Part 6 - One Son's Father, The White War, Trentino, 1916-1918

Prologue

From November 4 to 10, 1916, the infantry of the Macerata Brigade were transferred from the Doberdò area—where they had participated in the Ninth Battle of the Isonzo—to Ala and Pilcante in Vallagarina, near Lake Garda. On November 11, the Brigade entered the front line, under the command of the 37th Division, in the Monte Baldo sector (Mount Baldo - Mount Giovo - Besagno - Castello di Tierno (Mori) - Malga Val Gatto - Cima Mezzana - Passo Buole - Malga Zugna). 

Map showing where the 121st Regiment served in 1916-1918, in Trentino, part of the White War

As Brian Mockenhaupt wrote in Smithsonian Magazine:

“In subzero temperatures men dug miles of tunnels and caverns through glacial ice, They strung cableways up mountainsides and stitched rock faces with rope ladders to move soldiers onto the high peaks, then hauled up an arsenal of industrial warfare: heavy artillery and mortars, machine guns, poison gas and flamethrowers. And they used the terrain itself as a weapon, rolling boulders to crush attackers and sawing through snow cornices with ropes to trigger avalanches. Storms, rock-slides and natural avalanches — the ‘white death’ — killed plenty more. After heavy snowfalls in December of 1916, avalanches buried 10,000 Italian and Austrian troops over just two days.”

Although the 121st Infantry was not part of this "welcome" to the White War, the sister 122nd Regiment was part of this "avalanch-acre". Despite all the hardships of a war in the alpine 

Location of the Brigata Macerata  Avalanche in Val di Gatto - White Friday (December 13, 1916) occurred at the Italian Front of during World War I, when an avalanche struck an Austrian barracks on Mount Marmolada, killing 270 soldiers at Gran Poz. During the following weeks several other avalanches throughout the Italian front (including these) were lumped together. It is estimated that 9,000 to 10,000 soldiers perished.  Though the major occurrence at Gran Poz took place on a Wednesday in 1916, the term White Friday was applied.

heights and glaciers, this theater of war had a distinct advantage over the Isonzo for the everyday soldier.  This advantage was that there was no war of attrition here. There were localized (often intense) firefights, small battles and occasionally a large battle (usually instigated by the Austrians so not on the scale of the Battles in the Isonzo) to try to break out of the trenches and accomplish a pincer move to the main battlegrounds to the east. To the Italian command this was not an offensive war zone. Although there were originally plans existent to move up the Val Lagarina and into Trentino, the main goal was to keep the Austrians from breaking through and trapping the Italian main force at the easternmost Isonzo front, similar to what nearly happened during the Strafexpedition in May 1916. 

Here as in the Isonzo area the Austrians had abandoned the political borders in order to retreat to high ground which was easy to defend. But here the Italian objective was the same - DEFEND and protect the rear of the Isonzo troops.

The White War pushed soldiers to a different limit. Troops were forced to dig trenches and shelters in the rock and ice of the mountains, climbing carrying munitions and artillery pieces, fight between rocks and in Trento, the deep snow (no glaciers), often with inadequate equipment. At altitudes of over 2-3,000 meters, with temperatures freezing even in summer and which could reach 30 degrees below zero in winter, the most insidious enemies were exposure and avalanches, which led to incessant extra work in freezing trenches and claimed victims among the patrols keeping watch in the mountains. In later years my father commented that, “It was the coldest I’ve ever been in my life.”

In these sectors there were occasional battles, even half-hearted assaults, though otherwise troops which were assigned to protect the fortifications in this region lived out the war in relative safety. The actual fierce front action in this White War took place farther north towards the glacier regions of the Presena and the Adamello massif with its peak at 3,554 meters elevation.

Actions in 1916

The initial encampments of the Macerata Brigade were at Val di Gatto, Cima Mezzana, Passo Buole and Malga Zugna. In 1916 there were no specific large battles or enemy actions encountered by the Brigade.  The Brigade history noted: “They (the troops) alternated between the front and rear and performed constant patrols with occasional firefights with the enemy. They performed extensive defensive fortification building marred by many avalanches in the winter causing many losses.”

Passo Boule, Mt. Zugna

The Brigade had to undergo mountain training “on the go”. The Alpine landscape was challenging: mountains up to 2,000m above sea level, with some slopes of up to 80°. There were minimal road and rail connections to the area and in order to make the landscape more suitable for warfare, intensive road-building programs took place; both opposing armies also had to build bridges across mountain ravines, and to construct forts, barracks and huts to serve as accommodation, as well as digging trenches (where possible) or using explosives to create networks of underground caves and tunnels for protection, accommodation and storage. The Italians used cable cars and mules to transport food and munitions up to the mountain-top front lines – and to take the wounded back down to the plains, where hospitals were situated.

Paths at Cima Mazzana

Temperatures remained below freezing for at least four months of each year and snow was a constant presence in winter, with improvised snow trenches being used for defense. Both armies equipped soldiers with ice picks, ropes, snow suits, cold weather clothing and goggles.  Cold and frostbite were real problems for all men in the high Alps, especially when it came to treating the wounded. 

Actions in 1917

The Brigade moved its troops in 1917 to the western Brentonico sub sector. The entire year of 1917 was spent in Vallagarina, in the this sector (Crosano - Ala - Castello di Tierno (Mori)- Besagno - Cazzano - Castuine - Mount Giovo), where the Brigade rotated its units between front-line shifts and rest periods, as well as between patrol activities and front-line construction work.

The front line in these sectors remained more or less static until the end of the war in October 1918, with two armies perched on this strip of land separated by between 700 and 900 meters of no man’s land.

Italian Command Bulletins (Settore Val D’Adige), although not specific to the Macerata brigade, give an idea of what life in this theater was like when the shooting started:

• January 5 - In the area between Adige and Garda on the night of the 4th, an enemy unit violently attacked our advanced lines, greeted by intense firing and machine-gun fire folded up into disorder with considerable losses.
• 21 January -1 February - Between Sarca and Adige enemy movements and artillery duels.
• February 11 - On the front, thirty scattered actions of the artillery; ours targeted the enemy positions of Monte Creino (north of the Loppio depression).
• March 20 - On the slopes of Dosso Casina (south of the Loppio depression) one of our squads occupied an advanced enemy position, taking possession of ammunition and materials.

Italian soldiers at Dosso Casina

• April 4 - On the Trentino front, occasional actions of the artillery, more active also yesterday in the Adige valley where, in retaliation for persistent enemy shots on Ala, we renewed the bombing of the military works of Riva, Arco and Rovereto.
• April 8 - Usual artillery actions. Ours carry out shots on military systems near Mori (Valle Lagarina).
• April 11 - To the renewed enemy medium-sized shots on the inhabited areas of Limone (Garda) and Ala, our batteries responded with retaliatory shots on the enemy lines near Arco and Rovereto.
• April 29 - From Garda to the Brenta on the day of the 28th persistent activity of the enemy aircraft that launched a few bombs on Ala (Lagarina Valley) ...
• May 10 - in the area of ​​Valle d'Adige the night on the 9th the enemy, after preparation of the artillery, launched small attacks on the slopes of ... Dosso Casina and against Sano (south-west of Mori). He was retorted before he reached our lines. Small nuclei that entered our place near Sano were immediately driven back by a counterattack.

Italian Front Lines at Tierno Mori and Talpina with Lake Loppio in background

• May 22 - Between Garda and Adige, after intense and prolonged artillery action of all caliber, the enemy attacked the position of Dosso Alto (south-west of Lake Loppio). The assailants were thrown back with serious losses.
• July 24 - Yesterday the enemy brought more activity on the Tridentine front: his units harassed our workers near Tierno (Mori).
• 25 July - On the Tridentine front, enemy attempts to surprise our advanced places near Lake Loppio were promptly repressed.
• July 27 - In Malga Zures (east of Garda) ... our patrols provoked small actions with a favorable outcome for us.
• July 30 - Yesterday the fighting activity on several points of the Tridentine front: small actions with a favorable outcome took place ... in the depression of Loppio (east of Garda).
• August 11 - South-east of Mori in Val Lagarina, in the night on the 10 strong enemy nuclei, having overcome the resistance of a new advanced place, they managed to penetrate it, but they had to immediately clear it in front of our prompt hurries.
• October 15 - Attempts by enemy nuclei against Dosso Alto (Val Lagarina) remained unsuccessful.
• October 17 - South of Mori, our small guard units, attacked by enemy patrols, repelled them and took some prisoners.

Brentonico after artillery attack 

A 121st Regiment (3rd Battalion Engineers) structure marker on the road between Brentonico and Castione

During the year, there were several artillery and small battles that affected the plain of Mori and the locality of Sano, Lake Loppio, Dos Casina and Dosso Alto di Nago. 

Although the lines of this front remained substantially unchanged, with the Italian defeat of Caporetto on October 24, the advanced positions in the area of Mori and Lake Loppio retreated, and fell back onto the slopes of Monte Baldo Nord, in the Castione area. The stations there are strengthened to resist any follow-up breakthrough attempts.

Castione in 1918

Actions in 1918

In January 1918, the Macerata infantry were still in the Brentonico sector but now further west (Brentonico - Castione - 912th Hill - Dosso Alto di Castione - Mt. Altissimo Sector - Mt. Giovo - Coste di Tierno - Crosano - S. Cecilia - Cazzano - Talpina) and were then rested between Avio and Sabbionara until March 1st, being replaced by the Foggia Brigade (280th, 281st, and 282nd Infantry Regiments).

From March 2 to April 30, the Brigade shifted operations in the Monte Altissimo sector (Mt. Altissimo - Doss Casina - Doss Romit [804th Hill] - Cazzano - Cornè - Resistance Line - 630th Hill - Doss Spirano - 1125th Hill - Roccioni - Malga Rigotti - Malga Sorgente).

Again, from the Italian Command Bulletins (Settore Val D’Adige): 

• January 4 - In the mountain area yesterday there were many concentrations of fire in the Lagarina Valley ... and greater activity of the enemy batteries against our positions at the Altissimo (east of Garda).

Barracks at Mt. Altissimo

• January 13 - Our patrols were very active in the Loppio depression ...
• January 22 - In the Zures regions ... the artillery explained persistent and lively actions.

View of Malga Zures today

• February 4 -... our scouting corps carried out coups in Castione (su di Mori) ... capturing prisoners.
• February 14 - Between "Garda" and "Adige", our "Arditi", overcame several orders of barbed wire enemies, they unexpectedly reached the opposing line in two points, killing several lookouts and drawing some prisoners.
• March 5 - In the Loppio region (Val Lagarina) there was a lively exchange of cannon shots and our patrols with successful harassment actions raised lively alarm in the enemy line.
• March 6 - South of Tierno enemy patrols, which tried to reach our lines, were repelled with losses.
• March 19 - To the east of Garda our advanced places dispelled opposing patrols that tried to surprise them.
• April 21 - To the west of Mori our assault corps attacked the small enemy guards in the region of Sano and, after lively struggle, managed to destroy two and to repel a third; some prisoners brought back.

Then between May and June the Brigade left the Vallagarina and were engaged in a period of exercises and training in Valeggio sul Mincio, in the Verona area, The training was all in anticipation of the Battle of the Solstice they were now transferred to the Piave River front in the Treviso area.

Pilcante on the Adige River, Rest and recuperation behind the front lines in The Monte Baldo Sector ca. 1904

Part 5 - One Son's Father: The Battles of the Isonzo River, 7th, 8th and 9th, The Trieste Offensive, September - November 1916

Prologue

After Gorizia, Cadorna turned his attention to the remainder of the Karst Plateau. Three successive (and short) offensives between September and November were begun and then brought to a halt by a combination of heavy enemy gunfire and bad weather. Together they would cost the Italians 125,000 dead and wounded, as opposed to 85.000 Austrians.

The Austrian command correctly believed that Cadorna would strike on the Karst Plateau again intent on trying to reach Trieste.  The Italian Navy had a plan to use an amphibious assault using a division sized force in concert with a land attack on Trieste. The landing of a division-sized force behind Austrian lines would have turned Boroevic's (the Austrian commander) vulnerable left flank; combined with a general offensive, such a joint army-navy operation might easily have enjoyed strategic success, including the capture of Trieste from the rear. Cadorna had enough troops to spare, but he was uninterested in any plan that was not his own and was not focused on the Isonzo front. 

Meanwhile, Boroevic after the defeat at Gorizia, was strengthening the second defensive positions. By early September, the 5th Imperial Army had 40,000 construction troops, half of them unarmed Russian prisoners of war, working day and night in the Isonzo valley. They built stone reinforcements, dug deeper trenches, laid foot-high walls of sandbags, placed steel shields and barbed wire in front of entrenchments, and did all the tasks that were required to make the army's positions ready for Cadorna's next attack. They worked especially hard on the Carso, where the next Italian blow was expected. The construction units suffered regular losses to random Italian artillery fire, but remarkably, most of the second defensive line was ready in the second week of September, fortuitously, because Cadorna would launch another direct ground offensive to Nova Vas on September 14 in the Seventh Battle of the Isonzo, also known as the Battle of Nad Logem. Nad Logem refers to a strategic summit on the Karst Plateau, located along the Isonzo Front, near Doberdò. 

Moreover, the loss of Gorizia convinced the Austrian AND GERMAN High Commands of the gravity of the Italian threat, and Boroevic received more new units and replacement battalions than ever before (even drawing troops from the Eastern Front with Germany's consent). By mid-September, the Austrian forces on the Isonzo reached an unprecedented strength of almost fourteen divisions (165 infantry battalions). Boroevic also received artillery reinforcements from the High Command also by mid-September. 

Moreover, the battle-worn divisions broken by the Sixth Battle were being rapidly rebuilt. Only a month after its loss, Austria's 58th Division was again at full strength, but its character had changed; only one-third of the division's eighteen infantry battalions were Dalmatian (locals), the rest being new units drawn from all over the empire. The 17th Division was also reconstructed to look much like its former self. The Austrian VII Corps still held the line on the north and central Carso; the plateau's southern third was garrisoned by a mostly Czech battle group, one and a half divisions strong. In all, Austria had seven brigades-32,000 infantrymen-at Isonzo to beat back the expected coming Italian offensive. The Italians knew little of this rapid recovery.

Battle of Nad Logem

On September 13 the Macerata Brigade had again been deployed to Doberdo as part of the 31st Division – south of Quota 208 Sud and on September 15 is ready for action in the narrow, deep but small valley of Bonetti, south of Quota 208 Sud.

The Macerata Brigade was positioned left of the lake opposite Quota 208 S (see C), attacking into the valley to the right.

After ceasing artillery fire, the II Battalion of the 121st Regiment initiates a bayonet attack to the edge of the Austrian trenches but the lateral troops cannot support the advance and the Battalion is forced to fall back.  They are then reinforced by I Battalion of the 122nd Regiment who make a breakthrough and leap over a sinkhole (dolina) leading to the capture of 20 Austrian officers and 200 troops. The enemy counterattacked and forced the left of the line to fall back.  The 31st Division faired considerably better than its neighboring 19th Division.  This group was torn apart by machine gun and artillery fire well before reaching the Austrian lines.  Then a surprise counterattack by a single company of Austria’s 11th Kaiserjägers pushed the dazed Italian troops back to their own lines.  Also an attempt by the XII Corps to expand its hold on Quota 144 also failed.

Trenches at Quota 208 Sud (South)

From September 17 until 24 the action ebbed and flowed in another bloody battle. The Macerata Brigade is then relieved by the Modena Brigade and moves to Romans d’Isonzo in the rear to recuperate. 

The short nature of this battle allowed the Austrians to continue to rebuild. By this time the Imperial Army was now facing three fronts – the Eastern (Russia), the new Transylvanian (Romanian) and the Italian. The Italian front was still the lowest priority but the high command was able to send two more divisions to Borovic and more work was done in the south sector on the secondary defensive lines towards Trieste.

Map showing the locations of the places involved in the Battles of the Isonzo River (7, 8 & 9)

The Eighth Battle of the Isonzo River

On October 10, the Eighth Battle of Isonzo ensued. Essentially this was a continuation of Italy’s prior attack in September (Nad Logen) which in turn was an attempt to extend the bridgehead established at Gorizia in August 1916 south to Trieste. Cadorna was determined to continue Italian attacks to the left of the town of Iamiano (Jamiano), a policy that continued during the subsequent (ninth) battle - with equal lack of success.

33rd Division Position at Quota 208 Sud

On October 12 the Macerata Brigade is sent again to the front lines under the command of the 33rd Division. Two battalions are sent to Quota 208 and two battalions are sent to the towns of Palichisce and Ferletti under the command of the 47th Division and first to Vermegliano (in reserve) and thence to Boneti to replace the 41st Regiment. 

The Battle could be considered an Italian victory because some ground was gained (but not enough to indicate a path to Trieste). However, what the Battle also showed was that the still beleaguered Austrians had just enough strength to stop an advance but not be overrun.  This was the war of attrition that Italy would be expected to win if no further changes were made.  As long as there were enough infantrymen to sacrifice - “offer up in grey-green clothes” – as articulated by D’Annunzio, the odds would be in Italy’s favor.

It is worth noting, however, that this battle represented at least in theory one of the most dramatic moments for the Empire of Austria-Hungary. Although Cadorna and his military commanders were unaware, the resistance at Iamiano (the small village to the south-east of Doberdò) saved the destiny of that front for Borevic. In fact the Austro-Hungarian commanders, after the withdrawal that had taken place in August, were still re-organizing the new defensive lines in the south. A specialist sent by Vienna to visit the Vipacco Valley suggested the organization of a new fortified line that would be placed further back from the first line (by about three kilometers) and that would take advantage of the maze of rocky paths and of the numerous natural caverns around Mount Ermada.  When the combatants reached Iamiano in this battle, the new defensive lines were still inadequate and if the Italian army had continued along this road, it would most likely have succeeded in breaking through and in advancing towards Trieste. 

But the reality was otherwise. As with the earlier, Seventh Battle attack, heavy Italian casualties - this time 50,000–60,000 killed, wounded, missing or captured, compared to 38,000 killed, wounded, missing or captured for the Austrians - required that the short, sharp concentrated initiative be called off pending the army's recuperation. The Trieste-Isonzo onslaught was next renewed with the Ninth Battle of the Isonzo on 1 November 1916.

The Ninth Battle of the Isonzo River

The German command still recognized the gravity of the situation and allowed another single Austrian division to be transferred from the Russian front to Italy.  They would arrive in late October. 

Sketch showing components of the Italian Third Army before the 9th Battle of the Isonzo River, including the Macerata Brigade SE of Boneti

The battle began on November 1, after 24 hours of artillery fire. The Italian XI Corps made a breakthrough of the front in its sector, occupying important positions on Veliki Hribach and Pecinka; on the contrary the XIII Corps was stopped by the counterattack of the Imperial Army. During the night the Austrian counter produced a constant artillery fire on the new positions of Veliki and Pecinka, held by the 45th division; at 4 o'clock they attacked en masse but the resistance of the Barletta brigade saved the day. This part of the battle which lasted more than 12 hours, allowed the arrival of the reserves, practically saving the situation of the 45th division. On November 2 new positions were taken on the Karst plateau in the area of ​​Castagnevizza, while towards the south the Imperial Army resisted the Italian assault. Because of the shortage of ammunition and considering the new positions taken as satisfactory Cadorna ordered the suspension of operations on the evening of the November 2. Then on November 3 and 4 the struggle suddenly resumed, due to the retreat of the Austrians to more backward positions, a retreat immediately exploited by Italian troops that on the evening of the November 4 who occupied all the trenches of Mount Fajtji. But as always, the Austro-Hungarian Army's position on the high terrain provided a formidable natural barrier to the Italians' attempts to achieve the breakthrough to Trieste.

Bombardment during battle near Boneti

Also on November 1, the Marcerata Brigade took its part in the Ninth Battle of the Isonzo River as part of the 33^rd Division - again at the northern flank of the main thrust of the assault. In the initial wave they were able to overrun the enemy trench and at Quota 208, capture 200 Austrians and send many on the run back to their rear. But the flanks were unable to duplicate this success and with the threat of being cut off the advanced units returned to their initial positions. Three other battalions (the I and II of the 122 Regiment and V of the Bersaglieri) launched another attack. The loss of the three battalion commanders (two fallen on the field and the other seriously injured) stymied the effort and as a result the gains were outweighed by the losses on the battlefield. The Brigade (tired and exhausted) eventually took the ridge of the Valtellina after having lost on 17 officers and 546 men. These unit actions were recognized by the award of the Medaglia d'argento al valore militare.

Italian soldiers in trench at Quota 208 Sud

Aftermath for the 121st infantry

The Karst Plateau Campaign was over for the winter of 1916-1917.  The Macerata Brigade was now miraculously to be transferred to the “quiet” Trentino Front - the White War. On November 4 the Brigade is sent to Vermigliano, then the next days to Cervignano and Strassoldo and on November 6-8 moved by rail to Val Lagarina between Pilcante and Brentonico-Passo Buole under the control of the 37th Division tasked with the protection and defense of Baldo sector and Brentonico sub-sector where they spent the rest of the year, the entirety of 1917 and a part of 1918.