YOU HAVE TO DIE IN PIEDMONT!: The Battle of Assietta, 19 July 1747 -- The War of the Austrian Succession in the Alps

Tells of the French regiments that were coming from the Mongeneve Pass in order to attack a combined Austro-Sardinian force entrenched on the Assietta Plateau. The battle was the bloodiest single day action not only of the War of Austrian Succession (1740-1748) in Italy, but in the whole military history of the Alps. Details how the strategic goal of the French offensive was the siege and the capture of the Fort of Exilles, in the Susa Valley on the road from Briancon to Turin. The Battle of Assietta became a sort of military legend for the Sardinian forces, and subsequently for the Italian Army, but no serious attempt to reconstruct the event was ever made. Only at the end of the nineteenth century did the French try to develop a more detailed study of the struggle by publishing the manuscript written by Lieutenant-General de Vault in the second half of eighteenth century. Contains 26 black and white illustrations, 18 black and white photos, 19 maps, 3 diagrams, and 14 tables.