During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, both

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

and

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

sent military forces to

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

in October 1917. Following the

Battle of Caporetto The Battle of Caporetto (also known as the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo, the Battle of Kobarid or the Battle of Karfreit) was a battle on the Italian front of World War I. The battle was fought between the Kingdom of Italy and the Central ...

(24 October to 19 November 1917), the Italian Front collapsed. In order to ensure this did not lead to Italy withdrawing from the war the allies organised forces to reinforce the Italians. As the battle unfolded, General

Luigi Cadorna Marshal of Italy Luigi Cadorna, (4 September 1850 – 21 December 1928) was an Italian general, Marshal of Italy and Count most famous for being the Chief of Staff of the Italian Army from 1914-1917 of World War I. Early career Luigi Cador ...

invoked the agreement reached at the

Chantilly Conference The Chantilly Conferences were a series of three conferences held between 1915 and 1916 by the Allied Powers of World War I. The conferences were named after Chantilly, France, where the meetings took place. First Chantilly Conference Held from ...

of December 1915. There the allies had agreed that should any of the allies come under threat, the other allies would support them. The first French troops arrived on 27 October 1917. The first British troops followed them after a few days. Fearing that his troops would be overrun and lost in case the Italian lines on the Piave river would be broken by the Austro-Hungarian and German forces, however, General Foch refused to commit them to the frontline until the Italian troops had halted the Central Powers' troops by themselves and firmly established a defensive line on the Piave river. The British was thus kept in reserve during the First Battle of the Piave (November 1917) and only saw action from December 1917 onwards. The French expeditionary force consisted primarily of the French Tenth Army with the addition of the 12th Corps. They took up station around

Verona Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Northern Italy, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and the ...

. Four of the six French divisions ( 46e, 47e, 64e, 65e) were to return to the Western Front in spring 1918. The British Expeditionary Force (Italy) came under the command of General

Herbert Plumer Field Marshal Herbert Charles Onslow Plumer, 1st Viscount Plumer, (13 March 1857 – 16 July 1932) was a senior British Army officer of the First World War. After commanding V Corps at the Second Battle of Ypres in April 1915, he took command o ...

. The principal units in the BEF(I) were the 23rd, 41st,

7th 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube (algebra), cube. As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has greatly symbolic associations in religion ...

, 48th and

5th Fifth is the ordinal form of the number five. Fifth or The Fifth may refer to: * Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, as in the expression "pleading the Fifth" * Fifth column, a political term * Fifth disease, a contagious rash tha ...

divisions. The 5th Division returned to France on 1 March 1918, followed by the 41st Division in April. Lieutenant General Cavan was appointed Commander-in-Chief of ''British Forces in

'' on 10 March 1918, comprising the three divisions of

XIV Corps (United Kingdom) XIV Corps was a British infantry corps during the First World War. During the Second World War the identity was recreated for deceptive purposes. First World War XIV Corps was formed in France on 3 January 1916 under Lieutenant-General the Earl ...

References

Further reading