". It's actually easier to design a weapon complicate in its manufacturing and functioning than a simple one.
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  25. The conditions of the peace were at stake. Mind that the frontline still was in French and Italian territory.
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  26. Nah... My bet is still on them.
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  27. In reality, looking at the body count, the Battles of the Isonzo river had been more similar to the battle of Verdun, where the attacker accepted high losses to inflict the same to a fatigued enemy, than to completely failed attacks like the one on the Somme. Infact the German intervention after the 11th was due to the fact that the Empire would have not standed the 12th.
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