![]() ![]() ![]() The Italians lost some 300,000 men on the Isonzo Front, half of their entire wartime death toll, while the Austro-Hungarians lost around 200,000. A brutal campaign of trench warfare raged across mountainous terrain, often in freezing winter conditions, and both sides suffered appalling casualties. The situation on the Isonzo Front was grim, even in the context of such an awful war. Nevertheless, we left the museum feeling like we'd learned a lot about this forgotten battlefield. Like a lot of small provincial museums, it seemed they had decided to put every single piece of memorabilia they owned on display, rather than presenting a more curated selection to tell the story in an engaging way. In fact, the sheer amount of information was a little overwhelming. The rain was coming down in sheets as we arrived in Kobarid, so we scuttled straight for the town's museum, which is packed full of information on the battle and the wider Isonzo campaign. Caporetto now lies within Slovenian territory, known by its Slovenian name of Kobarid, but the town still has something of a Mediterranean feel. The battle was one of the greatest defeats in Italian military history, and resulted in a rare breakthrough, as Austrian and German forces advanced more than 60 miles towards Venice. The book is based on Hemingway's own experience as a volunteer ambulance driver, and centres around the chaotic Italian retreat following the Battle of Caporetto in late 1917. ![]() One of the men serving at the front was a young Ernest Hemingway, and the campaign was the inspiration for his novel A Farewell To Arms, first published in 1929. This river is known as the Isonzo in Italian, and the Isonzo Front is one of World War I’s forgotten battlefields, where Germany and Austria-Hungary clashed with Italy in a miserable campaign of mountain warfare. After the endless switchbacks the road flattened out, following the course of the brilliantly turquoise Soča river. Soon the snow turned back into rain, and we could breathe a little easier. The road topped out at 1,611 metres above sea level before quickly descending again into the Soča Valley. The smartest option seemed to be getting over the pass as quickly as possible, rather than stopping to check out the view and risk getting stuck in the snow. Unfortunately we'd picked a particularly bad day for it, with the vistas obscured by low cloud and driving rain, which turned to snow as the road wound its way ever higher. A simple wooden chapel, close to the northern end of the pass, stands as a poignant tribute to the sacrifice of these men.Ĭrossing the Vršić Pass is supposed to be a spectacular drive over the mountains, with plenty of places to pull over and admire the view. More than 100 prisoners were killed by an avalanche in 1916, and many more died during the construction of the road. During the First World War the pass took on greater strategic importance, and Russian prisoners of war were forced to build a military road over the mountains by their Austrian captors. This pass, the highest in Slovenia, was originally built during the 19th century. We approached the valley from Kranjska Gora in the north, crossing the notorious Vršić Pass over the Julian Alps. The Soča Valley changed hands four times during the twentieth century: from Austria-Hungary, to Italy, to the Nazis, then the Yugoslav republic, before ending up part of the newly independent Slovenia in 1991. Northwest Slovenia is one of Europe’s borderlands, a place where the ebb and flow of history has left the landscape littered with the remnants of fallen empires.
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