Ninety years since the Great War, the landscape of Monte Grappa stills shows the scars of its history... 
Restriction: None Text: Available Photo: by Giovanni Simeone Searching through the many pages of history that have been written on the First World War, finding any mention of the battle of Monte Grappa is rare. This place, however, holds the graves of 40,000 Italian and Austrian soldiers. “No battle defines Italy's struggle in la Grande Guerra better than Monte Grappa. Not only is it a tactical, political and morale watershed for the Italian military and people, the combat on the Grappa massif is also one of the greatest, unsung battles of World War One” http://www.worldwar1.com/heritage/mtg1.htm Monte Grappa and the river Piave were the key to the final battle, just a year after the enormous defeat of Caporetto where 50,000 soldiers of the Italian army were captured or killed. In this reportage the intention is to walk again along the places, the summits, the forest of Monte Grappa and the Montello hill, and to see what remains after ninety years. Just as it is, nothing else. This is landscape with a memory; galleries, roads, explosions, viewpoints. But also where nature is starting to erase this memory. In few years everything will disappear and only the names of victims will remain. Names from all sides of the war; Italian, Austrian, German, Hungarian, Serbian, French, British'... and many were just teenagers. Here is another short passage taken from Rich Galli “As much as Verdun or Gallipoli, the attrition on Monte Grappa embodies the Great War. But this rarely mentioned battlefield has another quality that makes its story additionally dramatic. Imagine the Somme with a two thousand foot elevation gain for every mile. Or imagine Ypres having forty-degree rock slopes with trenches chiseled out of solid stone. Extreme effort and high casualties were always expected during First World War attacks. Imagine, however, advancing up mountain slopes, over barren rock, in dense cloud and howling wind or in a horizontal blizzard of sleet or snow. The incredible resiliency and tactical effectiveness of the Italian infantryman and his stalwart enemy, the troops of the crumbling Austro-Hungarian Empirestands out amongst the fighters of the Great War”. |