La línea delantera permaneció más o menos sin cambiar desde mayo de 1915 hasta noviembre de 1918. La frontera comenzaba en el Passo dello Stelvio (2.759 m) y se mantenía sobre 3.000 m durante más de 30 kilómetros en el grupo de Ortles-Cevedale hasta llegar al Passo del Tonale (1.895 m), luego pasando por encima de los glaciares del grupo del Adamello por unos 20 kilómetros para más tarde bajar hasta bordear el lago Garda.
During World War I, the west end of the front where Italy and Austria-Hungary fought each other was in the middle of two massive mountain systems, Ortles-Cevedale and Adamelo-Presanella.
The front line remained unchanged from May 1915 to November 1918. The border ran from Passo dello Stelvio (2.759 meters) to the Passo Tonale (1.895 m), keeping over 3.000 m for more than 30 kilometers along the Ortles-Cevedale mountains, then it went through the Adamello glacier for about 20 kilometers and finally around lake Garda.
Mapa del frente
Front map
The war in this part of the front was soon called «Guerra Bianca», that is, White War. Both warring parts fought for three years and a half in a high mountain environment, in positions dug in rock and ice, at more than 3.000 m. altitude, with really extreme weather conditions.
Marcha a 3.000 m
Marching at 3.000 m
Subida con auxilio de mulas
Way up with the help of mules
Living at such an altitude was an enormous problem for the soldiers: winter was almost 8 months long, with intense snowing between October and May and relentless cold. Temperatures frequently fell to -30º. The Italian Alpini and the Austrian Kaiserjäger not only fought one against each other, they also had to suvive in those extreme conditions where avalanches caused almost as many deaths as the battle itself.
Los Alpini en el Stelvio antes de la guerra
The Alpini in the Stelvio Pass before the war
Los Tiroler Kaiserjaeger
The Tiroler Kaiserjaeger
«En los primeros meses de la guerra muy pocas tropas estaban disponibles en esta región, de modo que solamente las posiciones más importantes y más accesibles tuvieron una defensa permanente. Mientras que desplegaban a las tropas a lo largo de la línea delantera en el verano de 1915, varios kilómetros del frente en los glaciares más altos no tenían soldados y apenas eran patrullados de cuando en cuando. Esto causó la primera particularidad de la guerra en esta zona.»
At the beginning of the war, in May 1915, the Austrians occupied the border and its mountains. The history of this episode of World War I is highly interesting. It can be found at www.guerrabianca.org, from which we transcribe some excerpts here:
«In the first months of war very few troops were available in this region so that only the most important and accessible positions had a permanent garrison. While the troops were being deployed along the front line in summer 1915, several kilometres of the front on the highest glaciers were unmanned and just patrolled from time to time. This caused the first peculiarity of the war in this area.»
Cañón en el Ortler
Cannon in the Ortler
Austriacos en el Ortler
Austrians in the Ortler
Durante el verano de 1915 sucedió que los guías italianos e imperiales realizaban caminatas de muchas horas para estar lejos del oficial más cercano, y se sentaban juntos para compartir su almuerzo en zonas de las montañas a las que sólo ellos sabían llegar. Estas reuniones se documentan en memorias personales y tradición oral.
Una serie larga de tales reuniones "oficiosas" ocurrió en esta zona a lo largo de toda la guerra, incluso cuando la guerra comenzó a ser una guerra "verdadera".
Durante el primer verano de la guerra allí se luchaba muy poco. Los ejércitos dedicaron sus esfuerzos a la exploración y reconocimiento de los glaciares más altos y a crear una estructura logística para sobrevivir el invierno entrante y para acomodar más tropas y las artillerías para el verano próximo. La construcción de los caminos nuevos y creación de las estructuras logísticas era la ocupación principal de las tropas cuando no estaban en primera linea del frente.»
«On both sides these patrols were lead by a few local professional Alpine Guides, usually enlisted as non commissioned officers. They all knew each other and were sometimes good friends: before the war they were just the villagers of the next valley.
In the summer of 1915 it happened that Italian and Imperial patrols met on a mountain top, many hours of walk away from the nearest officer, and sat together to share their lunch! These meetings are documented in personal memories and oral tradition.
A long series of such "unofficial" meetings took place in this area all along the war time, even when the war started to be a "real" war.
During the first summer of war there was very little fighting. Both armies dedicated their efforts in exploration and reconnaissance on the highest glaciers and in creating a logistical structure to survive the incoming winter and accommodate more troops and artilleries for the next summer. Building new roads and creating logistical structures was the main occupation of the troops when not in line.»
Construcción de galería
Building a gallery
Transporte de cañon, Passo Venerecolo, 3.151 m
Cannon transportation, Passo Venerecolo, 3.151 m
«From summer 1916 installing and maintaining cableways also became an important duty. Great efforts were also necessary to keep the roads and paths clean from snow in winter and from mud in spring. Snow avalanches and landslides also were a continuous danger along the roads.»
Construcción de teleférico
Building a cable way
Teleférico en Castellaccio
Cable way at Castellaccio
Alpini transportado por teleférico
Alpini transported by cable way
Una tercera particularidad eran las ciudades de hielo, túneles agujereados en el hielo. Al contrario que en las montañas de los Dolomítas, la clase de roca en esta área es difícil de agujerear y no muy conveniente para las minas. Los túneles en hielo son fáciles de cavar, pero difíciles de mantener. Los glaciares se están moviendo como los ríos, solamente más lentamente.
Los túneles fueron utilizados principalmente como abrigos y caminos de acceso de la conexión o también para acercarse a la posición del enemigo. Algunos túneles eran de más de dos kilómetros de largo y un par fueron cavados más o menos con éxito por los del Imperio para atacar posiciones italianas.»
«A second peculiarity of warfare on high mountains was the number of troops, which was very little. Along the first 30 kilometres of front line only 1.500-2.000 men where deployed on each side. No more than 500 ever were in each first line. Big numbers proved quickly to be more of a problem. A third peculiarity was the great number of tunnels bored in the ice. On the contrary than in Dolomites Alps, the kind of rock in this area is difficult to bore and not very suitable for mines.
Tunnels in ice are easy to dig, but hard to maintain. Glaciers are moving like rivers, only more slowly. Tunnels were mainly used as shelters and connection or access paths where the surface was too exposed to the enemy's view. A few tunnels were more than two kilometres long and a couple were more or less successfully dug by the Imperials to attack Italian positions.»
Galeria austriaca
Austrian gallery
Galeria italiana
Italian gallery
A lo largo del frente de la «Guerra Bianca» están hoy ubicadas muchas estaciones de esquí, algunas de ellas de las más famosas de Italia. Naturalmente, las tropas que combatieron en esta guerra no tenían la misma perspectiva que hoy tenemos del esquí, ya que no estaban en las montañas para divertirse. Pero, como ocurrió en otras ocasiones de la historia, la utilización del esquí para efectos militares ha sido importante para el desarrollo posterior de esta actividad.
Los alpini, sobre todo, eran soldados esquiadores, y en este frente de la guerra utilizaron los esquís en muchas ocasiones.
«When the War ended it was already winter on the high mountains. The Imperials simply closed the doors of their huts, made their guns and machineguns unusable and went home to their families. The Italians brought down their guns and machineguns, closed the doors as well and moved forward to take possession of Trentino and SüdTirol, before being demobilised. Most of the equipment was left on site to be recovered on next summer, but mother nature provided a 1918/19 winter extremely snowy and covered many sites permanently for decades. All ice galleries disappeared forever.»
Along the old 'Guerra Bianca' front there are many ski resorts today and some of them are among the most popular in Italy. Obviously, the troops that fought here did not have the same view of ski that we hold today, as they were not in the mountains for amusement. But as so many times in history, the use of ski for military reasons has been very important for the development of this sport.
The alpini were mainly skier soldiers, and they used the skis in that front on many occasions.
Today, many ski resorts in that area still show the remains of the Guerra Bianca. A holiday mixing ski and history would probably be of utter interest. In the northwest part is the Passo Stelvio (Stilfserjoch), Europe’s highest ski resort. A bit eastward we can find Trafoi and Solda (Sulden) ski resorts laying in two different sides of the Ortles, an enormous mountain of 3.905 meters altitude. If we keep southwards we will find the ski resort of Peio and, to the east, Folgarida and Marilleva.
Los Alpini en el Passo di Folgarida
The Alpini in the Folgarida Pass
Then in the Presanella-Adamello mountains are more ski resorts, Ponte di Legno and Passo del Tonale, where there used to be a group of Italian forts.
Ponte di Legno, tropas italianas de partida para el frente
Ponte di Legno, Italian troops setting off to the front
Alpini en el Adamello
Alpini in the Adamello
Combate en el Adamello
Battle in the Adamello
Maniobras en el Adamello
Manoeuvres in the Adamello
www.guerrabianca.it
www.berg.heim.at
www.westfront.de
www.ciemeetrincee.it
www.apiniazzano.com