There were over a dozen fronts on which the
First World War was fought, on or near five continents It was fought in deserts, in mud, in snow,
on land, at sea, and in the air. And it was fought in the mountains. I’m Indy Neidell; welcome to a Great war
on the road special episode about mountain warfare in the first world war. Fighting in cold climates like the arctic
or high mountains was not a new concept when the war broke out. In 1590, 600 Finns on skis defeated a Muscovite
invasion, and in 1747 the first official ski-corps was established in Norway. However, the first real mountain troops we
would define as modern did not appear before the end of the 19th century when practical
climbing gear and new climbing techniques were developed. This was because of a newfound European interest
in mountaineering. The heights were romanticized and inspired
poets and artists alike, and it was a new frontier for humankind to conquer, and a great
achievement to master the highest peaks. All over the world, people began climbing
mountains, the Alps, the Rocky Mountains, the Andes, even the mighty Himalayas were
climbed for sport, and mountains even began to figure in military planning. War in 1866 had drawn a new border between
Austria what would soon be Italy through the peaks and valleys of the Eastern Alps and
the Western Dolomites. Alpine altitudes varied on an average of about
3,000 feet- 915m- above sea level, but could reach three times that. However, they were not as much of a continuous
barrier as, say, the Pyrenees, since the Alps consisted of numerous ranges of varying heights,
divided by deep cliffs and valleys. This is why you get somewhat fragmented tales
of Alpine actions in the World War, as operations and skirmishes were fought by small detachments
over different mountains and passes. Italy was the first nation to officially introduce
a corps of mountain infantry, the Alpini. In 1872, a militia was raised from among the
local Alpine population to defend the northern frontier of the newly founded nation. These locals had grown up there, and were
experts in hiking and climbing in the treacherous climate. They were physically fit enough and brave
enough for the steep ledges and were natural light infantry, trained in skiing, with climbing
tackle, in sharpshooting, and in surviving the cold. Though surprisingly, they saw action in the
deserts of the Italo-Abyssinian War and the Boxer Rebellion, this war was their real proving
ground. Italy fielded over 78 Alpini battalions and
over 3,000 km of trenches were blown into the mountains on the Italian side of the front
alone. Over half a million soldiers were quartered
in tiny huts on the mountainsides. They needed excellent rations, since over
4,000 calories a day were required to live and work in the harsh climate. Winter could come early- in 1916 it came already
in September and October with temperatures down to nearly -30 degrees and 4 m of snow. Mules and men pulled or pushed ammunition
and artillery up the steep slopes, and countless groups of Italian women worked daily to make
winter garments for the men. Caps, flannel cloaks, scarves, and gloves
were desperately needed by the men, who spent the days wrapped in furs with their faces
greased with fat to protect them from the icy winds. A group could be cut off for weeks or even
months by the elements or combat, and the Alpini endured what would surely have killed
less experienced troops. There was also a certain mysticism among them. Historians speak of the Alpini sharing old
faiths and tales from their ancestors. These were tales of vampires, fairies, and
hobgoblins living in the mountains, but there was also a deep Catholic faith. This was very important to the men, as evidenced
by the chapels and crosses all over the Alps, and the soldiers believed the saints protected
them from danger. The surroundings and the seclusion also gave
many a fatalistic outlook, and they volunteered for the most dangerous of missions. The Austrian defenders were equally at home
in the mountains. Their mountain troops, the Alpen- and Kaiserjäger,
had the same skill set as the Alpini, and were trained in the Lilienfeld ski techniques
that originated in Norway and Greenland. They also used experienced climbers and mountaineers
from the Transylvanian Alps, the Carpathians, and the Sudetenland as trainers, so nearly
every Jäger battalion had a ski detachment. Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, Austrian army
Chief of Staff, had written down in preparation for his “Punishment Expedition”: “The
most inaccessible regions of the Vosges mountains in France, the most difficult and irregular
valleys and ranges of the Carpathians, and the labyrinth of the Balkan mountains were
less of a barrier compared to these great, rocky mountains, steep valleys, precipices,
and chasms. The Trentino.” The Austrians did have a more cautious approach
since they were usually on defense. They engineered caverns and dugouts into the
mountains, using the environment to their advantage, since digging a normal trench was
pretty much impossible. They were also outnumbered, so they tried
to fight the war from a distance as much as possible, using mountain guns, machine gun
emplacements, and siege mortars from plateaus far away. “...tactically speaking in a war where there
was some movement a succession of mountains were nothing to hold as a line because it
was too easy to turn them. You should have possible mobility and a mountain
is not very mobile... if the flank were turned, the best men would be left on the highest
mountains. I did not believe in a war in the mountains...
you pinched off one mountain and they pinched off another, but when something started, everyone
had to get down off the mountains.” Ernest Hemingway, “A Farewell to Arms”. And it’s true that battle in the mountains
was as harsh as the climate. The stones were as sharp as knives, cutting
even the strongest boots to pieces. Ropes were cut, and high winds could blow
soldiers off the mountain to their deaths. Glaciers were prepared with explosives, and
that would bury the enemy in avalanches or rock falls. “White Friday” was December 13, 1916,
when an entire Austrian barrack on Mount Marmolada was buried. 270 soldiers were killed there, but just that
month, an estimated 9 to 10,000 soldiers were buried and killed by avalanches on the front. Italian sappers used gelatin tubes to destroy
barbed wire, Austrian Jäger countered with hand grenades and superior mountain artillery. Exploding mortar shells caused razor sharp
stone splinters to fly, devastating to eyes and faces, and once you reached enemy positions,
there was only one available tactic, rushing the enemy. If the Italians forced the Austrians off a
mountain top, the Austrians called in their artillery, bombing what was left of the position
and the Italian survivors. And so it went on. Sappers and miners dug ever deeper into the
rock, using dynamite to forever change the faces of the mountains. Actually you can see the Col Di Lana right
behind us. The peak of the mountain was undermined by
Italian sappers and on three different occasions, the summit was blasted off by huge explosions. The heavy fighting gave it the name “Col
di Sangue” - Blood Mountain. Ammunition and supplies were brought up through
tunnels dug with enormous drilling engines, and dugouts were built with hammers and electric
drills. A lone sharpshooter could do massive damage
to an exposed and slowly climbing enemy unit and control whole valleys: "The Schreckenstein not only barred the approaches
to the head of the Travenanze valley from the south; it also gave Tyrolean sharpshooters
an opportunity to keep the terrain as far as the Dolomite road under accurate fire." The Austrian marksmen scoped versions of the
standard Mannlicher M.1895 straight-pull rifles, but also scoped versions of what was known
as the "Mexican" - an export Mauser rifle produced by Steyr in Austria for the Mexican
army, but since they hadn't been shipped, the order was cancelled, and the already produced
"Mexicans" were adopted by the Austro-Hungarian Army. The Italians gave theirs the Carcano M91,
often with French scopes. These men were known as Cecchino, derived
from the slang term for Austrian Emperor Franz Josef, “Cecco Beppe”. Mountain warfare was a truly brutal part of
modern war, and the men who fought and died were amazingly resilient and brave men. We cover all of the battles and even some
of the small skirmishes of the war in the mountains of the Italian front in our regular
episodes, today was just a brief look at some of the harshest conditions in this harshest
of wars. If you want to know more about sharpshooters
and snipers on the Western Front during World War 1, you can watch our special episode right
here. Your support on Patreon means that we can
film episodes at original World War 1 locations like here in the Dolomites. If you want to see more of that, consider
supporting us on Patreon. Don’t forget to subscribe, see you next
time.
