Book the TRUTH About AUSTRIAN ORTIGARA-Sedlar's curated by Pozzato, Dal Molin

The book the TRUTH About eight AUSTRIAN ORTIGARA Sedlar curated by Paolo Pozzato and Roger D with archival photos Dal Molin

• Title The truth about Austrian Ortigara
• Subtitle N/A
• 208 Pages
• Cover price € 22,00
• Publishing House Itinera Projects
• Author (s) 8 Sedlar (Author), Paul Pozzato (Editor), Roger Dal Molin (Editor)
• Publication Date 2012
• ISBN 10 8888542485
• ISBN 13 978-8888542485
• Buy direct online
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The truth about Austrian Ortigara raises, as a title, a perplexity inevitable.

If the book tells a truth, in this case that on the offensive battle from the Italian 6th Army in June 1917, and that mutually faced by defensive III C.d.A. austro-Hungarian Empire, that "truth" should not be characterized by any adjective. Should basically be the truth and nothing else.

All the more so in the vicinity of the centenary of the end of those tragic events, that led Europe to the most vicious conflict General from thirty years ' war, it would be reasonable to expect by historians, that this task are members by profession, a version of what is actually accadutor shared, or at least acceptable by both sides.

Especially if you put your mind to the fact that no historical event, like a war in the contemporary age, and systemic object, and in some cases even manic, documentation.

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Noon there is Department, even as a small company or a platoon (a hundred or sometimes only a few dozen men), that you may know the dislocation, rebuild the application order, know the name and sometimes the story of Commander, often follow the story almost hour by hour. There fact, from provisioning conditions to those forecasting, moral State to disciplinary measures, ranging from travel to places and periods of employment and rest, that you do not save the trace files.

Sometimes the minutes of interrogation of the officers get prisoners, as in the case of one of the richest repositories ofArchival Italian army, or the Gefechtsberichte (combat reports), kept in good number to Kriegs Archiv Wien, you can even see the views, the idiosyncrasies, the heroism and the fears of those who – with a command role more or less relevant – became involved and was the protagonist of the events.

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Pthen why not write a book that finally tells the truth itself, or – as we said – just the truth of the battle and that, since the name, don't give up anunresolved ambiguity? Even enemies on Ortigara, appeared for this same publisher a few years ago, the authors were subtracted to this responsibility, had preferred to tell not one, but two different battles: that of the attacker, valiant, unlucky, tactically as naïve; magnificent strategically and the Defender, tough, gruff, naively confident in his ability in the first phase, as prudent and innovative tactical in final counter-attack.

To push them in this direction was not sure was the lack of courage, or worse than "craft", as the fact that the wealth of the respective documentation seemed to lead to two different "stories", as if each of the contenders had remained, even after the end of the battle, desperately perched on their positions. The battle for that piece of land between the two dimensions ofOrtigara (even they significantly concordant in meters) was actually been won and lost on both and neither seemed willing to admit defeat or to give up the victory. In history as on the ground, Italians and Austrians remained enemies on Ortigara.

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Andcco because even the present volume cannot and will not be the objective of reconstruction almost twenty days of combat which lasted from 10 to 29 June 1917, to close with the definitive renunciation of Cadorna to push the Austrians away from the Venetian plain, beyond the impassable barrier of cortina Portule-Verena-Campolongo. Rather it aims to reconstruct in detail those days as were experienced by Austrian fighters and narrated in phonograms, in service orders, in communications and in the final reports of their commanders.

Does not make use of subsequent reconstructions, as striking or even mesmerizing, offered by most responsible (Goiginger, Sloninka or Lutzow) or regimental diaries, of 3° Schutzen, 59° Rainer or 14° Hessen. Following the first official compendium of the battle, written a few years after the events from a staff officer assigned to the command of the11th Army, Maj. Otto Sedlař, and so far completely new and integrates and compares, wherever possible, with the same documents used at the time by the author and others, that he had escaped, were unknown, unavailable or had been deliberately omitted.

From thegenius weapon, Sedlař came in Tyrol, in place of Mr Schneider, on November 9, 1914, Captain at the time, and had gained a long experience at the controls of the area. This official capacity are evidenced by repeated attempts by the Supreme Command of the corresponding target elsewhere and tenacity with which that demanded Tyrolean the first stay in Innsbruck and then in Bolzano.

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Theresulting reading gets some of the smoothness of a narrative, that maybe the many readers of Enemies you were used to, but has a number of advantages. First, the views of the author. In its capacity as a staff officer inthe army command in which the battle was fought, Sedlař has the ability to follow the whole evolution of theItalian offensive in all its phases, through the optics of the news that reached his command and provisions which it sent to United employees, first of all to Gen. Krautwald and command of the Baitle III C.d.A. austro-Hungarian Empire.

One can say without fear of contradiction that none of the other Austrian reconstructions of defensive battles on theAltopiano dei Sette Comuni of June 1917 has a comparable wealth, in terms of figures, the overall considerations, together with assessments (including the logistical problem, the use ofaircraft, the possible strategic consequences) as detailed observations.

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In the second measure the official text of11th Army is a Gefechtsbericht (combat report) in the fullest sense of the term. It traces the vicissitudes of combat through the voice of the protagonists, as were in dispatches and in the excitement of the moment, in expectation of the actions prepared and disappointments in front of their failure in the dribble of reciprocal responsibility and duties.

His reconstruction of this feat of arms was made even more significant by the fact that the Office which he belonged, and which probably shared the view, preclude well past the start of theoffensive the 6th Army to consider it only alightening action, intended to ensure the most favourable conditions for another battle of the Isonzo.

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Tall this is not at all an "objective" reconstruction. To Sedlař and indeed an important document that you want, but a document that should also be read in transparency, it should be included as it says and even more as tace, where State and, more intriguingly, where alludes.

And so the truth about Ortigara, but the "truth" of Austria, involved and militant, convinced – as demonstrated unequivocally the final pages, which are infused with a deep, sincere emotion (among the finest that the Austrian war literature has been able to give) – the function of ethics-politics that belongs to it, or that the author believed to be rightfully hers (it matters little in this case the difference), in the troubled life of postwar Austria. The reader will be able to see many of these "scenes" in documents and against proposed by curators, will identify others who have escaped to us or the documentation currently available did not allowed us to explore.

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In the German tradition of the Black Forest, made famous by the title of an essay by Martin Heidegger, Holzwege "paths are interrupted," those roads that start in the forest, decided as to lead to a precise target, but you lose early because "roads are for wood", trails designed to get lost in the Woods to cut. Also Sedlař and inevitably a Holzweg, our hope and felt that it was worthwhile to take and follow developments in the hope that that remains even if resting on good fundamentals, that sooner or later the crossings "wood road", no less wide and inviting, which can definitely from the Italian forest margin.