Cool September air in northern Slovenia, 2023. Late-morning sunlight slants through the Norway spruce alpine forest. Ragged peaks rise in the near distance. These are the Julian Alps. Nothing in this stunning landscape suggests war.
And yet, a century ago, these mountains devoured young men by the thousands. Most remember the Somme, Ypres, and Verdun. Few remember the desperate fighting at high altitude in these frigid mountains.
This was the Isonzo Front, a largely forgotten sector of the First World War fought along the Soča River between Italy and Austria-Hungary. From May 1915 to October 1917, twelve brutal battles were waged here. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers were killed or wounded in what became one of the harshest theaters of modern warfare.
Young men from Italy and Austria-Hungary fought on cliffs, ridges, and glaciers above the treeline. Frostbite, snow blindness, starvation, and avalanches were as deadly as artillery. Food and ammunition were hauled up near-vertical slopes…
