@@spqrincorde9931 Impossibile dirlo, Tatiana Troyanos o Elena Obraztsova sarebbe la mia ipotesi. Potrebbe essere fatto per il film a giudicare da quanto è stato massacrato.
"Do you hate the Austrians?" "Yes, Captain!" "Do you hate the Hungarians?" "Yes, Captain!" "Do you hate the Czechs?" "Yes, Captain!" "Do you hate the Slovakians?" "Yes, Captain!" "Do you hate the Slovenians?" "Yes, Captain!" "Do you hate the Croats?" "Yes, Captain!" "Do you hate the Moravians?" "Yes, Captain!" "Do you hate the Bohemians?" "Yes, Captain!" "Do you hate the Montenegrans?" "Yes, Captain!" "Got you, they're on our side!" "How long are we going to do this, Captain?" "A while. The Austro-Hungarian Empire is a remarkably diverse country. Now, do you hate the Galacians?"
I live in Austria, near the Ploeckenpass/Italian boarder, along the Karnische Alpen where part of the front was. I´ve been up in the mountains and have seen what the Austrian and Italian soldiers built into and onto these mountains. If any of you ever get to Kaernten or South Tirol, make sure to get up in the mountains. There are some fine pieces of art up there, considering the situation at that time.
Hi Nick Taylor. I did my military service in Welsberg in Pustertal and I walked around all the Dolomites, starting from Sexten, the whole Val Fiscalina up to Corvara ... Those mountains are a real open-air museum to visit and think about what they have achieved to play the men of the Alps without succeeding and never hating each other ... Contrary to what this pompous film full of inappropriate rhetoric implies
@@renatobressan2907 A few years ago; I worked in Welsberg/Monguelfo at a small company called Dorner for 3,5years. We had midday meal a Gabi´s Pizzeria and at Goldener Loewe. I played hockey against the Red Devils Welsberg, helped them out when they needed a goalie for training. Great people in Pustertal.
@@zhouwu "Apocalypse Now" dude, when they play Ride of The Valkyries on the choppers and assault the village. if you haven't seen apocalypse now, i highly reccomend it, best (anti)war movie ever!
Alessandro Barbero, a notorious italian historian, said about WW1 in the Alps "the hapsburgs were impressed on how the italians went on to get murdered, to the point to ask to those same people to stop advancing. It was horrible for both sides". With that quote, you really understand a lot. The generals didn't care about the men, but other men of another jacket cared about those men. It's absurd and heroic at the same time.
@@MedjayofFaiyum this professor took part to a lot of conferences about and he dealt with many different topics. This guy, with his comment, is quoting one of the lessons of professor Barbero
@@MedjayofFaiyum "un anno sull'altipiano" from Emilio Lussu, in english it should be "a soldier on the western front". The episode was an assault where brigata Sassari was getting slaughtered from the Au-Hun to the point that the defenders start asking them to stop throwing away their life like that.
Welcome to the ww1 italian army, where generals think that attacking a heavily fortified enemy position in the same way you tried to do the previous 41 times is a valuable tactic
@@Gianni_7922 Not to mention risking absurdly perilous climbs with substandard equipment in an attempt to outflank the enemy position only to have A: Fallen to your death B: Get spotted and shot C: Get lost and die to a combination of frostbite and starvation FUN TIMES!
get it right guys, .... he was under orders by his superiors to take the Austrian post or it was his head!..........that's why he drove his platoon to attack, attack because he was ordered to do so; it was the the General's staff that was incompentent.
I was a very young paratrooper in the US Army in the early 80's in the 1-509th in Vicenza. We did our winter training in the Dolomites. I recall spending a few nights out in the elements and we held up in an old defensive position. It was a step back in time. Fascinating, and the Alpini ...hard men.
@@tyumk Really? I recall there was a Sergeant (Folgore) who spoke English, I think his mother or father was South African. The guy was hilarious! And did we drink some grappa. We were in Brescia when we did our jumps up there.
@@boomer6611 Yes, I did training in Pisa for the first three jumps, then I chose Alpine parachutists for the rest of the period. At that time in Italy military service was mandatory for one year. I remember that in 1981 there was a young black "sottufficiale" in Pisa, but I don't know if he is the same person you are talking about.
@@dreizdreiz9203 not really, I've been in the alpini between 2019 and 2023. It's true that a lot of guys are from south Italy but I can assure you I saw real professionals in mountain combat
I am originally from Trentino-Süd Tirol, the region where the city of Trento is located. Not many know that the soldiers enlisted from Trentino (that was Austria until the end of WW1) were sent to fight in Galicia because the Austro-Hungarian high command believed the soldiers from Trentino could desert on the Italian side. My mother's grandfather fought in Galicia (nowdays Ukraine) as a Kaiserjager during the same period of the russian revolution and was captured by the Russians, after been shot in the left arm. Thanks to the Italian government, he and his brothers in arms (a couple hundred soldiers, all from Trentino), were ceded to the Italians and imprisoned in China (inside the Italian concession of Tientsin) between 1917 and 1918. He became an Italian citizen in China and he was very proud to say that he saw the Beijing's band playing for him and the other soldiers during the ceremony. He returned to Italy on a freight train with his brothers in arms and raised his family, only to see his only male child die in Russia, at the age of 18 (during WW2), in the same place where he fought just 25 years earlier. He wrote a diary about his incredible story, which is now a book, thaks to my uncle.
"If you don't win this war, it means you hate your country." Such an intense line. Really strikes me. Edit: I know many of you have been looking for someone to take your anger out on, but can you please not do it on me? I don't support what happened. I just said it's a very impactful line.
Something like one million Italian soldiers died in two world wars (650.000/WW1 + 443.000/WW2) shouting that damn battle cry: "Savoia!" .. yes, today it looks like insanity, but they were different times and .. different men.
@@elisabettamacghille4623 and ironically, Cadorna, who's the main person responsible for the failure of the battles of the Isonzo and then the failure at Caporetto (thus also responsible for the hundreds of thousands of dead italian soldiers during that period of time), he ruled the army like a dictator because he feared it was full of socialists ready to start a revolution, causing the soldiers to refuse to fight en mass and basically destroy the army from the inside But this could not be further from the truth, only few italian soldiers actually refused to fight during the war
That officer really seems like an extension of Luigi Cadorna - outdated and incompetent, treating his own soldiers with utter contempt, as sub-human because they are lower in a rigid social hierarchy where nobility exists. That ilk of officer was the main reason why Mussolini came into power.
I never thought this was a good movie to Portray the Italians in WW1, it shows stuff that just doesn't make any sense for both sides, such as an Austrian soldier screaming for no reason even though they are defending, and the horror of the Alpine wars but never truly shows the true horrors of the Mountains, that being frostbite, non-entrenched warfare, and the thin mountain air. Some soldiers who scaled the mountains should be so numb from the cold they would cut their hands open on jagged rocks and not even feel it.
I especially remember reading about the ground conditions - since the bare bedrock was largely out in the open all over the place, every artillery shell exploding created an insane amount of secondary fragments. That, and add in the fact that you basically couldn't dig a foxhole, much less a trench, and you get the result, which was that units under bombardment would suffer extreme casualties. Sometimes you'd have whole batallions ceasing to exist as combat effective units after a single artillery barrage. Basically there was no way to take cover from the insane amounts of shrapnel coming from all sides, so the unprotected infantry just had to eat it, more or less.
@@ebbelille And that's kind of where the Arditi's claim to fame came from, though it normally wasn't the Enemy artillery they would tolerate, they would coordinate with their own artillery to move up on Enemy positions while the bombardment was set, the Arditi were trained to be confident and would know how long the Bombardment would last, especially how large the spread radius was. They would get into position to push and once the bombardment was lifted they would attack the enemy trench with Daggers, Grenades, and Carbines. They got used to attacking the Enemy positions (Trenches, Bunkers, etc) and holding them after with very little equipment, this is because they would be trained to use enemy equipment, MG's, Rifles, Grenades, etc. They would have a 75% success rate, and on two occasions they did not surrender until a full unit was destroyed.
To be fair, that sort of incompetence was largely present within the Italian Army’s officers (made even worse by the fact that arguably the biggest moron of them all became their chief of staff…you know the one). I mean, remember that machine-gun scene in Enemy of the Gates? Italian soldiers got that same treatment and this time, it wasn’t a Hollywood creation. The Arditi’s, while extremely effective and capable, suffered the same problems of German stormtroopers: it took a while for them to refine the tactics so it was only in the late war that they truly made a name for themselves (this film seems to be set in early-mid period).
@@SmashingCapital veramente. La quantità di statue e monumenti al "sacrificio dei caduti" di una guerra futile, fratricida, conbattuta per motivi medievali con armi moderne mi disgusta. Uno schiaffo alla vera tragedia del conflitto e gli eterni orrori che ha iniziato.
The officer asks the private, where are you from, he answers, "Trento". That (Italian) town was then under Austrian rule, so that boy must be a volounteer, he risked death by hanging if taken prisoner with an Italian uniform and recognized as an Austrian citizen. And some of them actually were hanged or fired for high treson.
I am from Trento and my great-grandparents fought like Kaiserjagers, like many other relatives of mine, in Galicia, against the Russians. If I'm not mistaken, it is estimated that only 250 "Trentini" (citizens of Trentino-Süd Tirol, also known as Welshtirol) fought with the Italians during the First World War, risking death by hanging, as you said.
In 1915, no Italian[or anyone for that matter]wore steel helmets. It wasn't until late 1916 that steel helmets were general issue for Italian troops, and the supply was woefully scant until well into 1917. Some engineers and sappers wore steel skullcaps under their cloth caps, but that was about it. Far too many Italian officers led their men in suicidal charges uphill into Austrian defenses and were butchered along with most of their men.
By august 1915 the french already had helmet, I don't know when the italians got them but since they officialy joined the war in 1915 they might had received some helmet from the french by middle of 1916 no ?
@@spicy5630 I think at that point, there still wore their caps until 1917 since the French themselves still had a lot of divisions at the front that wore caps all the way until early 1917. I can't go into details, but do feel free to check out The Great War channel hosted by Indy Neidell (now someone else). These guys go into the war week by week exactly 100 yeas ago and do a lot of specials, one of them being helmets.
@@spicy5630 oh, I thought the French had a little problem with manufacturing these helmets as well. Thanks for the info 😉. Although I am pretty confident the Italians weren't fully armed with helmets all the way until 1917.
Actually it's right. Even after 1916, most of alpine troops of italian side (and i think also austrian-hungarian - ) were used to have a wool hat, called indeed Alpine hat (cappello alpino in italian) or Tyrolean hat (Tiroler Hut) in austrian. In such cold places, wool was much better than a piece of iron, which made in few hours your brain freeze!
Erwin Rommel made his fame in WWI was a lieutenant of German Alpine Shock Troops fighting against Romanians and Italians. His unit was frequently sent to places where the Austrians failed or to fill gaps in the Austrian lines. His book "Infantry Attacks" is about his WWI experiences in these same mountains and is a great textbook for small unit tactics. In case you want to do your own research. The Italians campaigns of WWI are a lesson in senseless slaughter. The culture of both the Austrian and the Italian officer corps in WWI put a premium on "honor" and very little thought into less lofty leadership qualities such as tactical proficiency. This scene is right to be criticized for its historical inaccuracies but it nails the problem of weak leadership on both sides in the Italian Front.
@@thommyswills2612 No but there is a British tactician named B. H. Liddell Hart who did write several books about British tactics and lessons learned from the war. To be honest with you, while I consider myself a student of the military arts, I have not done my due diligence on WWI tactics and battles. I've been watching that RUclips channel, "The Great War" to catch up and I've read a lot of the fiction like "Through the Wheat" and "A Farewell to Arms" but Rommel's Infantry Attacks (also titled simply "Attacks" in some translations) is the only serious one I've read. Rommel was a very aware and composed small unit leader and writer.
As usual, the government, the generals, and the higher officers were all monsters. There are inspiring acts of of bravery, selflessness, and compassion among the men doing the fighting though. The men who swam the rivers to relay orders between the command and front line positions, would often make the return swim carrying those who were too badly wounded to wait for boats. They did this in freezing cold water, for hours, and they *volunteered* to do it. That's guts, but also a boundless love for your brothers in arms.
I love how after the action has focused on the horrors experienced by the Italians it suddenly flips to the nightmare being experienced by the equally sympathetic men on the other side. Really highlights the senseless brutality of it.
Visited Kobarid (former Caporetto, now in Slovenia), its WW1 Museum and surroundings, back in 2007. While doing a rafting descend in the nearby river, one of the instructors pointed to a high mountain, crisscrossed by a very noticeable series of roads in zig zag, carved on sheer rocks. "Made by the Italians during the Great War", he said. I was in awe. He later said the local population still avoids to go up in the mountains during Summer storms, because, apart of the obvious, lightnings are still highly attracted to the ground due to the many steel fragments of every kind left during the war. Played BF1 some time ago, and the Italian campaign further enlighted me over the conditions in which this high altitude war was fought. No scenario is good to fight a war I guess, but this theatre of operations must have been indeed absolutely horrifying... Kobarid/Caporetto also strikes me with two other thoughts: the brilliant and decisive role that Rommel - yes, that Rommel - played here over the absolute disastrous Battle of Caporetto - for the Italians, that is; and the somewhat innocent mistake that museum of WW1 made, by not displaying the Portuguese flag amongst the other country's flags at the entrance - those who fought in the Great War. "Oh, here it's displayed the countries that fought here", an employee there told me; "But why is there the flag of Belgium then?...", I asked. No reply to that. Honor to all those poor souls.
Indeed. However, Belgium fought very bravely in the war, defending their own nation, with King Albert I as their military leader. His 14-year old son fought as well.
This is very unhistorical. Sure, there were sucidal mass charges. But officers led from the front, not from the back (only high command was way behind the front line). The ratio of casualties among the offcers of the Italian Royal Army is staggering. They were picked straight from military academy so young and undertrained but they fought and die with their own men.
Ah but unlike history not all officers led by example, whose to say some didn't act in this manner? Throughout history however officers that acted in this manner would be killed by their men, I.E fragging of an officer
Brutal. The Italian-Austrian front is not portrayed very often in American popular culture, but it was probably at least as brutal as the Western Front. I wonder whether the memory of that carnage led to the famous (and fortunate) ineptitude of the Italian Army in World War Two. My paternal grandfather ws (fortunately) a recent immigrant working in a factory in Buffalo, New York when the First World War broke out. If he had still been in Italy he could have easily been killed. (For some reason he was never drafted when the U.S. entered the war three years later.)
I dread seeing officers instill fear into their men by having their own soldiers fire upon another for "cowardice." Really freaking outdated and idiotic.
I'm italian, i live in Friuli Venezia Giulia (FVG) in the north-eastern part of italy, where the Isonzo river, Gorizia and the carnic alps are. My generation still hears about the battles and atrocities that roamed here a century ago...
good on you Lorenzo !! your english is superb! MY GOD I wish I could speak Italian! But at the moment I am trying to learn Spanish, as I plan to settle in Peru..BUUT FUCK ME , if ever there is a MUST visit country IMO it is ITALY! and GREECE, the history of the world is in those places along with EGYPT
some days ago I visited one of the theatre of the "white war" on the Alps at 2400 m of altitude, although it was a sunny afternoon I felt a little cold with my light jacket and the people around me covered themselves as much they could, I can't figure how those young soldiers with their crappy uniforms could sleep there in winter! it's crazy, r.i.p.
The deeper you go/dig into the mountain, the warmer it gets. They slept and lived inside the mountains. But, you have the right thought; outside, it was very cold.I live in an area where part of this happened.
As you can imagine, frostbite and hypothermia were common in the winter. Thankfully, the oofficers on that front weren't outright stupid and knew that it was impossible to conduct large scale mountain warfare in the winter, so during that season the front remained mostly static, with no large attacks or maneuvers.
ww1 was a slaughter, 2 of my gran grandfathers fought in the same platoon during the war. One day a mortar shot hit the position they were defending, their comrades died, their commander died, they fell into the void for several meters. Mountain warfare is a nightmare, you never know what could kill you, like 2 Italians too pissed to die that keep shooting even though they are deadly wounded. If you're wondering yes, they survived.
Especially the Italian involvement. The only more pointless slaughter was Romania joining entante only to be gobled up in a month because it's literally surrounded by Central powers.
@@Cdre_Satori Too little, too late. Had Romania entered the war on Entante's side right in 1914. and moved into Transylvania, AU strike against Serbia would've been weakened (although we did repel them on our own for a year as is). Taking Transylvania, there would be chance to connect with the Russians in Bukovina and basically make Carpathian front against AU. This would cripple them even more, and ultimately Bulgaria wouldn't have joined war for fear of attack of Romania across Danube. This way the outcome of war in Balkans would be much more different and (probably) countless lives would've been saved. Not to mention that, with secured allied front in the Carpathians, Russians would be much more relieved to fight in the lowlands of Poland and Belarus and maybe they wouldn't opt out of war and there wouldn't be a Revolution...
Was stationed in Veneto for a while. Visited many of these sites. Most amazing was Monte Pasubio, Monte Grappa and Monte Ortigara to name a few. Gets wilder the higher up in the Dolomites. Anyone visiting Venice should take the 1-2 hour detour to check those places out. Can't imagine what the fighting was like. As a result, I'm fascinated with these armies and the time period.
I live near the Ortlerfront another section of the alpine frontline. I was on the Ortler and near the Königspitze and you can still see were the positions were. The thing about this frontline at least the Ortlerfront was that more people died because of the weather then the actual fighting. My great grandpa who was 16 at the time of the war declaration and as he joined the Standschützen (Tirolian Militia) was the smallest in his company, he was so small that he was the one who was roped down into the glacier cracks to pull out the man who fell down there. He told my grandpa that falling into glacier crack and getting stuck is a death you don't wish upon your worse enemy.
There's lost fronts of WW1 everywhere. Barely anybody knows about East Africa's battles of the great war, or the British in Mesopotamia (fought in places like Baghdad and Ramadi)
Unfortunately many Officers came from "noble" families. This made them think that the simple soldier (enlisted /troopers), who came from working class and mostly didn't even speak italian but only dialects, were eligible to be sacrificed for thee superior good of winning the war. Their life had simply no value.
Just like on the Austrian side, where the upper class officers from the Austrian capital Nation of the empire could endlessly throw expendable conscripts from the lower ethnic classes at the enemy
Yeah the strange bolt action seems to be correct, besides the bolt, but I suspect it's bc the producer's wanted you to see it work. The semi auto, well I actually think he cycled the bolt in-between the cut, or it was the same shot and they just overlaped it, but then again It could be issues with the production. But a lot of shit happens between film and putting all of it together.
Not semi-auto, the gun the Austro-Hungarians used was straight-pull action, which allowed a relatively high rate of fire for a time. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mannlicher_M1895
Many Poles fought for Austria in WW1 hoping to reclaim Poland from Russia, like my young grandad. All they had on the alpine front was tinned fish& he refused to eat them again. He then joined the Polish airforce& was a Polish RAF squadron leader in WW2.
Honour to all the men who fought there of both sides, the lucky ones like my greatgrandparents who came back home safe and sound and all the others who died or got injured during the fight.
My great-grandfather died on the eastern front even though he was from here in the alps (val gardena). He left 9 children behind and a wife that couldnt feed them. So the children had to go as slaves on farms in the region where they were severly beaten and they fleed back home. In the end they managed and all children were raised succesfully. My grandfather became a ski-instructor and had a succesful company of woodcarving (rijeda ohc)
I would not define it excellent in terms of historical accuracy. It is a good film with some important anti-war messages but is as historically accurate the silent mountain (the film this clip is taken from)
The fact that those soldiers who did not want to charge, scared of being cut down by massive Austro-Hungarian fire, were ordered to be shot by their own comrades. They knew their lifes were over, and with the officer becoming more serious with "I said shoot them!", the machine gun fire began. As all those soldiers who got penetrated by that fire, the other soldiers learned lesson from that, as their comrades were lying on the ground for treason. Traumatising and very well interpreted.
Man i was in the Isonzo front (Soška fronta) in Slovenia yestrday in the front and saw what Austrian (Slovene) solders neded to put trough just to fight for some generals monarch itd.. I live in the City of Maribor (Marburg U.D) that didnt see the fighting but it stil saw the boombings of ww2 and above all Adolf Hitler was here. Hello from Slovenia🇸🇮🇸🇮🇸🇮🇸🇮
He had the grit and the patriotic fervor- if only he wasn’t a wreckless monster that had absolutely zero care for his soldiers, or how war worked at the time. Very few did- but he took narcissistic idiocy to a new level
@@peterlee6391 in both wars our main weaknesses were idiotic high ranking officers and a lack of money and good equipment. The soldiers fought bravely. Thank god they lost in El Alamein, on the African front in WW2 thought, as if they won they would have reached Cairo, we're a lot of Italian political refugees and jews fled after Mussolini persecutions.
@@alessandrorona6205 i agree, the Italian men themselves were very brave, if I'm not mistaken, even Erwin Rommel praised the Italian fighting spirit. It is a shame that the officers were trained in such a terrible fashion, unfit for modern war, that they pushed many of their own men to unessecary deaths.
@@peterlee6391 the Italian officers back then were among the only ones that didn't understand that WW2was a conflict were the troops were the support for tanks and other military machinery, not the opposite. Still they invested heavily on the concept of having the men push through the enemy, while everyone else was doing the opposite. Probably because our tanks and armored vehicles were laughable. And worse, Italian engineers had ideas like radar guided naval cannon, supposed to adjust the aim accordingly to the radar reading, ideas that got turned down for a lack of expertise by the high brass personnel. And planes that on paper were on the same level as the German's ones. Money were tight and we never made them, we had some squadrons of good fighters, the one made by Aermacchi, but were kinda like 200-500 vs over 1600 Spitfire made.
@Pynky II it’s madness dude, Europeans are declining today at such a crazy rate I bet if ww1 never happened and ww2 then I bet to this day we wouldn’t have such a birth rate issue
@@ClaudioBenassi we do have a choice. We have to all collectively refuse to play their game. Saying "we don't have a choice" is a copout and is what they rely on to keep power over us
During WW1, seeing all the explosions from the sky, birds must have been wondering: « What the fuck is going on down here? ». And some bird may have answered: « Don’t worry, just another human issue… »
Another movie about the alpin front of ww1, i can recommend, is "Uomini Contro / Many Wars ago", german title "Batallion der Verlorenen". It shows the madness the common italian soldiers had to face under their officers.
@Maarek Stele It was commonplace in European empires of this time to "train" you to be right-handed, whether it came naturally or not. This is a practice that was continued until pretty recently.
I admire both my ancestral fatherland of Italy and Austria. It is sad to see Catholic brethren senselessly murder each other for seemingly dubious reasons. World War One achieved nothing but further destabilize Europe.
There's a very good movie called "Uomini contro" that really showed how careless the italian commanders were towards the army. They called for executions at every occasion to boost morale and sent waves after waves of soldiers againt Austrian machine-gun emplacements, with the enemy screaming "Stop, go back! No more! There's no point in dying this way". All while the general was hiding behind cover, in the trench.
@@pibmovieclips en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Many_Wars_Ago Sure, here's the English wiki for this movie, there should be a subbed version somewhere. It is based on the historical book from Emilio Lussu, "Un anno sull’altopiano".
@@pibmovieclips Apologies for the late response, this is the wiki about the historical book the move was filmed about en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Year_on_the_High_Plateau
0:53 A mistranslation. He said "compania" (company.) Also, it would make sense for a captain to be commanding a company rather than a platoon. Also, why are the Austrians speaking English?
Speaking English .. its a Movie. Company .. maybe the higher ups didn't trust him with a Company .. or .. after all that Music, a Platoon-size was all that was left.
@@thomasmusso1147 Yes, it's a movie -- an Italian movie. Since the Austrians are speaking a foreign language anyway, they might as well be accurate and have them speak German. If the higher-ups don't trust an officer, then he would be relieved of his command, not simply given a smaller command. An understrength unit is still referred to by its proper name. An understrength company is still a company. More importantly, as I stated previously, he did say "company" and not "platoon." The subtitles are a mistranslation.
@@TheOnlyVistosi they are expected to fight alongside their brothers, not to shoot them in the back, as in the Second World War where the Carabinieri always fought everything together with the army as a special unit
Hate does not win wars, it starts them, but sooner indifference, as no one really ever wins a war, not if there is less in common good, than there is in common ground
You know what, I would say that even Hate doesn't start wars, GREED does. A single person in power that wants more power and the only way how to get it is to convince (if needed) his "subordinates" that another person of power is trying to harm them, and the only response to that can be war! But the reality is, it doesn't even matter who rules them in the first place. Average Joe's life would see no meaningful change under either of the rulers squabbling. There was no need for war, to try to preserve anything. There was only greed and two men not willing to risk it all in a duel - much more appropriate and honorable action - and rather would send millions to die instead to decide who will rule the survivors after. makes one sick...
Luigi Cadorna was an asshole that wasn't proved to fight an important war like that, but he think that he could do it, sending his man to die and kill them if they didn't respect the suicidal orders he gave (like in the video when he order to shoot the man that was too scary to go on). Armando Diaz was the greates italian general in this war. Rest in Peace Diaz
There is absolutly no record of similar things happening in the italian army, the most similar thing to the one you described is the decimation of some italian units but that happened only 8 times in the entire war and less than 1000 men died this way.
A lot of Bohemian and Moravian soldiers (today Czechia) fought in the Dolomits and remembered fierce cave-to-cave battles one on one against Italians. Surprasingly many of them talked about mutual respect too, because both of our nations (Italians and Czechs/Moravians) hated Austro-Hungarian empire. Btw I smile when I watch that scene with "hating" Austrians....Italians are the friendliest people out there and nothing can move them to hate somebody. The only exception is when you tell to an Italian his Olio e Alio Spaghetti are not tasty.....
@@random240 Yeah Duce even wrote a book about Czech catholic Priest Jan Hus, who was burnt at the stake in Constanz back in 1415 and Czechs got pissed off really
@@random240 I think Mussolini wrote his book called Giovanni Hus, il Veridico ( vero heretico) back in 1913. It is an interesting book/article, because for Mussolini was Jan Hus an embodiment of anticatholic movement back in the 15th century. Later there was no bigger friend with catholic church than Benito Mussolini
@@davidknichal6629 Thanks. Of course, the Fascist movement began anti-catholically. In time however it had to change, but just like Mussolini himself said: "it is not oppurtunism, but the real ideology". So we can deduce he changed his mind on religion. The Fascists of 1919 were still left-leaning.
Music:
Captain speaking: Prelude, Rigoletto - Verdi
Offensive: O Don Fatale (last verse repeated multiple times), Don Carlo - Verdi
Quale versione di "o don fatale" è inserita nel film?
@@spqrincorde9931 Impossibile dirlo, Tatiana Troyanos o Elena Obraztsova sarebbe la mia ipotesi. Potrebbe essere fatto per il film a giudicare da quanto è stato massacrato.
Average match on carso in ww1 isonzo
"Do you hate the Austrians?"
"Yes, Captain!"
"Do you hate the Hungarians?"
"Yes, Captain!"
"Do you hate the Czechs?"
"Yes, Captain!"
"Do you hate the Slovakians?"
"Yes, Captain!"
"Do you hate the Slovenians?"
"Yes, Captain!"
"Do you hate the Croats?"
"Yes, Captain!"
"Do you hate the Moravians?"
"Yes, Captain!"
"Do you hate the Bohemians?"
"Yes, Captain!"
"Do you hate the Montenegrans?"
"Yes, Captain!"
"Got you, they're on our side!"
"How long are we going to do this, Captain?"
"A while. The Austro-Hungarian Empire is a remarkably diverse country. Now, do you hate the Galacians?"
touche
😂
The kingdom of Montenegro fight with italians against austro-hungarian empire
Do you hate the italian of Trieste Zara dalmatia? Yes captain
@@ivanhus3852 That is exactly what he said
I live in Austria, near the Ploeckenpass/Italian boarder, along the Karnische Alpen where part of the front was. I´ve been up in the mountains and have seen what the Austrian and Italian soldiers built into and onto these mountains. If any of you ever get to Kaernten or South Tirol, make sure to get up in the mountains. There are some fine pieces of art up there, considering the situation at that time.
Thx for the heads up! I would love to visit one I can afford it and covid restrictions are gone.
Hi Nick Taylor. I did my military service in Welsberg in Pustertal and I walked around all the Dolomites, starting from Sexten, the whole Val Fiscalina up to Corvara ... Those mountains are a real open-air museum to visit and think about what they have achieved to play the men of the Alps without succeeding and never hating each other ... Contrary to what this pompous film full of inappropriate rhetoric implies
@@renatobressan2907 A few years ago; I worked in Welsberg/Monguelfo at a small company called Dorner for 3,5years. We had midday meal a Gabi´s Pizzeria and at Goldener Loewe. I played hockey against the Red Devils Welsberg, helped them out when they needed a goalie for training. Great people in Pustertal.
Now i had a reason to go there
Thanks man
You have got a very fine WW1 museum in Kötschach-Mauthen there. Well worth a visit for the interested tourist.
Don't trust anyone who puts epic music soundtrack when addressing his men.
But they're very tempting and adds +20 morale for me
That guy looks like he thinks he's the protagonist in an opera and doesn't realise his men are real human beings whose lives actually matter.
huh, you mean like lieutenant colonel kilgore? i mean he was not addressing his men but still...
@@mauri9559
Who's Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore?
@@zhouwu "Apocalypse Now" dude, when they play Ride of The Valkyries on the choppers and assault the village. if you haven't seen apocalypse now, i highly reccomend it, best (anti)war movie ever!
Alessandro Barbero, a notorious italian historian, said about WW1 in the Alps "the hapsburgs were impressed on how the italians went on to get murdered, to the point to ask to those same people to stop advancing. It was horrible for both sides".
With that quote, you really understand a lot. The generals didn't care about the men, but other men of another jacket cared about those men. It's absurd and heroic at the same time.
What book is this
@@MedjayofFaiyum this professor took part to a lot of conferences about and he dealt with many different topics. This guy, with his comment, is quoting one of the lessons of professor Barbero
only for Italians to be constantly lambasted nowadays
@@MedjayofFaiyum "un anno sull'altipiano" from Emilio Lussu, in english it should be "a soldier on the western front". The episode was an assault where brigata Sassari was getting slaughtered from the Au-Hun to the point that the defenders start asking them to stop throwing away their life like that.
yes it is taken from Lussu , an italian writer that fought in WW1 .
Their officers acts like a Warhammer 40k commissar.
They seem to be pretty common during that war.
Welcome to the ww1 italian army, where generals think that attacking a heavily fortified enemy position in the same way you tried to do the previous 41 times is a valuable tactic
@@riccardocarretta3308 I'm sure the Soviets, the Japanese the Chinese and Italians have a lot in Common.
@@riccardocarretta3308 Ah yes, the TWELVE Battles of the Inzono RIver
@@AbrahamLincoln4 one thing that the Italians don't share with those other parties is success on the battlefield
If I remember the plot, the Captain knew that an attack was pointless, but needed a certain number of his men get killed to convince his superiors.
His actual plan is to undermine the Austrian position, a lengthy endeavour that is justified by exhausting any other option.
So the plan here is literally just to get a sufficient number of his men get slaughtered.
Jezus crist thats dark
@@Gianni_7922 Not to mention risking absurdly perilous climbs with substandard equipment in an attempt to outflank the enemy position only to have
A: Fallen to your death
B: Get spotted and shot
C: Get lost and die to a combination of frostbite and starvation
FUN TIMES!
get it right guys, .... he was under orders by his superiors to take the Austrian post or it was his head!..........that's why he drove his platoon to attack, attack because he was ordered to do so; it was the the General's staff that was incompentent.
I was a very young paratrooper in the US Army in the early 80's in the 1-509th in Vicenza. We did our winter training in the Dolomites. I recall spending a few nights out in the elements and we held up in an old defensive position. It was a step back in time. Fascinating, and the Alpini ...hard men.
Dude that's sick! Have you ever seen combat?
I was an Alpine paratrooper in 1981 in Bolzano, carrying out some exercises alongside American soldiers. Very nice experience.
@@tyumk Really? I recall there was a Sergeant (Folgore) who spoke English, I think his mother or father was South African. The guy was hilarious! And did we drink some grappa. We were in Brescia when we did our jumps up there.
@@boomer6611 Yes, I did training in Pisa for the first three jumps, then I chose Alpine parachutists for the rest of the period. At that time in Italy military service was mandatory for one year. I remember that in 1981 there was a young black "sottufficiale" in Pisa, but I don't know if he is the same person you are talking about.
@@dreizdreiz9203 not really, I've been in the alpini between 2019 and 2023. It's true that a lot of guys are from south Italy but I can assure you I saw real professionals in mountain combat
I am originally from Trentino-Süd Tirol, the region where the city of Trento is located. Not many know that the soldiers enlisted from Trentino (that was Austria until the end of WW1) were sent to fight in Galicia because the Austro-Hungarian high command believed the soldiers from Trentino could desert on the Italian side. My mother's grandfather fought in Galicia (nowdays Ukraine) as a Kaiserjager during the same period of the russian revolution and was captured by the Russians, after been shot in the left arm. Thanks to the Italian government, he and his brothers in arms (a couple hundred soldiers, all from Trentino), were ceded to the Italians and imprisoned in China (inside the Italian concession of Tientsin) between 1917 and 1918. He became an Italian citizen in China and he was very proud to say that he saw the Beijing's band playing for him and the other soldiers during the ceremony. He returned to Italy on a freight train with his brothers in arms and raised his family, only to see his only male child die in Russia, at the age of 18 (during WW2), in the same place where he fought just 25 years earlier. He wrote a diary about his incredible story, which is now a book, thaks to my uncle.
I'm so sorry to hear that fra
Meanwhile can you say me the book
The name
Im also interested in this books name
Come si chiama?
"If you don't win this war, it means you hate your country." Such an intense line. Really strikes me.
Edit: I know many of you have been looking for someone to take your anger out on, but can you please not do it on me? I don't support what happened. I just said it's a very impactful line.
Arditi
Cadorna moment.
Cadorna blamed the troops for the defeat.
Its such a lie
@@SmashingCapital Yes. Generals would tell their soldiers anything to get them to fight for them.
@@andonambuehl5589 no, these words are just for morale, if you didnt do your job you would get shot
1:26 When a battle cry looks more like insanity than bravery. This scene is beautiful.
Something like one million Italian soldiers died in two world wars (650.000/WW1 + 443.000/WW2) shouting that damn battle cry: "Savoia!" .. yes, today it looks like insanity, but they were different times and .. different men.
@@elisabettamacghille4623 and ironically, Cadorna, who's the main person responsible for the failure of the battles of the Isonzo and then the failure at Caporetto (thus also responsible for the hundreds of thousands of dead italian soldiers during that period of time), he ruled the army like a dictator because he feared it was full of socialists ready to start a revolution, causing the soldiers to refuse to fight en mass and basically destroy the army from the inside
But this could not be further from the truth, only few italian soldiers actually refused to fight during the war
That officer really seems like an extension of Luigi Cadorna - outdated and incompetent, treating his own soldiers with utter contempt, as sub-human because they are lower in a rigid social hierarchy where nobility exists.
That ilk of officer was the main reason why Mussolini came into power.
And it’s a good thing he came into power
@@RadX_98 Yeah he get rid of all the mafiosi and communists. And he actually modernize Italy a lot
@@gavils That’s the truth, the only crime he commited was to side with the nazis and unknowingly became Hitler’s buttfriend
@@RadX_98 follow your leader then
@@RadX_98 zitto fascista
I never thought this was a good movie to Portray the Italians in WW1, it shows stuff that just doesn't make any sense for both sides, such as an Austrian soldier screaming for no reason even though they are defending, and the horror of the Alpine wars but never truly shows the true horrors of the Mountains, that being frostbite, non-entrenched warfare, and the thin mountain air. Some soldiers who scaled the mountains should be so numb from the cold they would cut their hands open on jagged rocks and not even feel it.
I especially remember reading about the ground conditions - since the bare bedrock was largely out in the open all over the place, every artillery shell exploding created an insane amount of secondary fragments. That, and add in the fact that you basically couldn't dig a foxhole, much less a trench, and you get the result, which was that units under bombardment would suffer extreme casualties. Sometimes you'd have whole batallions ceasing to exist as combat effective units after a single artillery barrage. Basically there was no way to take cover from the insane amounts of shrapnel coming from all sides, so the unprotected infantry just had to eat it, more or less.
@@ebbelille And that's kind of where the Arditi's claim to fame came from, though it normally wasn't the Enemy artillery they would tolerate, they would coordinate with their own artillery to move up on Enemy positions while the bombardment was set, the Arditi were trained to be confident and would know how long the Bombardment would last, especially how large the spread radius was. They would get into position to push and once the bombardment was lifted they would attack the enemy trench with Daggers, Grenades, and Carbines. They got used to attacking the Enemy positions (Trenches, Bunkers, etc) and holding them after with very little equipment, this is because they would be trained to use enemy equipment, MG's, Rifles, Grenades, etc.
They would have a 75% success rate, and on two occasions they did not surrender until a full unit was destroyed.
To be fair, that sort of incompetence was largely present within the Italian Army’s officers (made even worse by the fact that arguably the biggest moron of them all became their chief of staff…you know the one). I mean, remember that machine-gun scene in Enemy of the Gates? Italian soldiers got that same treatment and this time, it wasn’t a Hollywood creation.
The Arditi’s, while extremely effective and capable, suffered the same problems of German stormtroopers: it took a while for them to refine the tactics so it was only in the late war that they truly made a name for themselves (this film seems to be set in early-mid period).
Italian alpine fighters were least competent of them all
Roses are red.
The earth is brown.
They would have had a chance,
had they chosen high ground.
Da italiano posso dire solo una cosa. Onore ai Caduti. Sia Italiani che i fratelli Austriaci.
Do you know what was playing on the phonograph
Concordo
Non c'è onore nella morte, solo tragedia
Cazzate.
@@SmashingCapital veramente. La quantità di statue e monumenti al "sacrificio dei caduti" di una guerra futile, fratricida, conbattuta per motivi medievali con armi moderne mi disgusta. Uno schiaffo alla vera tragedia del conflitto e gli eterni orrori che ha iniziato.
The officer asks the private, where are you from, he answers, "Trento". That (Italian) town was then under Austrian rule, so that boy must be a volounteer, he risked death by hanging if taken prisoner with an Italian uniform and recognized as an Austrian citizen. And some of them actually were hanged or fired for high treson.
Thanks for this info.
I am from Trento and my great-grandparents fought like Kaiserjagers, like many other relatives of mine, in Galicia, against the Russians. If I'm not mistaken, it is estimated that only 250 "Trentini" (citizens of Trentino-Süd Tirol, also known as Welshtirol) fought with the Italians during the First World War, risking death by hanging, as you said.
Trient was Austrian/Bavarian for way longer. Trient isn't an Italian city, as South Tirol isn't Italian.
@@qqLucaqq Trient is not in South Tyrol, that's bozen
@@qqLucaqq cope
Italy should have pushed for Enoponte
In 1915, no Italian[or anyone for that matter]wore steel helmets. It wasn't until late 1916 that steel helmets were general issue for Italian troops, and the supply was woefully scant until well into 1917. Some engineers and sappers wore steel skullcaps under their cloth caps, but that was about it. Far too many Italian officers led their men in suicidal charges uphill into Austrian defenses and were butchered along with most of their men.
By august 1915 the french already had helmet, I don't know when the italians got them but since they officialy joined the war in 1915 they might had received some helmet from the french by middle of 1916 no ?
@@spicy5630 I think at that point, there still wore their caps until 1917 since the French themselves still had a lot of divisions at the front that wore caps all the way until early 1917. I can't go into details, but do feel free to check out The Great War channel hosted by Indy Neidell (now someone else). These guys go into the war week by week exactly 100 yeas ago and do a lot of specials, one of them being helmets.
@@peterlee6391 actually for the French every soldier had their helmet by February 1916, the service cap was used but not on combat
@@spicy5630 oh, I thought the French had a little problem with manufacturing these helmets as well. Thanks for the info 😉. Although I am pretty confident the Italians weren't fully armed with helmets all the way until 1917.
Actually it's right. Even after 1916, most of alpine troops of italian side (and i think also austrian-hungarian - ) were used to have a wool hat, called indeed Alpine hat (cappello alpino in italian) or Tyrolean hat (Tiroler Hut) in austrian. In such cold places, wool was much better than a piece of iron, which made in few hours your brain freeze!
Erwin Rommel made his fame in WWI was a lieutenant of German Alpine Shock Troops fighting against Romanians and Italians. His unit was frequently sent to places where the Austrians failed or to fill gaps in the Austrian lines. His book "Infantry Attacks" is about his WWI experiences in these same mountains and is a great textbook for small unit tactics. In case you want to do your own research.
The Italians campaigns of WWI are a lesson in senseless slaughter. The culture of both the Austrian and the Italian officer corps in WWI put a premium on "honor" and very little thought into less lofty leadership qualities such as tactical proficiency. This scene is right to be criticized for its historical inaccuracies but it nails the problem of weak leadership on both sides in the Italian Front.
Thanks for the book recommendation. Do you have any for other small level tactics used in WW1? Stuff like unit formations, marching drills.
@@thommyswills2612 No but there is a British tactician named B. H. Liddell Hart who did write several books about British tactics and lessons learned from the war. To be honest with you, while I consider myself a student of the military arts, I have not done my due diligence on WWI tactics and battles. I've been watching that RUclips channel, "The Great War" to catch up and I've read a lot of the fiction like "Through the Wheat" and "A Farewell to Arms" but Rommel's Infantry Attacks (also titled simply "Attacks" in some translations) is the only serious one I've read. Rommel was a very aware and composed small unit leader and writer.
English did the same on the Western Front
@@NoName-hg6cc yes, WWI was 19th century tactics and creeds running up against 20th century technology and nihilism.
Still got that book somewhere in my attic
The Great War was just so overwhelmingly, uniformly, blisteringly insane. Those Isanzo campaigns are just nauseating to even read about.
As usual, the government, the generals, and the higher officers were all monsters. There are inspiring acts of of bravery, selflessness, and compassion among the men doing the fighting though. The men who swam the rivers to relay orders between the command and front line positions, would often make the return swim carrying those who were too badly wounded to wait for boats. They did this in freezing cold water, for hours, and they *volunteered* to do it. That's guts, but also a boundless love for your brothers in arms.
I love how after the action has focused on the horrors experienced by the Italians it suddenly flips to the nightmare being experienced by the equally sympathetic men on the other side. Really highlights the senseless brutality of it.
Yeah, great art there.
Visited Kobarid (former Caporetto, now in Slovenia), its WW1 Museum and surroundings, back in 2007. While doing a rafting descend in the nearby river, one of the instructors pointed to a high mountain, crisscrossed by a very noticeable series of roads in zig zag, carved on sheer rocks. "Made by the Italians during the Great War", he said.
I was in awe. He later said the local population still avoids to go up in the mountains during Summer storms, because, apart of the obvious, lightnings are still highly attracted to the ground due to the many steel fragments of every kind left during the war.
Played BF1 some time ago, and the Italian campaign further enlighted me over the conditions in which this high altitude war was fought. No scenario is good to fight a war I guess, but this theatre of operations must have been indeed absolutely horrifying...
Kobarid/Caporetto also strikes me with two other thoughts: the brilliant and decisive role that Rommel - yes, that Rommel - played here over the absolute disastrous Battle of Caporetto - for the Italians, that is; and the somewhat innocent mistake that museum of WW1 made, by not displaying the Portuguese flag amongst the other country's flags at the entrance - those who fought in the Great War. "Oh, here it's displayed the countries that fought here", an employee there told me; "But why is there the flag of Belgium then?...", I asked. No reply to that.
Honor to all those poor souls.
Indeed. However, Belgium fought very bravely in the war, defending their own nation, with King Albert I as their military leader. His 14-year old son fought as well.
This is very unhistorical. Sure, there were sucidal mass charges. But officers led from the front, not from the back (only high command was way behind the front line). The ratio of casualties among the offcers of the Italian Royal Army is staggering. They were picked straight from military academy so young and undertrained but they fought and die with their own men.
Too bad they were all led by C*dorna
Ah but unlike history not all officers led by example, whose to say some didn't act in this manner? Throughout history however officers that acted in this manner would be killed by their men, I.E fragging of an officer
It’s a movie not a documentary not every bit needs to be Historically accurate
This is a very accurate historical movie. Many officers were in back.... not only Italian army...
@@_aragornyesyes_7171 "It's a movie, not a documentary" is one of the most annoying braindead statements one can make.
Brutal. The Italian-Austrian front is not portrayed very often in American popular culture, but it was probably at least as brutal as the Western Front. I wonder whether the memory of that carnage led to the famous (and fortunate) ineptitude of the Italian Army in World War Two. My paternal grandfather ws (fortunately) a recent immigrant working in a factory in Buffalo, New York when the First World War broke out. If he had still been in Italy he could have easily been killed. (For some reason he was never drafted when the U.S. entered the war three years later.)
Why should it be America's job to make movies about every countries history just because we have a superior movie industry?
@@FuckTard-dd1ee exactly
This movie is Austrian I'm pretty sure
@@FuckTard-dd1ee Superior to who?
If it doesn’t involve the USA why the fuck should we care? I don’t see Italians portray the American civil war very often in Italian popular culture…
The movie really captures the madness of the whole war.
I dread seeing officers instill fear into their men by having their own soldiers fire upon another for "cowardice." Really freaking outdated and idiotic.
The commander didn't hold any weapon while telling which men should die by screaming and grabbing belt buckles at the same time.
Not even outdated, it was never a good idea!
ww1 sure was full of outdated things
It isn’t outdated it is treason you can literally get court-martialled for it it’s illegal
@Mirko Valbusa is there anywhere I can read about that? Did any officers get retribution after the war?
I'm italian, i live in Friuli Venezia Giulia (FVG) in the north-eastern part of italy, where the Isonzo river, Gorizia and the carnic alps are. My generation still hears about the battles and atrocities that roamed here a century ago...
good on you Lorenzo !! your english is superb! MY GOD I wish I could speak Italian! But at the moment I am trying to learn Spanish, as I plan to settle in Peru..BUUT FUCK ME , if ever there is a MUST visit country IMO it is ITALY! and GREECE, the history of the world is in those places along with EGYPT
Soča river*. Gorica*. btfo fash
@@peterjerman7549 That's their name in Italian.
@@matteobertotti Niente, non ci arrivano. I sloveni sono Yugoslavi, fino a 20 anni fa si amazzavano fra di loro.. non hanno cultura né storia
@@peterjerman7549 Isonzo. Gorizia. Pola. Istria
some days ago I visited one of the theatre of the "white war" on the Alps at 2400 m of altitude, although it was a sunny afternoon I felt a little cold with my light jacket and the people around me covered themselves as much they could, I can't figure how those young soldiers with their crappy uniforms could sleep there in winter! it's crazy, r.i.p.
The deeper you go/dig into the mountain, the warmer it gets. They slept and lived inside the mountains. But, you have the right thought; outside, it was very cold.I live in an area where part of this happened.
As you can imagine, frostbite and hypothermia were common in the winter. Thankfully, the oofficers on that front weren't outright stupid and knew that it was impossible to conduct large scale mountain warfare in the winter, so during that season the front remained mostly static, with no large attacks or maneuvers.
ww1 was a slaughter, 2 of my gran grandfathers fought in the same platoon during the war. One day a mortar shot hit the position they were defending, their comrades died, their commander died, they fell into the void for several meters.
Mountain warfare is a nightmare, you never know what could kill you, like 2 Italians too pissed to die that keep shooting even though they are deadly wounded.
If you're wondering yes, they survived.
We figured they survived: You are here writing about them :)
@@WhatIsThisForAgainVery well observed!
World War 1 was the most pointless waste of blood and treasure in the history of the world.
True
Especially the Italian involvement. The only more pointless slaughter was Romania joining entante only to be gobled up in a month because it's literally surrounded by Central powers.
Guess who backed up who backed up who backed up who backed up who. Nothing to gain except destruction and death.
No kidding
@@Cdre_Satori Too little, too late.
Had Romania entered the war on Entante's side right in 1914. and moved into Transylvania, AU strike against Serbia would've been weakened (although we did repel them on our own for a year as is). Taking Transylvania, there would be chance to connect with the Russians in Bukovina and basically make Carpathian front against AU. This would cripple them even more, and ultimately Bulgaria wouldn't have joined war for fear of attack of Romania across Danube. This way the outcome of war in Balkans would be much more different and (probably) countless lives would've been saved.
Not to mention that, with secured allied front in the Carpathians, Russians would be much more relieved to fight in the lowlands of Poland and Belarus and maybe they wouldn't opt out of war and there wouldn't be a Revolution...
Isonzo's latest update is looking sick
Can’t wait until Isonzo comes out I’ll play the music while charging into enemy lines as the Italians
Its a good game, lemme tell you.
I'll be waiting for you on the opposite side.
@@chrismath149 hope you can stand against the pasta loving nation
@@daviper1568 At least on the culinary front us Austrians can stand up against the Entente.
@@chrismath149 bring on your best dish
During the First World War, the average lifespan of an Italian and Austrian lieutenant at the front was three weeks...it is absurd to think so!
Was stationed in Veneto for a while. Visited many of these sites. Most amazing was Monte Pasubio, Monte Grappa and Monte Ortigara to name a few. Gets wilder the higher up in the Dolomites. Anyone visiting Venice should take the 1-2 hour detour to check those places out. Can't imagine what the fighting was like. As a result, I'm fascinated with these armies and the time period.
I live near the Ortlerfront another section of the alpine frontline. I was on the Ortler and near the Königspitze and you can still see were the positions were. The thing about this frontline at least the Ortlerfront was that more people died because of the weather then the actual fighting. My great grandpa who was 16 at the time of the war declaration and as he joined the Standschützen (Tirolian Militia) was the smallest in his company, he was so small that he was the one who was roped down into the glacier cracks to pull out the man who fell down there. He told my grandpa that falling into glacier crack and getting stuck is a death you don't wish upon your worse enemy.
the whole front is largely overlooked
There's lost fronts of WW1 everywhere. Barely anybody knows about East Africa's battles of the great war, or the British in Mesopotamia (fought in places like Baghdad and Ramadi)
@@sgtstedanko7186 Indeed. On my part one of my oddball fav was what happened on lake Tanganyika.
@@davidbocquelet-dbodesign the great naval battle of lake tanganyka
Unfortunately many Officers came from "noble" families. This made them think that the simple soldier (enlisted /troopers), who came from working class and mostly didn't even speak italian but only dialects, were eligible to be sacrificed for thee superior good of winning the war. Their life had simply no value.
For the superior good of their commander being promoted and being awarded a medal.
Just like on the Austrian side, where the upper class officers from the Austrian capital Nation of the empire could endlessly throw expendable conscripts from the lower ethnic classes at the enemy
Fun fact there’s going to be a new realistic video game coming out for the Italian front WW1 it’s called Isonzo
I shall look out for it then.
And its great!
It was a huge disappointment
@@Kiarmic101 you just hate every chance you get don't ja ya?
I guess we got an Italian vs Austro-Hungarian game but I felt it was not very good
1:43 a very peculiar gun, having the bolt handle on the left side.
2:40 a bolt action gun, suddenly is a semi automatic.
Yeah the strange bolt action seems to be correct, besides the bolt, but I suspect it's bc the producer's wanted you to see it work.
The semi auto, well I actually think he cycled the bolt in-between the cut, or it was the same shot and they just overlaped it, but then again It could be issues with the production.
But a lot of shit happens between film and putting all of it together.
Not semi-auto, the gun the Austro-Hungarians used was straight-pull action, which allowed a relatively high rate of fire for a time. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mannlicher_M1895
0:27 dude looking like the Italian Robert E. Lee
My great-grandfather fought in the Alps during the Great War, He a member of the Alpine regiments.
The arditi? Or regular army
Many Poles fought for Austria in WW1 hoping to reclaim Poland from Russia, like my young grandad. All they had on the alpine front was tinned fish& he refused to eat them again. He then joined the Polish airforce& was a Polish RAF squadron leader in WW2.
Honour to all the men who fought there of both sides, the lucky ones like my greatgrandparents who came back home safe and sound and all the others who died or got injured during the fight.
0:52 small correction, he said this Company will make history. That's one level above platoon
"DO YOU HATE AUSTRIANS?"
"Well, I'm not overly keen".
My great-grandfather died on the eastern front even though he was from here in the alps (val gardena). He left 9 children behind and a wife that couldnt feed them. So the children had to go as slaves on farms in the region where they were severly beaten and they fleed back home. In the end they managed and all children were raised succesfully. My grandfather became a ski-instructor and had a succesful company of woodcarving (rijeda ohc)
_Uomini Contro_ is the excellent movie you want to see.
This is an abominable caricature.
Duly noted.
I would not define it excellent in terms of historical accuracy. It is a good film with some important anti-war messages but is as historically accurate the silent mountain (the film this clip is taken from)
Austro-Hungarian officers: Hold here as long as you can!
Italian officers: IF YOU DON'T WIN YOU FUCKING HATE THIS NATION AS A WHOLE
I'm having a mental image of an alternative reality where all Italian soldiers are equipped with Vespas
hahahhaha im italian and you are so funny
XD XD XD
And bring the Vespas with a rocket launcher.
Vespa is from the 50's.
@@imranhazim5434 as long as they keep a free hand to say ciao to their enemy
The fact that those soldiers who did not want to charge, scared of being cut down by massive Austro-Hungarian fire, were ordered to be shot by their own comrades. They knew their lifes were over, and with the officer becoming more serious with "I said shoot them!", the machine gun fire began. As all those soldiers who got penetrated by that fire, the other soldiers learned lesson from that, as their comrades were lying on the ground for treason. Traumatising and very well interpreted.
3:00 dude thinks he’s Ronaldo
BRUH💀 XD
SUI
My grandfather William, was Born in 1887, italian front, Alpini Fiamme Verdi. The hell on earth. He was a survivor. Rip.
The record player in the background while giving his speech... yeah, he ate.
Thank you for sharing this clip.
Man i was in the Isonzo front (Soška fronta) in Slovenia yestrday in the front and saw what Austrian (Slovene) solders neded to put trough just to fight for some generals monarch itd.. I live in the City of Maribor (Marburg U.D) that didnt see the fighting but it stil saw the boombings of ww2 and above all Adolf Hitler was here. Hello from Slovenia🇸🇮🇸🇮🇸🇮🇸🇮
Cheers VITO! hang loose brother, from KANADISTAN,,,
Holy shit, they made that operation from Battlefield 1 into a real thing
The Isonzo map in Battlfield 1 was an on sight recreation of the deadliest area on the battlefield.
Damn, battles in the mountains must of had been brutal
2:39 When you got that semi-automatic extendo clip attachment.
And now,we play ISONZO with verdi as Soundtrack
Avanti Savoya!
He had the grit and the patriotic fervor- if only he wasn’t a wreckless monster that had absolutely zero care for his soldiers, or how war worked at the time. Very few did- but he took narcissistic idiocy to a new level
Look up Italian high-ranking WW1 officers and you will know why.
Even until WW2, Italian officers were still trained in quite outdated tactics, so I guess it wouldn't be a surprise in WW1.
@@peterlee6391 in both wars our main weaknesses were idiotic high ranking officers and a lack of money and good equipment. The soldiers fought bravely. Thank god they lost in El Alamein, on the African front in WW2 thought, as if they won they would have reached Cairo, we're a lot of Italian political refugees and jews fled after Mussolini persecutions.
@@alessandrorona6205 i agree, the Italian men themselves were very brave, if I'm not mistaken, even Erwin Rommel praised the Italian fighting spirit. It is a shame that the officers were trained in such a terrible fashion, unfit for modern war, that they pushed many of their own men to unessecary deaths.
@@peterlee6391 the Italian officers back then were among the only ones that didn't understand that WW2was a conflict were the troops were the support for tanks and other military machinery, not the opposite. Still they invested heavily on the concept of having the men push through the enemy, while everyone else was doing the opposite. Probably because our tanks and armored vehicles were laughable. And worse, Italian engineers had ideas like radar guided naval cannon, supposed to adjust the aim accordingly to the radar reading, ideas that got turned down for a lack of expertise by the high brass personnel. And planes that on paper were on the same level as the German's ones. Money were tight and we never made them, we had some squadrons of good fighters, the one made by Aermacchi, but were kinda like 200-500 vs over 1600 Spitfire made.
This war was absolutely pointless, all those young Europeans killing eachother and for what?
It was the old world coming to an end.
@Pynky II it’s madness dude, Europeans are declining today at such a crazy rate I bet if ww1 never happened and ww2 then I bet to this day we wouldn’t have such a birth rate issue
All war is pointless. It's all a racket by the powerful to gain more power and cull populations. Less of us they have to control.
@@sgtstedanko7186 that’s true but when they start u don’t have a choice
@@ClaudioBenassi we do have a choice. We have to all collectively refuse to play their game. Saying "we don't have a choice" is a copout and is what they rely on to keep power over us
Never take peace for granted. None of us would do this today, absolutely NOT.
"You have no enemies."
Bro this is just a match of Operations in Battlefield 1. It is completely authentic to shoot your own teammates.
During WW1, seeing all the explosions from the sky, birds must have been wondering: « What the fuck is going on down here? ». And some bird may have answered: « Don’t worry, just another human issue… »
Another movie about the alpin front of ww1, i can recommend, is "Uomini Contro / Many Wars ago", german title "Batallion der Verlorenen". It shows the madness the common italian soldiers had to face under their officers.
I'll put it on my bucket list then. Haven't seen that on yet unless I have forgotten.
Hopefully my country will never every by in war with Italy again...
For a second I thought the music in the background was the actual soundtrack…lol
I suggest everyone to see the movie called "Uomini contro". It describes perfectly the fanaticism and stupidity of the Italian officers during WW1
1:42 weird that the bolt is to the left instead of the right. The Gun in real life has the bolt to the right.
some military guns had a left hand bolt--I have an Omark lefty.
"Let's just flip the footage and hope no one notices." There are no "lefty" M95s.
Maybe it was custom for leftys but at the same time i don't think they did a lot of custom jobs back in ww1
@Maarek Stele It was commonplace in European empires of this time to "train" you to be right-handed, whether it came naturally or not. This is a practice that was continued until pretty recently.
@@MauserKar98k kinda shows how much (or little) those empires "cared" for the individual soldier
I admire both my ancestral fatherland of Italy and Austria. It is sad to see Catholic brethren senselessly murder each other for seemingly dubious reasons. World War One achieved nothing but further destabilize Europe.
When you do not need to read the subtitles to appreciate this.
When I read about the "Eleven" Battles of the Izonso I really wondered about alpine front of WW1...
There’s a big difference in sending men into battle and leading your men into battle!
As a man from North Tyrol i fucking loved this movie when I saw it in cinema during my army service
Sudtirol today: "I can't believe we were made to choose this..."
Now I get why the italians got rekted. Shooting own side, making them lose morale, then making them charge.
Knowing italian makes this even better
I bet.
This is how hate is produced to benefit the rich. What good came from that war?
The revolution in the east.
the dismantling of the ottoman empire? I don't really know
There's a very good movie called "Uomini contro" that really showed how careless the italian commanders were towards the army. They called for executions at every occasion to boost morale and sent waves after waves of soldiers againt Austrian machine-gun emplacements, with the enemy screaming "Stop, go back! No more! There's no point in dying this way". All while the general was hiding behind cover, in the trench.
You have any reference to this? I would like to read about...
@@pibmovieclips en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Many_Wars_Ago
Sure, here's the English wiki for this movie, there should be a subbed version somewhere.
It is based on the historical book from Emilio Lussu, "Un anno sull’altopiano".
@@pibmovieclips Apologies for the late response, this is the wiki about the historical book the move was filmed about
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Year_on_the_High_Plateau
Luigi Cardona's favorite battle
0:53 A mistranslation. He said "compania" (company.) Also, it would make sense for a captain to be commanding a company rather than a platoon.
Also, why are the Austrians speaking English?
Its compagnia
Speaking English .. its a Movie.
Company .. maybe the higher ups didn't trust him with a Company .. or .. after all that Music, a Platoon-size was all that was left.
@@thomasmusso1147 Yes, it's a movie -- an Italian movie. Since the Austrians are speaking a foreign language anyway, they might as well be accurate and have them speak German.
If the higher-ups don't trust an officer, then he would be relieved of his command, not simply given a smaller command.
An understrength unit is still referred to by its proper name. An understrength company is still a company. More importantly, as I stated previously, he did say "company" and not "platoon." The subtitles are a mistranslation.
Because the movie is loosely more set in the Austrian perspective. Very loosely.
@@Axemantitan *Austrian*
Madness to fight on those slopes.
What's that song playing in the background. Just curious.
You will need real experts on that one :D
It is "O Don Fatale" from the opera "Don Carlo" of Giuseppe Verdi
@@TheLorenzorenz I would have said thank you earlier, but I have to listen to it myself. Thank you, I like this song, with or without gunfire.
The first one is the overture of the opera "Rigoletto" by Giuseppe Verdi
The real Chad's here
Pray Europa never has another suicidal war.
Carabinieri shooting at Italian soldiers, the darkest and most disappointing time in the history of the Arma Dei Carabinieri
Yesterday so like today....
Carabinieri is a Military Police Force, what do you expect? In the French Army the Gendarmerie nationale did the same
@@TheOnlyVistosi they are expected to fight alongside their brothers, not to shoot them in the back, as in the Second World War where the Carabinieri always fought everything together with the army as a special unit
Good old *_BLAM_* always works.
Squad morale restored
Hate does not win wars, it starts them, but sooner indifference, as no one really ever wins a war, not if there is less in common good, than there is in common ground
You know what, I would say that even Hate doesn't start wars, GREED does.
A single person in power that wants more power and the only way how to get it is to convince (if needed) his "subordinates" that another person of power is trying to harm them, and the only response to that can be war!
But the reality is, it doesn't even matter who rules them in the first place. Average Joe's life would see no meaningful change under either of the rulers squabbling. There was no need for war, to try to preserve anything.
There was only greed and two men not willing to risk it all in a duel - much more appropriate and honorable action - and rather would send millions to die instead to decide who will rule the survivors after.
makes one sick...
In 2.27 he says "Avanti dannazione!" It means "Forward damn it!"
this is actually gameplay from my latest match on monte grappa
Thank you from Italy ❤️🇮🇹
This looks insanely good.
At 2:26 the subtitles are wrong, the officer says: "Avanti dannazione" that could be translated in "damn go forward" (something like that)
Thanks for the correction.
Gonna watch this right before Isonzo launches, can’t wait! :D
Just to avoid any misconception, people from Trento don't have that accent, that sounds more a South Tyrolean one
Glad that had been clarified :D
One should read Mark Helprin' s ' A Soldier of the Great War' to gain some context of this battle front.
They seem angry now that they found out pineapple goes on pizza
If you want to watch a movie about Italians in WW1 you have to watch "Uomini contro" 1970. Taken from the book of lieutenant Emilio Lussu.
I'll put it on my bucket list.thx
Luigi Cadorna was an asshole that wasn't proved to fight an important war like that, but he think that he could do it, sending his man to die and kill them if they didn't respect the suicidal orders he gave (like in the video when he order to shoot the man that was too scary to go on). Armando Diaz was the greates italian general in this war. Rest in Peace Diaz
There is absolutly no record of similar things happening in the italian army, the most similar thing to the one you described is the decimation of some italian units but that happened only 8 times in the entire war and less than 1000 men died this way.
Infamous Carabinieri shot to soldiers that tried to desert
so many broken lives, for nothing. What would those men think if they saw Italy today ..... so sad.
A lot of Bohemian and Moravian soldiers (today Czechia) fought in the Dolomits and remembered fierce cave-to-cave battles one on one against Italians. Surprasingly many of them talked about mutual respect too, because both of our nations (Italians and Czechs/Moravians) hated Austro-Hungarian empire. Btw I smile when I watch that scene with "hating" Austrians....Italians are the friendliest people out there and nothing can move them to hate somebody. The only exception is when you tell to an Italian his Olio e Alio Spaghetti are not tasty.....
Even Mussolini respected the Czechoslovaks, he campaigned for the Czech Legion and wrote positively about them. Jste dobří lidé.
@@random240 Yeah Duce even wrote a book about Czech catholic Priest Jan Hus, who was burnt at the stake in Constanz back in 1415 and Czechs got pissed off really
@@davidknichal6629 Wow, I didn't know that! What is it called?
@@random240 I think Mussolini wrote his book called Giovanni Hus, il Veridico ( vero heretico) back in 1913. It is an interesting book/article, because for Mussolini was Jan Hus an embodiment of anticatholic movement back in the 15th century. Later there was no bigger friend with catholic church than Benito Mussolini
@@davidknichal6629 Thanks.
Of course, the Fascist movement began anti-catholically. In time however it had to change, but just like Mussolini himself said: "it is not oppurtunism, but the real ideology". So we can deduce he changed his mind on religion. The Fascists of 1919 were still left-leaning.