Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Soča (Isonzo) Front
The valley in Slovenia's northwest corner—called So
č
a in Slovene and Isonzo in
Italian—saw some of World War I's fiercest fighting. While the Western Front gets
more press, this eastern border between the Central Powers and the Allies was just
as significant. In a series of 12 battles involving 22 different nationalities along a
60-mile-long front, 300,000 soldiers died, 700,000 were wounded, and 100,000 were
declared MIA. In addition, tens of thousands of civilians died. A young Ernest Hem-
ingway, who drove an ambulance for the Italian army in nearby fighting, would later
write the novel
A Farewell to Arms
about the battles here (see “Hemingway in the
