Italy
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by
Stork
Why is this Bn in Italy? Pojana, Ferrara + Bologna are also in Italy. It's the first page of the diary, if that matters.
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I tagged this diary and here is some information why they went to Italy. (5 British Divisions were sent to Italy Between 27-29 November).
The Italian Front (Italian: Fronte italiano; in German: Gebirgskrieg, "Mountain war") was a series of battles at the border between Austria-Hungary and Italy, fought between 1915 and 1918 in World War I. Following the secret promises made by the Allies in the Treaty of London, Italy entered the war in order to annex the Austrian Littoral and northern Dalmatia, and the territories of present-day Trentino and South Tyrol. Although Italy had hoped to gain the territories with a surprise offensive, the front soon bogged down into trench warfare, similar to the Western Front fought in France, but at high altitudes and with very cold winters. Fighting along the front displaced much of the civilian population, of which several thousand died from malnutrition and illness in Italian and Austrian refugee camps. The Allied victory at Vittorio Veneto and the disintegration of Austria-Hungary ended the military operations.
See link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Front_(World_War_I)
PS 15th Btn Royal Warwickshire Regiment - Moved to Italy with the Division in November 1917 but returned to France April 1918. 6 October 1918: disbanded with personnel going to 14th and 16th Battalions.
I posted a message re this diary as under: This diary has pages 1 to 488. Diary pages and cover pages only equal about say 83 pages. The rest (over 400 pages) are mostly made up of orders, reports but mainly, many signal pads. The signal pad messages give an interesting account of the situations the troops in the line were in – some more interesting than the diary pages themselves I thought. Quite different from many diaries
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by
cyngast
moderator
in response to Stork's comment.
Marie's information is correct about why there were British troops in Italy, and the 5th Division was one of those five divisions. As you may have worked out by now, the 15th Warwicks were starting the process of returning to France after the Germans launched their offensives in the spring (late March and early April) of 1918. The British command called them back because they were urgently needed in France.
I've also seen diaries that end as the battalion is arriving in Italy in late November 1917. When I first encountered a unit in Italy, I was also quite surprised. I had no idea that British troops had fought in Italy.
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Information regarding The Battle of Vittorio Veneto
Fought from 24 October to 3 November 1918 near Vittorio Veneto on the Italian Front during World War I. The Italian victory marked the end of the war on the Italian Front, secured the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and contributed to the end of the First World War less than two weeks later. Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vittorio_Veneto
Also - Allied forces totalled 57 infantry divisions, including 51 Italian, 3 British (23rd, 7th and 48th), 2 French (23rd and 24th), 1 Czechoslovak (6th) and the 332nd US Infantry Regiment, along with supporting arms. The Austro-Hungarian army had 46 infantry divisions and 6 cavalry divisions, but both sides were ravaged by influenza and malaria and the Austrians only had 6,030 guns to 7,700 Allied.
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by
Stork
Wow! Great info- thanks, Marie.
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Your welcome 😃
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Cynthia here is some more information re Italy, which I thought may interest you.
The 332nd Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment of the United States Army, active during World War I. It was part of the 83rd Infantry Division and served on the Italian front during the war, taking part in the Battle of Vittorio Veneto. It was disbanded in May 1919.
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/332nd_Infantry_Regiment_(United_States)
When you go into the link it will ask Did you mean: 332nd Infantry Regiment (United States)? Just put your curser on this 332nd Infantry Regiment (United States) and the link will come up.
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by
cyngast
moderator
Thanks, Marie. I'm so involved in this project, I almost forget my own country fought, too! Although I do see numerous things popping up online about US involvement in the war, now that we have reached the point where it has been 100 years since US involvement began.
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by
ral104
moderator, scientist
I did once get in touch with the National Archives in the US to try and work out whether they had records similar to our war diaries which might be digitised and tagged to mark the centenary of the US entry into the war, but it never really came to anything. I'm still not quite certain what records exist.
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