For sheer mindless futility, though, it was hard to compete with the newly opened Southern Front in northeastern Italy. Having belatedly joined the war on the side of the Entente, by November 1915 Italy had already flung its army four times against a vastly outnumbered Austro-Hungarian force commanding the heights of a rugged mountain valley, only to be slaughtered each time; before war's end, there would be twelve battles in the Isonzo valley, resulting in some 600,000 Italian casualties.
The newly opened Southern Front in northeastern Italy represented a grim spectacle of warfare marked by futile attempts to overpower a well-entrenched Austro-Hungarian force. Despite joining the Entente in late 1915, Italy made four aggressive offensives into the treacherous terrain, only to face catastrophic losses every time. This pattern of repeated failure demonstrated the tragic consequences of military miscalculations in a hostile environment, illustrating the reckless nature of the engagement.
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