Apart from resentment against France on account of Tunisia there remained the question of the temporal power of the pope to turn the scale in favor of Austria and Germany.
Badoglio had hoped to hold the enemy attack from Tolmino, and turn the scale by a counter-attack on the Lom plateau with his three divisions on the left bank of the river.
To each of the combatants it seemed that the English alliance would turn the scale in his own favor.
