After reporting for duty as a volunteer, the Viennese Wilhelm Rothansl fought in 1918 in the last military operations on the Italian Front. The initial euphoria and youthful devil-may-care attitude of the nineteen-year-old artillery soldier rapidly waned in the face of combat in the Second Battle of the Piave. Calamitous shortage of provisions, death and particularly the effects of poisonous gas showed a reality that was far removed from all idealised concepts of war.
