Italian Army of World War I (Men at Arms, 387)

Rating:
Summary: Lacks Detail, Specificity
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Lacks Detail, Specificity
Review: 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.