Dominic Sandbrook

And this is the story of the entire first battle of the Isonzo.

It takes two weeks.

The Italians make about two yards and they take 15,000 casualties.

That's the first battle of the Isonzo.

And how many are there going to be over the course of the war?

There's going to be 11 more of them.

Oh my God.

You would think if you were General Cadorna, you would say, well, that didn't work.

I probably won't try that again.

He tries it 11 more times in the next two years or so.

Well, he's written his book.

He has written his book.

But also, while this was happening, he was at a conference with the Allied generals, the British and the French.

And they said to him, we want you to, you know, now you've entered the war, we've given you this money and these promises.

You need to, you know, produce results.

So he feels under pressure.

And so less than two weeks later, he launches the second battle of the Isonzo, again in the Socha Valley.

Same story, up the hill they go, cut down by Austrian machine guns.

And they haven't advanced at all.

I mean, barely.