Railways and Military Mobilisation in Italy (1915-1918)

This paper analyzes the role of the railways and railway workers in Italy during the Great War (1915-1918). With the troop trains, the soldiers departed to the eastern part of the country, where the war front was located. In the war zones and in the rear, it was necessary to build new railways and upgrade existing ones. Finally, the railway in the Great War was the symbol of the movement in the country, even during the defeat of Caporetto, and then at the end of the conflict. The analysis of the events of the Italian railways during the Great War shows how the train proved fundamental, despite receiving little attention from historiography, accustomed to considering phenomena in a static way. The Great War was a trench war and therefore it turned out to be quite static as an image, but the rear swarmed with movement. A movement of men, animals, food, weapons, transported to the front, both in the plains and in the mountains, wherever possible by train, even by building demountable railways.