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