Soča

so

he started now making a lot more enemies within than he had without so you know the Cardona's military career can be summed up by the Isonzo River, because you had the battles of the Isonzo.

And Greg, I know you are not as aware of the Isonzo as Simone and I, because we played the game, so at times we did the actual research.

But Greg, how many battles do you think were there of the Isonzo?

The idea was that all of them would attack the Central Powers at the same time.

The British and French were to attack on the Western Front in France, the Italians along the Isonzo River, the Allied force of French, British, Italians, and Greeks from Saloniki north into the Balkans, and the Russians with what was left of the Romanians on the Eastern Front.

Thus, with superior forces attacking them from all directions at the same time, the Central Powers would be crushed because unable to switch their troops from front to front as each was attacked, as they had been able to do in the past because of the failure of the Allies to attack together at the same time.

Having agreed upon the general idea, the chiefs had to decide upon when to start the attacks.

... to a column on the right-hand side [laughs] that just mentions, "Tito withdraws to Isonzo but retains grip on Trieste.

Marshal Tito has notified British officers in Trieste that he's ordered all his troops to retire to the east of the River Isonzo." I mean, yeah, the, the, the New Zealanders', um, involvement in-

Mm

... sorting out what was going on on that side of Italy up, you know, up, up to the northeast-

Oh, cool

... our marketing manager, and we all went and paddled the Soča for two days.

Nice.

Oh.

The canyons are incredible.

The vibe was incredible.

So I would say perfect flow day in, like, recent memory, like, the past five years, I would say the Soča was probably it.

Wow.

Everyone, it seemed, had one eye on the conflicts to come.

In the afternoon of May 1st, the leading edge of the British column, consisting of a general's jeep and a squadron of armored cars from the 12th Royal Lancers, crossed the Isonzo River into the disputed territory and made the turn south toward Trieste.

Sometime before 3pm, they pulled up short outside the shipbuilding town of Monfalcone.

From there, looking south across the placid waters of the Gulf of Trieste, they could see the city, the harbor, and the old town crawling up the hillside.

Though true enough that neither the United States or the United Kingdom planned to annex Trieste, they could not exactly be called impartial either.

They planned to station large armies in southern Austria to occupy the former Axis territory and act as a bulwark against further Soviet expansion.

The port at Trieste and the roads leading north along the Isonzo River would be essential for keeping those armies supplied.

Yugoslav control of Trieste, Istria, and the Dalmatian coast would give the communists effective control of the Adriatic, which would allow them to block the shipping lanes through the Mediterranean to the Suez and on into the Indian Ocean.

The idea was that all of them would attack the Central Powers at the same time.

The British and French were to attack on the Western Front in France, the Italians along the Isonzo River, the Allied force of French, British, Italians, and Greeks from Saloniki north into the Balkans, and the Russians with what was left of the Romanians on the Eastern Front.

Thus, with superior forces attacking them from all directions at the same time, the Central Powers would be crushed because unable to switch their troops from front to front as each was attacked, as they had been able to do in the past because of the failure of the Allies to attack together at the same time.

Having agreed upon the general idea, the chiefs had to decide upon when to start the attacks.