The Italian war industry after Caporetto

This essay deals with the supposed extraordinary effort sustained by the Italian industry to remedy the artillery losses of the Caporetto retreat. However severe, for the most part such losses regarded obsolete materials; in actual fact, since October 1917 the war industry continued to implement the development plans already in progress before the enemy breakthrough, under the supervision of the minister of Arms and Ammunitions, gen. Alfredo Dallolio, a central figure in the industrial mobilization of the Country. Similarly, the problem of shortage of both manpower and raw materials had been effectively tackled long before Caporetto and did not constitute an obstacle for the industries involved in war production. The boasts about the productive drive made to recoup the Caporetto losses are thus to be traced back to the harsh clashes that would flare up among the Italian industrial groups after the end of the conflict. The rich journalistic literature of the period reflects the desire of the various industrial lobbies to emphasize each their own contribute to the final victory on the one hand, while defending themselves, on the other, from the charges of illicit profits obtained by supplying the armed forces.

Keywords: First World War, Italian war industry, industrial mobilization, Caporetto, Alfredo Dallolio, illicit profits

Andrea Curami, L’industria bellica italiana dopo Caporetto in "ITALIA CONTEMPORANEA" 261/2010, pp 653-664, DOI: 10.3280/IC2010-261005