[Reily]

You should read about this Italian vs Austro-Hungarian battles like Izonso. I think there were like 12 major assaults along the river. The Italian army was crazy brave unbelievably so, but as poorly led as they were crazy brave. Eventually they reached the breaking point and broke when the Germans applied the first use of Stosstruppen tactics. ( A young Lt Rommel was involved!). The Italian army cracked and ran, Hemingway's novel covers this retreat.

[gusty]

It was brutal. My wife’s grandfather was there, was a POW after Caporetto. Not only were the battles absolute meat grinders, but the Italian army’s discipline was right out of Roman times. The practice of decimation was common. If a unit failed in combat, one soldier per hundred was selected randomly for execution to punish the unit.