Luigi Cadorna was in an excellent mood. Since the outbreak of the World War, the morale of his Fifth Army had never been this high.
Lieutenant General Luigi Cadorna believed that retaking Rome was already in the bag. He had figured out the Entente troop deployments inside the city: five Bulgarian infantry divisions, plus five French colonial divisions, as well as some artillery units.
Moreover, all ten of those infantry divisions had fought their way here and had not yet had time to replenish their losses. None were at full strength, and their total force would not exceed 150,000 men!
The Italian army besieging the city, meanwhile, numbered more than 800,000 and was fighting on home soil. With a 5.3-to-1 advantage in troops against an enemy exhausted by a long campaign, there was naturally no reason for failure.
At the same time, Luigi Cadorna privately scorned his peers. More than 200,000 Italian troops had defended Rome, yet they had not even held out for a single day. They had truly disgraced themselves all the way to their grandmothers' houses.
He completely overlooked the fact that after the Italian government announced its withdrawal from the war, it immediately held celebratory festivities—the real "drunken culprit" behind the loss of Rome!
After Italy announced its withdrawal from the war, the Italian garrison in Rome had begun giving itself a holiday. How could romantic Italians possibly do without wine?
They had been holding themselves back for over a year. With such a rare chance to indulge themselves, the officers naturally went to balls, while the soldiers naturally set out to get thoroughly drunk.
And then there was no then. Before the Italians had even reacted, the enemy had entered the city. In the panic, the government's top brass were all busy fleeing for their