British Army Italy 1917

1. There are few recent books dealing with this campaign. Two appeared in 1998, both dealing with this websites topic. The British Army in Italy, 1917-1918 (see below) was written by John and Eileen Wilks, and published by Pen & Sword Military Books Ltd. It is now out of print, and P&S have indicated that they do not intend reprinting it, even in soft-back. (It might be worth writing to Pen & Sword asking themm to reconsider See their website for contact information.)

A few copies have appeared on Amazon, usually priced a bit over the odds (in late January 2008 only two were on offer, the lowest price was £88.38 + P&P from the USA It is understood that one or two will soon be avaiable from a UK vendor at lower prices, thanks to this website is warming up!)

The second book was written by George Cassar: The Forgotten Front: British Campaign in Italy, 1917-1918. It, too, is on restricted offer on Amazon – have a look! Both books are well written, and describe different aspects of the British involvement along the Piave. (Neither covers the British part in the Allied naval and air operations in the lower Adriatic, and do not even mention the Italian campaign in Albania, which featured some RAF missions .)

2. In the later half of 2007 Naval & Military Press Ltd, released their re-print** of The Defeat of Austria as Seen by the Seventh Division, thanks to kind permission of the Central Library of the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. This fine little book was written Major the Reverend E C Crosse, DSO MC, Army Chaplain’s Department**, who was Senior Chaplain (Church of England) in the Division during its service in Italy during the Great War. The book was first published in 1919, by Deane & Son, London, and never reprinted.

The book describes events leading up to the night assault river crossing of the river Piave during the last week of October 1917. In that long-forgotten feat of arms four Italian Armies, one led by a British General (Cavan), another by the French General Graziani, bridged that turbulent stream and forced the defending Austro-Hungarian Armies to withdraw, then, after a generally well-conducted withdrawal in contact with the enemy, that most difficult to capitulate when

Major Crosse saw service as the Church of England chaplain to the 8th and 9th Battalions Devonshire Regiment, 20^th Brigade, 7th Division, before and then throughout the Battle of the Somme (30 June - 5 September 1916). He wrote the above book shortly after Armistice in Italy (4 November 1918) completing the work in early 1919. He then wrote a long essay (75 pages), analysing the work and assessing the achievements of Church of England chaplains with the infantry during the Great War. The essay stressed the obstacles which the chaplains had to surmount and the fact that, for some time after the outbreak of war, their duties were largely restricted to conducting compulsory Church parades, taking Communion, caring (spiritually) for the sick and wounded and conducting burial services. This essay was to be published under the title of The God of Battles; not sure what happened, but not record has so far been found of its existence.

A quick scan of the Internet threw this up;
PADRE E.C. Crosse & ‘the Devonshire Epitaph': The Astonishing Story of One Man at The Battle of the Somme With Antecedents to Today’s ‘Just War’ Dialogue
Author: David R. MacDonald ISBN-10: 1-929569-45-9 and ISBN-13: 978-1-929569-45-8
Publisher: Cloverdale Corp (USA) 2007. based on Major Crosse’s diaries in the Imperial War Museum.

Notes.

* Rare books can usually only be reprinted by using an original copy, which is inevitably severely damaged, if not destroyed in the process. The Webmaster selflessly (!) donated his copy, as he had previously done for 12^th (Bermondsey) Battalion East Surrey Regiment in the Great War, (Naval & Military Press Ltd, 2006); see pages 177-198 for the that unit’s service in Italy.

** In February 1919, in recognition of their devoted work since 1914, King George V conferred the prefix Royal on the Army Chaplains’ Department.

3. N&M also stock British Military Operations – Italy 1915-1919, on of the Official History series.

4. Pen & Sword still have copies of their two Battleground Europe Guides (see below) to aspects of the Italian campaign; it is understood a third maybe in the offing, covering various crossings of the Piave in 1917 and 1918, including that by Leutnant Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel of the Wurtemburg Mountain Battalion in November 1917, and ending with the British crossing at the Grave di Papadopoli, spearheaded by the 2/1^st Battalion, Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest Regiment in the British Army.

Battleground Europe Guides

Asiago; 15/16 June 1918; The Battle in the Woods and Clouds

Touring the Italian Front: American, British, French, German & Italian Forces in Italy 1917-1919.

Titles in bold are currently available.
Other titles can usually be borrowed by UK residents only, through the Inter-Library Loan Service.
The item * can only be read in a library as it is very rare, and fragile.

The book describes the reasons for the movement of the British Expeditionary Force (Italy) from the Western Front to the Veneto, and describes some aspects of the long journey, made almost exclusivelvely by train. (One motor transport unit went by road; it's experiences were recorded by the OC; see under 'Hody' in ther list below.) The book goes on to describe subsequent operations on the river Piave front and in the Pre-Dolomites.

This scrupulously-researched and well written book is now (Autumn 2006) out-of -print and can only be found in very small numbers on Amazon, and, occasionally, on the shelves (actual or virtual) of specialist booksellers.

John and Eileen Wilks describe the reasons for the move of the British Expeditionary Force (Italy) from Western Front to the Veneto, and its subsequent operations in support of Italian and French forces. The book covers the moves of the various divisions into the rear areas around Vicenza and Padua, and their advance to the front line on the Montello, along the Piave Front. Also covered are subsequent move to, and operations, on the Asiago plateau, a wide shelf at the top of a small section of the 4,000 ft escarpment backing the Venetian Plain roughly from the Adige valley north of Verona to Trieste. The book concludes with an account of the final phase of fighting in the mountains north of the plateau, and the huge, multi-army night assault crossing of the Piave in late October, spearheaded in the centre by the 10th Army, commanded by a British general (Lord Cavan) and comprising British and Italian divisions and, at one, point, the US 332nd Infantry Regiment.

Bibliography

Atkinson, CT The Seventh Division in the Great War; London 1927 (Reprint by Naval & Military Press.)

Aston, J, Duggan, L The 12th (Bermondsey) Bn East Surrey Regt in the Great War London 1921
Reprinted by Naval and Military Press Ltd 2005.
This is one of the best accounts of the life and times of Service Battalion, probably because it was written
by 'Hostilities-only' personnel, not Regular Army officers!

The battalion was in the 41st Division, fought on the Western Front from May 1916 to November 1917 then went to Italy. Returned to France in March 1918 where it served for the rest of the war.Roll of Honour, nominal roll of all who served, honours and awards.

The 12th E Surreys were raised on 14th May 1915 by the Mayor and Borough of Bermondsey, and in October the battalion joined 122nd Brigade, 41st Division, the last of the Kitchener divisions. It remained in the same brigade throughout the war. A year later, May 1916, the division arrived in France where the battalion served until November 1917, when they were sent to Italy. In March 1918 they returned to France where the battalion remained for the rest of the war.
The authors have made every effort to be accurate in their account, but the main aim has been to provide a narrative, not so much for the general reader as for the members of the Battalion Association and their friends. In pursuit of this aim they have included plenty of ‘yarns’ using the actual words of the individual narrator which, they believe, will prove the best part of the volume. In fact this is the most ‘anecdotal’ unit history I have yet come across. Reading it today, some ninety years later, it is clear that these personal contributions add a great deal to the story, bringing a feeling of reality to the scenes being described. There are plenty of references to individuals, references which are always welcome in what amounts to a family history, telling the day-to-day story of a close knit battalion. There is no doubt it will have brought to mind those who died and will have helped to recall incidents, localities, friendships and dangers shared. The division was one selected for the Army of Occupation in Germany and the battalion ended its war service on garrison duty in the Rhine bridgehead. 217 officers and 4,487 other ranks served with the battalion during the war, and total casualties amounted to 128 officers and 2,675 other ranks of whom 38 and 683 respectively died.The appendices contain a wealth of information, of great help to the researcher. There is the nominal roll of officers and men who served with the battalion; there is a list of cemeteries in which the dead are buried, each is numbered and keyed to the Roll of Honour so the place of burial can be checked; and there is the list of honours and awards. This is a very comprehensive history.

2005 N&M Pres reprint (original pub1936). SB. x + 331pp with maps and illustrations
ISBN 1845742753
£ 18.00

www.naval-military-press.com
order.dept@naval-military-press.com
Naval & Military Press
Unit 10, Ridgewood Industrial Park
Uckfield
East Sussex
TN22 5QE
United Kingdom

Banks, A Military Atlas of the First World War; Barnsley 1975 (Very good; great tool for any WWI resarcher)
Barnett, GH With the 48th Division in Italy Edinburgh 1923
Carrington, CF The War Record of the 1/5 R. Warwickshire Regt Birmingham 1923
Caddick-Adams, P By God they can fight!: History of 143 Brigade Shrewsbury, 1997
Cassar, George H The Forgotten Front, the British Army in Italy 1917-1918; London, 1998
Corbett, Edward 1/8 Worcestershire Private. Worcester 1920s
Crosse, EC The Defeat of Austria as seen by the Seventh Division London 1919 (Reprinted in 2007; see above)
Crutwell, C The War Service of the 1/4 Royal Berkshire Regt (TF) Oxford 1922
Dalton, H With British Guns in Italy London 1919 (2005 Reprint by Naval & Military Press)
Dopson, FW The 48th Division Signals in the Great War Bristol (private) 1938
Edmonds, JE Official History of the War Military Operations Italy 1915-1919 London (Reprint 1986)
Eberle, VF My Sapper Venture London 1973
Gladden, Norman Across the Piave IWM London 1959
Glover, M That Astonishing Infantry: The History of the Royal Welch Fusiliers, 1689-1989 London 1989
* Goldsmid, CJH Diary of a Liaison Officer in Italy1918 London 1920*
Halpern, PG The Naval War in the Mediterranean 1914 -1918 London, 1987
Herwig, HH The First World War, Germany and Austria-Hungary 1914-1918 London 1997
Hody, EH, With the ‘Mad 17th’ to Italy London 1920
Hussey, AH The Fifth Division in the Great War London, 1921
James, L The History of King Edwards Horse London 1923
Lambert, A Over the Top London 1922 7 (Reprint by Naval & Military Press 2002)
Lettau, JL In Italy with the 332nd Infantry Youngstown, Ohio 1921 (This is very rare indeed; try e-bay for a copy, but $$$$!)
Mackay, F Asiago, 15/16 June 1918 The Battle in the Woods and Clouds Barnsley, 2001
Mackay, F Touring the Italian Front; British, US, French & German Forces in Northern Italy, 1917-1918. (P&S)
Mockler-Ferryman, AF The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire LI Chronicle1917-18 Oxford 1923
Morselli, M Caporetto 1917: Victory or Defeat? London 2001
Pearse, HW, Sloman, H.S. History of the East Surrey Regiment. Vol. 2-3,1914-1919. London 1933.
Pickford, P War Record of the 1/4 Oxf & Bucks LI Banbury 1919
Sandilands, H R The 23rd Division 1914-1918 Edinburgh 1925 (2003 Reprint by Naval & Military Press)

Extract from Naval & Military Press wensite

THE TWENTY-THIRD DIVISION 1914-1919
The division arrived in France at the end of August 1915 and fought on the Western Front till October 1917, when it was transferred to Italy where it remained for the rest of the war. The author, Lieutenant Colonel HR Sandilands, served as the division’s GSO1 from March 1918 to its demise in March 1919. In his preface he states his aim to include as many names as possible, and in doing so he has added human interest to a graphic, detailed account of the part played by one of Kitchener’s divisions on the Western Front and in Italy. The appendices are particularly useful, including the divisional order of battle, with any changes; successive reorganisations of the divisional artillery; succession of commanders and staff with dates of appointment; summary of honours and awards, British and Foreign (over3,200 including nine VCs); extracts from the Battles Nomenclature Committee Report identifying those battles in which the division took part. There is a comprehensive index and to conclude this admirable History there is a chronological record of the division’s activities with dates and reference to the pages of the History where they are mentioned. The 23rd Division, one of Kitchener’s Third New Army divisions, began forming in the middle of September 1914 in the Aldershot area. The divisional sign is a red cross patte on a white disc, all encircled by a red ring; the significance and origin is not known. The division landed in France in August 1915 and for the next two years it fought on the Western Front - in the Armentieres and Carency sectors, on the Somme where it captured Contalmaison, Munster Alley and Le Sars. It took part in the June 1917 Messines offensive and in Third Ypres, after which it moved to Italy in November 1917. In June 1918 it fought in the Battle of the Piave, sustaining losses of 556 and gaining two VCs. It took part in the final offensive, the Battle of Vittorio Veneto, ending its part in the war about ten miles east of that place after an advance of some thirty miles. This good division was unique in that it was the only one to retain the same GOC throughout the entire war, apart from the last three weeks. Total casualties amounted to 23,574, about ninety percent of them on the Western front. Author : Lt Col H.R Sandiland 2003 N&M Press reprint (original pub 1925). SB. x + 389pp with 24 b/w illus and ten maps ISBN 1843426412 £ 22.00

Schindler,JR Isonzo, The Forgotten Sacrifice of the Great War Westport 2001
Seth, R Caporetto, The Scapegoat Battle; London 1965
Speakman H From A Soldier’s Heart Abingdon Press USA 1919
Stacke, HFM The Worcestershire Regiment in the Great War Kidderminster 1929 Reprint Naval & Military Press)
Walker, G Goold, The HAC in the Great War 1914-1919 London 1930,(Reprint 1986)
Ward, S Faithful: The Story of the Durham Light Infantry London 1962
Wilks, J & Wilks, E The British Army in Italy 1917-1919 Barnsley 1998
Wilks, J & Wilks, E Rommel and Caporetto October, 1917 Barnsley 2001
Wyrall, R E The Gloucestershire Regiment in the War 1914-18 London 1931

THE TWENTY-THIRD DIVISION 1914-1919