Dominic Sandbrook

Let the Italians come.

When they come, wait until they're 100 yards away.

Only start firing then.

If they ever break through, don't panic.

Keep your positions.

I'll move up the reserves.

I'll plug the gaps.

We'll just stay calm.

We'll let them come to us and we'll kill them all.

And basically, this is what they do.

So the first battle of the Isonzo, as it's called, is launched by the Italians on the 23rd of June, 1915.

And think of this river.

It's running just inside the border of Slovenia, so to the east of Italy.

And the Italians throw in more than 200,000 men, which is more than twice as many as the Austrians have got.

And the Italians think, well, this will be great.

And actually what happens, they charge uphill and the Austrians open fire with their machine guns and loads and loads of Italians are killed straight away.

So I'll give you an example, an account by an Italian officer called Renato Di Stolfo.

And he's describing an attack on a mountain called Monte Samichele.

Di Stolfo is meant to be leading his men into battle with a pistol.

They've run out of pistols, so he only has his sword.