Britain and Italy in the Era of the Great War: Defending and Forging Empires

397 Pages·2020·6.398 MB·English

by  Stefano Marcuzzi

Britain and Italy in the Era of the Great War
ThisisanimportantreassessmentofBritishandItaliangrandstrategies
during World War I. Stefano Marcuzzi sheds new light on a hitherto
overlookedbutcentralaspectofthewarexperiencesofBritainandItaly:
theuneasyandonlypartialoverlapbetweenBritain’sstrategyforimper-
ialdefenceandItaly’sambitionforimperialexpansion.TakingAnglo-
Italianbilateralrelationsasaspeciallensthroughwhichtounderstand
theworkingsoftheEntenteCordialeinWorldWarI,herevealshowthe
upsanddownsofthatrelationshipinfluencedandshapedAlliedgrand
strategy.Marcuzziconsidersthreemainissues–waraims,warstrategy
andpeace-making–andexamineshow,underthepressureofdivergent
interestsand wartime events,the Anglo-Italian‘traditional friendship’
turned increasingly into competition by the end of the war, casting
ashadowonAnglo-ItalianrelationsbothatthePeaceConferenceand
intheinterwarperiod.
Stefano Marcuzzi is a Marie Curie fellow at the University College
Dublin, an analyst in emerging challenges at the NATO Defense
CollegeFoundationandanexternalfellowatBostonUniversity.
CambridgeMilitaryHistories
Editedby
JENNIFERD.KEENE,ChapmanUniversity
HEWSTRACHAN,ProfessorofInternationalRelations,Universityof
StAndrews,andEmeritusFellowofAllSoulsCollege,Oxford
GEOFFREYWAWRO,ProfessorofMilitaryHistoryandDirectorofthe
MilitaryHistoryCenter,UniversityofNorthTexas
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Britain and Italy in the Era
of the Great War
Defending and Forging Empires
Stefano Marcuzzi
UniversityCollegeDublin
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www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781108831291
DOI:10.1017/9781108924009
©StefanoMarcuzzi2020
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andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2020
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
ISBN978–1-108–83129-1Hardback
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accurateorappropriate.
To the memory of my great grandfather,
Corporal Vincenzo Nicolini, awarded
the Silver Medal of Military Valour
during the retreat from Caporetto,
and of his son, Faustino

Contents
ListofFigures pageix
ListofMaps x
Acknowledgement xi
Introduction 1
PartI MakingtheAnglo-ItalianEntente(1911–1915)
1 Context 15
2 TraditionalFriendship 17
3 CrumblingPrinciples 28
4 PushingFriendshipintoAlliance 42
5 TheContestedTreaty 67
PartII IntegratingItalyintotheTripleEntente(Spring
1915–Summer1917)
6 Context 75
7 TurningPapersintoPolicies:TheImplementation
oftheLondonTreaty 78
8 DealingwithRecalcitrantAllies:ShapingItaly’sWar 98
9 PeripheralCompetition 133
10 ShapingAlliedGrandStrategy 154
11 Italy’sEmpireProjectAccepted 174
vii
viii Contents
PartIII TheForkedRoadtoVictoryandPeace(Autumn
1917–Summer1919)
12 Context 207
13 ClashofResponsibilities:TheCaporettoCrisis 209
14 ResponsetoMilitaryEmergencies:KeepingItalyAlive 224
15 Re-shapingAlliedGrandStrategy 238
16 PropagandaAsaStrategy 255
17 DividedattheFinishLine 269
18 Versailles1919:Italy’sEmpireProjectRepudiated 290
Epilogue:BloodyChristmasinFiume 327
Conclusions 334
BibliographyandSources 343
Index 369
Figures
4.1 MarquisGuglielmoImperiali,Italianambassadorto
Britain,withGeneralLuigiCadorna,ItalianChiefofStaff,
andLordKitchener,BritishChiefofStaffinLondon page65
7.1 Atrenchat150metresfromtheenemy,withPalenik
mountainheldbytheAustro-Hungarians 84
7.2 ItalianAlpiniclimbingasteepslopeintheopeningphases
ofthewar 85
7.3 PortraitofPaoloThaondiRevel,ItalianChiefofNavalStaff
formostofthewar 95
8.1 Italianinfantrypatrolatamountainstation 127
8.2 ItalianAlpinionthemarchontheAdamello(Trentino),
1916 127
10.1 TheBritishambassadortoItaly,RennellRodd,withDavid
LloydGeorgeinRomeduringtheinter-AlliedConference
of5–7January1917 156
10.2 BritishFieldMarshalSirDouglasHaig,withSirGeorge
DixonGrahameandAdmiralDavidBeatty 166
11.1 TheAustro-HungarianU24(formerGermanUC12)
submarine,capturedbytheItaliansandrenamedX1,
returningtoseaafterrepairs 189
11.2 GeneralCadornavisitingtheBritishbatteriesin1917 196
13.1 ItaliantroopsretreatalongtheUdine–Codroiporoadin
north-eastItalyaftertheCaporettobreakthrough 217
14.1 Protectingamonumentagainstenemybombardmentsin
Veneto 228
16.1 D’AnnunzioandthepilotswhoflewoverVienna,
August1918 263
17.1 GeneralArmandoDiaz,ItalianChiefofStaffafterCaporetto 280
18.1 ThefourpremiersofItaly,Britain,FranceandAmerica(left
toright):VittorioEmanueleOrlando,DavidLloydGeorge,
GeorgesClemenceauandWoodrowWilsonatVersailles 316
ix