The Battle of Monte Piana was a long and bloody series of clashes that took place on the summit of Monte Piana which is part of the Sexten Dolomites massif. Between 1915 and 1917 some of the most violent clashes took place between Italian and Austro-Hungarian soldiers who fought for two years on the flat top of this mountain. It was one of the bloodiest and most static theaters of the entire war, and despite the clear superiority of men and armaments of the Royal Army, the Italian commands were never able to conquer the dominant positions on the mountain occupied by the Austrians, both for tactical errors and for incompetence of a new and unusual battle in the high mountains.
Background
Although Italy was a member of the Triple Alliance with Austria-Hungary and Germany, Italy did not enter the war in August 1914 claiming that none of its allies had been directly attacked. Italy also had a strong rivalry with Austria-Hungary that dated back to the Congress of Vienna of 1815, after the Napoleonic Wars, when cities with an Italian majority were ceded to Austria.
The borders established after the Third Italian War of Independence had in almost all cases favored the Austrians, the predominantly mountainous border, which in its western part corresponded almost everywhere with the current administrative limit of the region Trentino-Alto Adige benefited the Austrians who found themselves in a situation of geographical advantage everywhere, as they were in an elevated position compared to the Italians. However, the situation was different on Monte Piana, where the ancient border between Tyrol and the Republic of Venice remained, sanctioned by memorial stones on the summit plateau of the mountain; this was almost entirely Italian territory that penetrated Austrian territory forming a wedge pointed towards Dobbiaco. The Austrians, for their part, protected themselves from this threat by transforming Rautkofel into a very strong artillery position completed by the batteries positioned on Col di Specie (above Pratopiazza) and on Torre dei Scarperi, capable of keeping the Monte Piana plateau entirely under fire. At the outbreak of the conflict between Italy and Austria-Hungary, Mount Piana found itself in the middle of a fundamental crossroads, which if conquered would have led the Italian troops to enter Dobbiaco, and therefore be able to head towards Brunico or even Lienz.
The tranquility of this mountain was already shattered in the first days of the war, when Monte Piana revealed itself for what it was in the strategic vision of the conflict, a gigantic mountain flattened at the top, of what at the beginning of the 20th century was one of the crucial nodes of the eastern Dolomite front, which if broken through would have led directly to Val Pusteria and the railway, a vital hub of Austrian communications.
The Battle on Monte Piana
On 23 May at 7.00 pm the Imperial-Royal post office of Dürrensee was informed by telephone that Italy had declared war on Austria-Hungary. During the night the Austrian sentries abandoned their posts along the northern summit of Mount Piana to move downstream to the defensive lines, and at the same time destroyed all the road systems. The Italians did the same on the morning of 24 May, when the Alpine troops set fire to the Piano-Hütte, built trenches along the southern edge and sent a platoon near the Carducci pyramid, which constituted the most advanced Italian post
The first Italian deaths on the Cadore front were 2 Alpini of the 67th company, who around 8.30 am on 24 May were hit by a grenade fired from the Austrian battery of Birkenkofel. All the Alpine troops, free from duty, rushed to the large hotels in the area, looking for spies; However, in the cabin of the Grand Hotel they only found a thousand bottles of the best European wines, of which they massacred (in truth the wine was paid for with a month's pay by the Alpine officers, plus the officers' contribution).
On 27 May the Austrians transported a howitzer to the Passo Grande dei Rondoi which immediately began to attack the Piana. In those days the Monte Piana line that went from the Carducci pyramid to the precipice on the Vallon dei Castrati was manned by the Alpine troops who carried out continuous patrols in Piz Popena and Höhlensteintal while on 1 June two groups of sappers they set fire to the Rienza barracks and with the jelly they interrupted the path that from the town garrisoned by the Austrians to the west of Monte Piana, Carbonin, led to Forcella dei Castrati
On the Austrian side, the newly arrived field marshal Ludwig Goiginger, commander of the Pustertal division, requested the sending of reinforcements for an action on Mount Piana, of which he had already recognized the fundamental importance strategic. The Italians should not be allowed to permanently settle on the mountain, fortifying it and transporting enough artillery there, to open the much desired passage up to Dobbiaco, so Goiginger ordered a first action to be carried out on the night between 6 and 7 June.
Austrian attack on 7 June 1915
On 7 June, in preparation for the attack, the Austrian artillery began targeting the Italian positions as early as 4 am that day. In the silence of a bad weather night, two assault groups of Standschützen slowly climbed towards the flat top of the mountain, the first assault group leaving from Carbonin under the leadership of second lieutenant Wilhelm Bernhard was the most numerous, he arrived in the western valley around 5.30 am and under the cover of darkness he quickly neutralized the first sentries, and in a short time a tremendous melee broke out, the Italian reinforcements did not take long and rushed from the nearby Italian garrison the men of the 268th Alpine company. Meanwhile, the second unit of attackers arriving from Landro also arrived, making a decisive contribution to the attack in favor of the Austrians.
The clashes were fierce especially around the Carducci pyramid. The Austrians managed to penetrate the Italian trenches, but suffered a counterattack from the Alpine troops with the platoons of second lieutenants Giuseppe De Pluri and Antonio De Toni who both died together with 100 other men.
With the arrival of daylight, the Italian troops, tired and decimated, pushed by the Austrians into the southernmost part of the plateau, were helped by the artillery positioned in Longeres which thus managed to stop the enemy attack and above all the influx of reinforcements; at 2.00 pm the Austrian command, worried by the number of losses due to Italian artillery fire, ordered the front line to be re-established on the northern plateau; in positions that will never be conquered by the Italians during the war. After a few hours the Italians regain possession of the southern plateau without firing a shot. A company and a machine gun section of the 56th Infantry are sent as reinforcements
The positions are consolidated: June – July 1915
From the following day the Austrians began to dig deep trenches with barbed wire, despite the fact that the garrison was exposed to rain, cold and hunger, given that the supplies were not arriving as the roads connecting the valley floor were beaten by the Italian artillery which dispersed the carrier file.
The Italian deployment was thus consolidated on the following positions:
- Val Boite subsector (along the Felizon river): two infantry battalions in line and one in reserve at the regimental command in Majon di Valgrande;
- Valle Ansiei subsector from Piz Popena to Vallon dei Castrati one infantry battalion in Val Popena, one on Monte Piana, one in reserve in Forcella Bassa, between Cima delle Saline and Col della Selva, with the regimental command in Misurina;
- Vallon dei Castrati in Forcella Giralba: an infantry battalion from Val Rimbianco to Forcella Col di Mezzo, one in the Cengia and Giralba region, one in reserve at the regimental command in Casoni Crogera.
Furthermore, after the lesson of 7 June, in order to prevent the Austrians from accessing Monte Piana through the Vallon dei Castrati, the Italians sent men to block Val Rimbianco at the height of the Barracks of the same name (between Sasso Gemello and Forcellette ). The Austrian conduct, despite some Italian attacks bloody repelled, did not change, the main attention was dedicated to defense, but offensive attacks and artillery fire were not disdained. On the night of 15 June, an Austrian patrol, in fact, approaching Forcella Giralba at dawn, fired at an Italian lookout, Infantryman Ricciuti, who, although wounded, managed to hold back the Austrians until the arrival of reinforcements.
The first Italian attack
Preparations
The Italian command was excessively cautious in the first weeks of the war, and did not take the opportunity to exploit the collapse of the poorly supplied and poorly defended Austrian lines. So after a long period of useless stasis it was decided to attack only after the arrival of a sufficient number of artillery pieces. This numerical superiority was nullified by this period of waiting, which allowed the defenders to decisively consolidate the defense positions. The general Ottavio Ragni issued the order of operations which provided for the attack in force against the Landro and Sesto barrages; with the support of the batteries distributed as follows:
- Artillery of the Fourth Army
Data taken from:
The attack was entrusted to the Marche brigade, to a company of the Pieve di Cadore battalion with the task of attacking the positions on the ridge and to a battalion of the Como brigade, with the task of bypassing the Austrian positions passing through Carbonin. But the Austrian defensive works on the crest of the Piana attracted the greatest attention of the Italian command, it was the infantrymen under the orders of major Angelo Bosi who had to attack these works. The attack would have taken place along three lines, the main line, divided into 4 platoons, directed towards the works and trenches, the right column directed towards Landro and the left column directed towards Rauhkofel. On the Austrian side, the defense of Monte Piano was entrusted to a battalion of Landesschützen and to a battalion of the'Alpenkorps; on the 19th a battalion of Kaiserjäger will also climb the mountain.
The attack
At 5 am on 15 July an incessant artillery fire began towards the Austrian positions, Monte Piana and the Carducci pyramid. Three hours later a rocket launched from Villa Loero on Colle S. Angelo, gave the signal for the infantry to sprint forward, as soon as the men set foot out of the trenches, the artillery reaction was waiting for them Austrian attack, which caused 13 Italian deaths and around a hundred minor injuries. Around 1 pm, a company of Alpini along the main route arrives at the Carducci pyramid which was found clear and begins to entrench itself, no longer being able to move towards the Austrian works, after having taken Vallon dei Castrati anyway.
The following morning, it was decided that at midday, the 9th and 11th companies would attack to cover the 400 meters of distance that divided the two enemy lines, and capture the Austrian trenches. When the two companies jumped out of cover, they were greeted by a dense concentration of artillery which forced them to slow down their advance considerably and when they arrived at the Forcella dei Castrati, they were already significantly reduced in momentum and personnel, so that it was not possible to conquer the Austrian lines.
For five days, attacks followed one another on the three routes, as bloody as they were useless. It was possible to drive the Austrians out of the southern plateau and conquer Forcella dei Castrati, but not the important and strategic northern edge of the mountain, which remained unconquered despite repeated attacks. On the last day of the attack alone, 20 July, the Italian figures speak of 104 dead, 578 wounded and 151 missing, most of them disintegrated by enemy artillery. On 17 July Major Bosi and Captain Gregori also lost their lives.
The action of the General Luca Montuori
After the Italian attack, the Austrian troops found themselves with destroyed and unusable positions, reconstruction was only possible at night, and the chronic lack of supplies made the situation worse. In the Italian positions the "Umbria" replaced the "Marche" in the positions from Val Popena to Croda dell'Arghena, while the "Marche" retreated between Somprade and Auronzo di Cadore, at the mouth of the Val Marzon.