Book THE BATTLE OF THE THREE MOUNTAINS - by Paolo Volpato

The Battle of the Three Mountains. 1917-1918 Altopiano dei Sette Comuni, Monte Valbella, Col del Rosso and Col d'Echele by Paolo Volpato

• Title The Battle of the Three Mountains
• Subtitle 1917-1918 Altopiano dei Sette Comuni, Monte Valbella, Col del Rosso and Col d'Echele
• Pages 288
• Photo 107
• Cover price € 22,00
• Publishing House Itinera Projects
• Author(s) Paul Volpato
• Publication date 07/2021
• REFERENCE 978-8832239171
• Buy direct online
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Strange fate that of the"Tre Monti"at the gates of Asiago. From a symbol of rebirth of an army, if not of an entire nation,to the settlement of ski resorts, marble quarries and, unfortunately, landfill. Outclassed in the collective imagination by other much more imposing peaks, where the flight of eagles is already an indication of greater grandeity and majesty.

It therefore seems necessary to recover to the historical memory a whole year of fighting on the"Tre Monti",the Valbella,the Col del Rosso,the Col d'Echele,which are just a few kilometers from the inhabited centers and on which it was fought at the end of 1917 and for the entire 1918 just as bloodily as on the nearby Grappa,and on the Piave.

it is true that in part the memoirs repair the wrong by remembering mainly what is one of the fundamental steps for the Royal Italian Army after Caporetto,the battle of January 1918,an event that is often remembered by official historiography when retracing the main events, a synthesis for a quick reading of the entire conflict. In some respects, however, both this and the second defensive battle fought in the following month of June 1918, have never been deepened in their internal dynamics.

Instead, the double reconquest of Monte Valbella, the Col del Rosso and the Col d'Echele brings with it some very interesting points of analysis, constituting not only the first proof of the moral recovery of the Italian troops after the defeat of Caporettor, also the application of a renewed technical-military doctrine of the Royal Army, especially in its victorious success of the first offensive action against the Austro-Hungarian Army,in turn back from the effort following the success of the breakthrough of the Isont front. And if we look at the geographical map, we will realize how important the possession of these mountains also had on a strategic level: a few kilometers separated the Austro-Hungarian divisions from Bassano on one side and from Marostica on the other, in short from the descent into the plains from the mountains of the Seven Municipalities, the goal of always and yet never achieved. it is in some ways a situation very similar to that of 1916,with in addition the aggravating factor of the unknown of an army that behind it no longer guaranteed the certainty of a solid hold, but which indeed was undergoing a deep and long reorganization.

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The first"Battle of the Three Mountains"also marks the watershed between the old conception of conducting the war of General Luigi Cadorna with the new war address wanted by the new Chief of Staff of the Italian Army, General Armando Diaz. First of all, it can be said that the first"Battle of the Three Mountains"represents one of the few Italian offensive actions of 1918,and sees a limited number of troops protagonists in a stretch of front of short amplitude. Ceased the powerful offensive shoulder wanted by Cadorna,which involved hundreds of thousands of soldiers and causing losses such as to be ultimately unbearable, the new strategy of the Supreme Command placed the army in a situation of waiting, dictated not only by objective needs of reconstitution of the departments, disintegrated by the very serious losses suffered with theAustro-German offensive of Caporetto,also by a new attention towards the troop no longer considered as a reservoir of men, but as a union of minds that, properly prepared and motivated, could become an effective operational tool and convinced of its role. And so, in addition to the impractical offensive shouldering, every more general counterattack purpose was also postponed to better times, as it was implemented in 1916 after the Strafexpedition; even when, after the victorious defense at the "Battle of the Solstice" in June 1918, the conditions of the Austro-Hungarians seemed such as to make immediate counteroffensive plans possible and with good margins of success.

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Despite the many criticisms that this method attracted on the work of the new Chief of Staff of the Army,fueled above all by the Allied commands that fanned on the fire of the revenge advocated by the internal political component, it is undeniable that in the end, in the new conception of modern war that increasingly loomed as a battle of materials than as a series of victorious maneuvers on the field, the new wait-and-see mentality repaid its proponent. The French allies accustomed to the consents of Cadorna in carrying out offensives useful to lighten the Western Front, but useless for the Italian war purposes, had to note an unexpected firmness in the new Conduct of Italian war no longer subservient to their interests. On the other hand, with a part of the Italian territory in enemy hands it could not be otherwise. And from this painful, momentary loss, the Italian infantrymanhad to be reborn.

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The"Battle of the Three Mountains"has entered by right into the history and traditions of the Sassari Brigade and the Bersaglieri Corps,but on the three heights also daring, Alpine and above all infantrymen of less celebrated brigades contributed with their actions to make theAltipiano and its Armyjump once again to the honors of the news and official bulletins. In all cases they were not easy fights, if anything we can define the actions of war,but attacks and counterattacks of both contenders were often conducted with the force of despair, almost always with particular fury, seeking the physical and moral annihilation of the enemy, without exclusion of blows, often even without that "chivalrous" residue of nineteenth-century memory. It was the search for "Victory at any cost!".

We trust that the pages of this volume will perhaps help to make the low profile of these peaks less absentmindedly observed by those who turn their gaze to them from streets and buildings where today, fortunately for us, peace reigns.

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foreword

introduction

Chapter 1 - From Caporetto to the Piave

Chapter 2 - Sisemol: The Battle for the Fourth Mount

Chapter 3 - Bloody Christmas on the Plateau

Chapter 4 - Genesis of the Battle of the Three Mountains

Chapter 5 - Orders start

Chapter 6 - Cima Valbella serbane perennial memory

Chapter 7 - The Epic of the Col del Rosso

Chapter 8 - Valbella is in our firm possession

Chapter 9 - Flames on the Three Mountains

Chapter 10 - Last Act of the Winter Battle

Chapter 11 - The Bitter Victory of General Arcangelo Scotti

Chapter 12 - The Battle of the Three Mountains in the Italian and foreign press

Chapter 13 - Operation Radetzky on the Asiago Plateau

Chapter 14 - The Second Battle of the Three Mountains

Chapter 15 - Hungarians on the Italian front

Chapter 16 - Last Blood on the Three Mountains

Chapter 17 - Towards Victory

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