It is the early hours of the 24th of October 1917.

A small detachment of an elite German mountain battalion waits for first light to creep over the ridges along the Isonzo River.

Fog lies thick in the valley, clinging to the water

and muting sound and vision. The faint smell of poison gas lingers in the air. A platoon commander

gives hushed orders and reassures his men as they wait for the battle as to come. They can hear the

sound of artillery shells screaming overhead.

The young platoon commander is called Irwin Rommel, a hardy young officer,

who has already earned himself a reputation for daring on the Western Front.

Now he finds himself in the rugged mountains of northeastern Italy, facing the Italian army along the infamous Izonso Front.

Eleven times the Italians have tried to dislodge Germany's allies, the Austro-Hungarians,

and 11 times they have failed.

Hundreds of thousands have died in the attempt. The Italian front is an important

reminder that the trenches of France and Belgium certainly did not have the monopoly on futile

slaughter in the First World War. Here, like on the Western Front, the two sides are dug in

along trench lines facing each other.

But here those lines run along the ridges of towering mountains.

The weather is even worse than it is in Flanders.

Fighting has deteriorated into a brutal, attritional slog.

For many, it's a struggle to simply survive.

Both sides have found it impossible to dislodge one another,

and the casualty lists grow and grow.

But now this young German platoon commander,

...