Dominic Sandbrook

Brilliant.

So General Boroevich is one of the outstanding generals of the First World War.

And he is the embodiment of Austro-Hungarian multi-ethnic unity.

because he was born in Croatia to a Serbian Orthodox family.

He joined the army when he was 10, went to cadet school.

He was first decorated in the capture of Sarajevo in 1878 in Bosnia.

And because he's a South Slav, because he's basically the embodiment of what would become Yugoslavia, he's really invested in this campaign because he's defending Slavic territory.

He doesn't want to see the Italians.

kind of sees all this.

And most of his men, or at least a lot of his men, are Slovenes, Croats, and Bosnians.

So they're also fighting for land that feels like theirs.

So they're really invested in this.

General Paul von Hindenburg

German walrus.

He said of the Austro-Hungarians, they fought the Russians with their head, but fought the Italians with their whole soul.

Exactly.

But also, Borovievich is a smart guy.

He's one of the generals who's learned the lessons of the war.

He says, okay, what we'll do is we'll get as high as we can,

We'll have five lines of barbed wire.