The first, The British Army in Italy :1917-1918 by Wilks and Wilks is a dip of the toe into allied support during the later stages of WWI on the Italian Front. The other book on this topic that looks a good choice is 'Allies are a Tiresome Lot: The British Army in Italy in the First World War by Dillon. I suspect there's a good deal of overlap between the two, but never the less, I'll probably read both.
Undoubtedly this will lead to the fielding of some British troops at some point. These turn up pretty regularly at the local model figure show, and I should be able to grab a bunch used for just a few dollars if I choose to go down that road.
The next one was inspired by an eBay find that I haven't pulled the trigger on yet( Sopwith Camels Over Italy 1917-18: Rare Photographs from Wartime Archives by Franks). It got me thinking about how little has been mentioned of the air war in Italy in any of the books I have read thus far.
Enter Italian Aces of World War 1 by Varriale, an entry in the Osprey Aircraft of the Aces series. This book isn't really about the air war per se, but provides brief biographies, including wartime accomplishments, of Italy's top fliers. Typical of Osprey, the color plates are worth the price of admission. There are, I believe, two companion Austrian books in the series that I've added to my list in my effort to read all of the English language corpus on the Great War in Italy.
I would be lying if I said I wasn't considering fielding some WWI air wargames. The Wings of War models are stunning, if perhaps a tad pricey, but Irregular offers some planes in their 6mm line at a price where building up a fleet of a variety of planes becomes a viable option. Of course, then I have to paint them. The other difficulty is finding some solo suitable air wargame rules- I know several have been written up in Lone Warrior for WWII, but I'll have to dig through the back issue table of contents to see if any exist for WWI.
The final book I'm listing here was a Christmas present that I realized I haven’t mentioned yet but feel merits some acknowledgement.
MacKay's Asiago is part travel guide of the battlefields today / part history and is filled with wonderful maps throughout that could be useful in campaign play (mind, I haven't read the book yet, just thumbed through it).
As I've mentioned before, I'm reading my way through Rommel's Infantry Attacks which covers, in part, his time in Italy during WWI.. For anyone interested in the period, the book is full of everything from small skirmishes between a handful of men to battalion attacks with support, all well detailed and many are suitable for the wargame table.
Very interesting titles. Not the usual WWI subject matter.
ReplyDeleteThe fighting between Italy and Austria is generally neglected, in English language publications at least. I'm on a personal crusade to read all I can about this aspect of the Great War. Which means I should probably compile a bibliography to share here.
DeleteGreat looking reading list. You're right about the air war in Italy - the most I remember is reading something about Italian Caponi strategic bombers. I'm sure there is plenty to learn in that area.
ReplyDeleteThanks Natholeon. I've found some additional titles that I will eventually add to my reading list. Although most of these seem to be about the planes themselves rather than any kind of description of dog fights, bombing, troop support, and the like, taken together with the pilot biographies and passing mentions in other texts, they may provide a clearer, if not complete, picture of the air war in Italy.
DeleteYou might wan to check Juniorgeneral.org for solo-able WWI Airwar rules. Each plane's actions are governed by a fairly small deck of cards. The player could select the cards for his planes, and blindly pull cards for the enemy's. That might be too easy for the player to win, as his actions would be (hopefully) logical, while the enemy's would probably not be. Of course, cards could be drawn blindly for both sides, which should produce quite a circus (pun only mildly intended).
ReplyDeleteThe equipment for the game are 1/72 models, mounted on 2' sticks attached to bases, and a hex grid I salvaged from BattleMasters; there;s no reason why smaller models could not be used instead. The game was designed for kids, but I've run it for adults with great success late at night at a Convention, as it can be played while, um, inebriated,
Best regards always,
Chris
Thank you, Chris. I will definitely check those rules out. I have a simple set of abstract counter-based wargame rules from Minden Games that uses playing cards for the plane movement (it's the Battle of Britain game, but I think there might be a WWI expansion) and it can seem random when played solo but it gives an enjoyable game that feels right, so a blind pull might work with the Jr. General rules, perhaps with some sort of handicap on the solo player.
DeleteThanks again!
- John