Chapter 13: The South-Eastern or Mediterranean Theatre Summary and Analysis

Here, the reader is faced with the conditions of the Italian front. Another idea that the author has introduced is the reality that even generals are normally focused on the parts of the armies and fronts that are most immediately within their control. Their own biases come to bear during war councils.

The time came for Ludendorff to face the southern region of the Italians. This nation, that centuries earlier had been north of Rome, had found itself fighting the Austrians. This country, like Russia, suffered from having over one million soldiers killed in only two and a half years with virtually no ground gained but perhaps also not lost. This appears to have been the result of the use of the direct approach in strategy. Six hundred fifty thousand Austrian...