Monte Grappa and World War One
Monte Grappa Military Memorial and Ossuary
The humongous memorial on the mountain top contains the remains of almost 23,000 fallen soldiers. As it was built under Italy’s fascist government in 1935, the monument doesn’t only put in perspective the senseless bloodshed of WWI, but also calls to mind another dark period in Italian and European History.
The southern half houses the bones of the Italian Soldiers, placed in a series of semicircular columbaria (the Fascists loved their Neo-Roman architecture) and topped by the small Chapel of the Madonna del Grappa. From here, spectacular views of the Venetian Prealps and the Piave River open up.
From the chapel, the 300m long Via Heroica (Path of the Heroes) runs to the symbolic Portale Roma Gate and the Austrian Ossuary at the Northern end of the crest. The 14 monoliths bordering the path bear the names of WWI battlegrounds, which saw heavy fighting.
The Battle of Monte Grappa World War One
The Battle of Monte Grappa was actually a series of three battles fought during World War I between the armies of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (120,000 strong) and the Kingdom of Italy (134,000 strong) for control over the Monte Grappa massif, as it strategically covered the left flank of the Italian Piave River front.
In order to understand these battles, however, it would be advisable to recognise their prologue, that is the Battle of Caporetto, 24 October- 19 November 1917.
The Italian defeat at Caporetto was indeed the result of the Austro-Hungarians resolve to contain the protracted Italian offensives on the Isonzo river and prevent what they perceived as an almost unavoidable collapse of the front, should the Italians have attacked again in the fall of 1917. In order to avoid that and in an effort to secure their victory, the Austrian- Hungarians petitioned for, and significantly benefited from, the cooperation of several German Divisions, expressly repositioned from the Russian front.
As a consequence of this combined offensive, the entire 2nd Italian Army, poorly deployed over ridiculously weak defensive positions and with its center of gravity perilously projected forward, was wiped out by what revealed itself as a textbook strategic surprise.
The collapse of the 2nd Army naturally caused a domino effect on all the other Italian Armies, notably the 3rd, positioned further south in the Carso region, and the 1st, deployed to the north in the Carnic and Julian Alps. These Armies found themselves forced to abandon their positions and progressively retreat, first to the Tagliamento River and the finally to the Piave river, once it had become clear that holding the positions along the Tagliamento would be impossible.
In a span of just a few days therefore, the front had retreated roughly by 150 km (roughly 90 mi) to the west, in a more or less orderly way, all the way back to the River Piave, where they eventually dug-in and regrouped.
During the retreat from the easternmost part of the front, which was running along the old border with Austria, in the Region of Friuli, all the way back to almost Venice, the losses were enormous: 10,000 killed, 30,000 wounded and 265,000 prisoners. An estimated total of 3,152 artillery pieces, 3,000 machine guns and 1,712 mortars were lost, along with vast amounts of stores and equipment. In contrast, the Austro-Hungarians and Germans sustained 70,000 casualties as a whole.
The entire Region of Friuli was therefore occupied by the enemy: curiously, my father, at the time four months old, and his whole family, like most other Friulian families, had to leave their home in order to avoid the hardships of the enemy occupation.
The first of these battles became the most famous as it finally brought the Austrian advance to a halt, following the momentum of their Caporetto offensive.
Years before the events recounted here, the Italian Chief of General Staff, General Luigi Cadorna had ordered, with curious foresight, to build fortified defenses on the Monte Grappa summit to make the mountain an impregnable fortress, “should the front collapse, quod Deus advertat”: Cadorna’s prudence actually saved Italy from total defeat, as the Austrians, despite the help from the German Army’s Alpenkorps failed to take the mountain’s summit. Thus, the Italian front along the Piave river was stabilized and, although the Austrians could even see Venice from their positions, they would never reach it. During this first battle Italian casualties totaled 12,000 and Austrian casualties 21,000.
The second battle of Monte Grappa was complementary to the wider Austrian summer offensive of 1918, which was the last true offensive operation of the Austro–Hungarian Army in World War I. In this battle Italian losses peaked at 5.200 dead, 18.500 wounded; enemy losses were far higher, 34,000 in total.
The third and final battle of Monte Grappa started on October 24 1918, as part of the final Italian offensive of the war and it became known, thanks to the Poet and war Hero Gabriele D’Annunzio, as the Battle of Vittorio Veneto. Nine Italian divisions massively attacked the Austrian positions on Monte Grappa.
Though the Austrians increased their forces from 9 to 15 divisions, they committed, in doing so, all their remaining reserves. Moreover, their logistical ability had however reached its limit and, by October 28, unable to sustain an elevated battle rhythm, they started their retreat, pursued by the whole of the Italian Army.
This time it was the Austrians who suffered a disastrous defeat at the hands of the Italians who, this way, won the War: 528,000 between casualties and POWs along with 5,000 artillery pieces, countless amounts of machine guns, ammunition, supplies of all kinds etc.
The Italian Armies moved swiftly eastwards and liberated all the territories they had lost after the defat of Caporetto, all the way to the cities of Trieste and Trento.
The Armistice between Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire was signed on November 3rd 1918 at Villa Giusti in Padua, though the official end to all military operations on the Italian front was pushed to the following day, November 4th. That’s the reason behind the Italians celebrating victory in WW I, a week before the vast majority of all other nations, for which the 11th is Remembrance Day.
A significant portion of the Monte Grappa battlefield became, during the Fascist years, a monumental complex and final resting place for 12 615 Italian and 10 295 Austrian- Hungarian soldiers and Officers. It is very humbling to learn that out of almost 23.000 fallen only 2600 have a name.
Losses of WWI
- Italian total losses in WWI amount to the following: an estimated 650,000 to 700,000 in total, 950,000 to 1,050,000 wounded, 463,000 of whom reporting permanent disabilities; 580,000 to 600,000 prisoners; and 2,500,000 suffering from various forms of illnesses, to include what, at the time, was described ad “shell-shock”, known today as post traumatic stress disorder.
- By comparison, American losses in World War I were modest with 116,516 deaths and approximately 320,000 sick and wounded out of the 4.7 million men who served. The USA lost more personnel to disease (63,114) than to combat (53,402), largely due to the influenza epidemic of 1918.
- Canada’s total wartime KIAs range from 61,122 (62,427 if Newfoundland is included) to 66,755 Canadians and Newfoundlanders listed in the Books of Remembrance.
- German total losses were simply horrendous: 2,037,000 German soldiers were killed throughout the war.
- Russia lost 1,700,000 soldiers, Austria-Hungary 1,500,000, the British Empire, as a whole, 1,000,000.
- France’s final casualty count of 1,400,000 persons, including both military and civilian.
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