Last up-dated 26 January 2008 with revised information: BOOKS

The aim of this site is to describe some aspects of the British Expeditionary Force (Italy) during the Great War. In time there will also be information about the Italian Campaign in general, such as Austro-Hungarian, French, German, Italian and United States forces, and those of smaller nations, serving in that theatre; their deployment, logistics, training, battles, medical and leisure facilities, and cemeteries. There will also be some information on naval operations in the Adriatic, both in the north (the Gulfs of Venice and Trieste) and further south in the Otranto Channel, which was a used to supply Italian and Serbian forces in and around Albania, and Allied forces in Salonika.

The Italian Campaign is one of the least-known elements of the Great War. However, the numbers of troops involved, the scale of the main battles and their casualty lists, equalled many on the Western and Eastern Fronts. Also, the nature of the battlegrounds, ranging from coastal swamps to 12,000-foot high snowfields, created conditions unique in the Western Front, and were matched only by some operational zones in the Caucusus and Mesopotamia. Finally, the balance of power in the west, if not the outcome of the war, might have been altered by events on the Italian Front, not just once, but twice, as will be described.

The site will make extensive use of contemporary photographs and other printed material, and of maps, Italian, British and Austro-Hungarian. It is intended to add a Discussion Forum to this site, and to seek contributions from interested parties of any nationality.

In recent years there has been trickle of English language books about the Italian Campaign (and a flood of Italian ones!) The nations of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire are beginning to acknowledge the sacrifices of their troops and people in those terrible years, and register that in print and in the recovery of archives and photographs from store houses and lofts.