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Photo, Print, Drawing Italian Front in France. Positioning a Machine Gun for an Ambush. Fronte italiano in Francia. Appostamento di una mitragliatrice

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About this Item

Title

  • Italian Front in France. Positioning a Machine Gun for an Ambush.

Other Title

  • Fronte italiano in Francia. Appostamento di una mitragliatrice

Summary

  • Following Italy's entry into World War I on the side of the Allies (Great Britain, France, and Russia) in the spring of 1915, Italian forces were engaged primarily on the Italian Front, a 650-kilometer stretch of mainly mountainous terrain along the border with Austria-Hungary. Italian forces also were deployed in Albania. In 1918, the final year of the war, the Italian government dispatched the Second Italian Corps, a two-division force under the command of General Alberico Albricci, to fight on the Western Front in France. This was after the disastrous Italian defeat at the Battle of Caporetto, which began on October 24, 1917, when the government in Rome concluded that deployment of the force would bolster Italy's reputation with the Allies and demonstrate its commitment to the cause of an Allied victory. The Second Italian Corps was part of the Fifth French Army comprising the First French Colonial Corps, the Fifth French Corps, and the First French Cavalry Corps. Alongside French, British, and American forces, it saw action in the Second Battle of the Marne (July 15--August 6, 1918), the last major German offensive on the Western Front. Following the failure of the initial attack, the Allied forces under French general (later marshal) Ferdinand Foch launched a sweeping counterattack. On July 18, 1918, II Italian Corps attacked the German lines in the region southwest of Rheims from Ormes to Festigny. They suffered heavy casualties early in the battle and were replaced on the night of July 19-20 by the 22nd British Corps. The Second Italian Corps remained in France until the end of the war. By November 1918 it had reached the town of Sissonne in northern France. This photograph shows an Italian soldier on the Western Front positioning a machine gun.

Created / Published

  • [place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified], [1915 to 1918]

Headings

  • -  France
  • -  Italy
  • -  1915 to 1918
  • -  Infantry
  • -  Machine guns
  • -  Soldiers
  • -  Weapons
  • -  World War, 1914-1918

Notes

  • -  Title devised, in English, by Library staff.
  • -  Original resource extent: 1 photograph ; black-and-white.
  • -  Reference extracted from World Digital Library: Vanda Wilcox, "Italian Front," in 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War, edited by Ute Daniel, Peter Gatrell, Oliver Janz, Heather Jones, Jennifer Keene, Alan Kramer, and Bill Nasson. http://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/war_finance_italy. External
  • -  Original resource at: Institute for the History of the Italian Risorgimento.
  • -  Description based on data extracted from World Digital Library, which may be extracted from partner institutions.

Medium

  • 1 online resource.

Source Collection

  • World War I

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2021670890

Online Format

  • compressed data
  • image

Additional Metadata Formats

IIIF Presentation Manifest

Rights & Access

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Credit Line: [Original Source citation], World Digital Library

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Italian Front in France. Positioning a Machine Gun for an Ambush. Italy France, 1915. [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified, to 1918] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2021670890/.

APA citation style:

(1915) Italian Front in France. Positioning a Machine Gun for an Ambush. Italy France, 1915. [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified, to 1918] [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2021670890/.

MLA citation style:

Italian Front in France. Positioning a Machine Gun for an Ambush. [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified, to 1918] Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2021670890/>.