Thunder in The Mountains
WW1 on the Italian Front
by Tom Isitt
This is a book unlike any other, a book that will change the way you think about WW1, and a book will change the way history-lovers engage with their subject. Part history, part travelogue, part battlefield guide, Thunder in The Mountains
is a new way of exploring the extraordinary Italian Front.
WW1 on the Italian Front was unlike anywhere else, fought from the malarial swamps of Veneto to the ice-clad peaks of the Alps. The terrain was so difficult, and the weather so extreme, that both sides had to learn new ways to fight — digging hundreds of miles of tunnels in snow, rock, and ice, blowing the tops off mountains with huge mines, hauling cannons across glaciers, and fighting actions that measured advances in vertical metres.
A million men died on the Italian Front, three million more were wounded, and events here had significant impacts on other Fronts. But even though five British divisions fought here, Anglophone historians have largely overlooked this fascinating theatre of conflict. Until now, because Tom has spent six years walking the battlefields and researching the experiences of the men who fought here.
The Holy Grail for readers of history books, in addition to engaging and authoritative text, is MORE
photos, and MORE
maps. Thunder in The Mountains
delivers more of everything by using QR codes printed in the book to enable readers to view extra photos, maps and videos. This is in addition to the 140,000 words of text, 26 maps, and 149 photographs printed in the book itself, which is a stand-alone book in its own right.
Published by Helion & Co in Autumn 2025, exact date and price to be confirmed.
