Death on the Mountaintops: Nature's Tragic Role at the Alpine Front of World War I

Mauricio Nicolas Vergara

[By the start of the First World War], technological sophistication and the availability of personnel and resources, among other things, allowed armies to wage war in inhospitable environments, such as mountain ranges or arid deserts, in a more stable way than in the past. Technology in particular not only allowed armies to reach remote or inaccessible areas, but it also allowed modifying and adapting these places to their needs.

Many of those who experienced the Great War understood that engaging in war in such environments was unique from a historical point of view. Christopher Thornhill, a British intelligence officer, wrote of the campaign in German East Africa, “[this] campaign was unique of its kind: the first tropical warfare waged under modern conditions of transport and armament.”  Similarly, the General of Artillery Konrad Krafft von Dellmensingen, commander of the German Alpine Corps, said about the Alpine front that, before WWI, “no one would have ever thought that man would be able to pass the winter on the highest peaks surrounded by glaciers and defended by them, and also to fight up there.”

Shaded Areas Were the Sites of Mountain Warfare for
the Italian Front

Nature contributed in many ways to the poor health and living conditions present at the Alpine front. One can assume that in general this effect was more adverse on the positions along the sides of the mountains and on their peaks, where the environment was more hostile, rather than in the valleys. The impact of nature on the health and living conditions included:

Temperature, humidity, wind, slope direction, clouds, and vegetation, which contributed to excess cold and heat;

The limitations of resources, which contributed to many deprivations.  In particular, the insufficient amount of water springs represented a serious problem for drinking, hygienic practices, cooking, and performing some works in many parts of the front. 

In addition to its limited presence, many of the water sources became polluted during the war, due to the putrefaction of dead bodies and the presence of human waste and of toxic chemical substances that resulted from explosions. Particularly during the summer, when most of the snow had melted, the lack of water was considered a main cause of casualties in some cases. According to Heinz Von Lichem, there were deaths from dehydration in Monte Zugna and in the Pasubio Massif;

Rugged topography, which limited the potential space for building. This contributed to overcrowded camps and barracks, avalanches and other natural phenomena, which produced cold or fear of an eventual imminent accident, contributing to sleep deprivation.

Taxing physical and mental activities. Moving required significant exertion due to, for example, slopes, snow, wind, and the fact that people had to carry heavy weight because, mainly in high and rugged places, a large part of the transport of materials for living and fighting had to be done by them.

A Taxing Physical Activity

Digging trenches, caves, and tunnels in rock and ice, shoveling snow continuously during the cold season, restoring weapons, telephone and telegraph lines, cableways, and other infrastructure frequently destroyed by weather and avalanches were some of the many other ways through which alpine nature required huge exertions.

Moods, feelings, and mental states were affected negatively due to the alpine climate. Concerning this impact of the environment, Weber referred to restlessness, agitation, desperation, oppression, anxiety, upheaval of the nervous system, and apathy among the persons at the front.

In particular, topography and weather contributed to periods of social isolation, precluding contacts with different or larger groups of persons and with civil society and relatives. This happened, for example, when the movement between different positions was impossible or when letters and news did not reach certain sectors of the front. 

These living conditions highly affected the troops sense of sadness, loneliness, and melancholy. Similar outcomes also created long periods of inactivity and restriction of movements caused by inclement weather. Moreover, the frequent natural hazards represented a continuous threat that “upset the nervous system” and increased the sense of precariousness and uncertainty.  These conditions particularly affected those who were not used to mountain weather.

The first consequence of the presence of such health and living conditions was a varied range of largely widespread and enduring psychological and physical disorders and states present along the entire front. After his study of literature, Leoni registered among these disorders and states: weight loss, cough, exhaustion, depression of the immune system, dereliction, desolation, despair, drowsiness, and misery.

. . . Many of the illnesses at the Alpine front were present also at other ones (e.g., malaria, typhus, meningitis, tuberculosis, scabies, ringworm, diphtheria, enteritis, cholera, and scurvy). The health and living conditions determined by the environment played an important role on their diffusion. This role was probably even more important and specific in the diffusion of the illnesses that were prevalent at the Alpine front, including rheumatic pathologies and diseases that were related to the respiratory system and of the illnesses that were characteristic of this front—a kind of cardiac pathology and the nephritis caused by cold.

 

A Typical Small Mountain Shell

A Second Level of Indirect Influence of Natural Hazards on Casualties

Health and living conditions were determined not only by nature but also by human factors. A crucial aspect affecting the health and living conditions in the Alpine front was the logistic system of the armies. In general, logistics was more inadequate in the Italian Army than in the Austro-Hungarian, particularly at the beginning of the conflict. Still, it represented a great problem for everyone (including the German Alpine Corps while operating at the front from May to October 1915). The deficiencies of the logistics reflected not just on the health and living conditions of the people but also, crucially, on the great discrepancies between the aims and efforts of the armies and the results of the military operations that they conducted.

As for the health and living conditions, the efficiency of the logistic system was also affected by both human and natural factors. The human ones regarded the intrinsic malfunction of the armies and states and the factual or potential offenses of the enemy. Natural elements and processes represented difficulties such as:

Slope, vegetation, kind of surface of the ground, presence of ice on the ground, hydrography, and weather created difficulties moving. Indeed, it was reported that some positions reached 25 days of total isolation and some others more than a month. The impact of nature on transport occurred at almost every step of the supply chain in the Alps, from the snow that stopped the trains circulating along the valleys to the avalanches that engulfed the carriers and struck cableways supplying the higher positions. Weber reported on streets and paths that were impassable for seven months.

Rugged topography, landslides, avalanches, and hydrography, which caused difficulties and lack of potential space for construction. This contributed to a shortage of adequate roads, paths, and storehouses. The difficulty constructing roads was represented, for example, by the need of the armies to build bridges over streams or dig tunnels inside mountains but also by the low temperatures and avalanches that workers had to suffer; Limited resources and hostile weather, which contributed to a high demand and strong dependency of the armies on the supplies coming from the plains. This led often to an overload of the logistics system. 

The larger negative effect of nature on these aspects of the logistic system were present in general in the last part of the logistics chain, namely at the higher locations. There, in general, the topography was more rugged and the atmospheric conditions worse. The support provided by technology, such as through the creation of numerous cableways, was essential but still rarely allowed to completely compensate those disadvantages for the logistic system at the higher areas.

A Wounded Italian Soldier Being Evacuated

Another issue that had great impact on the health and living conditions of the persons at the front was the health system of the armies. This was important for the armies because, beyond the health and living conditions, it also directly influenced the incidence of the direct factors determining casualties (i.e., military actions, illnesses, and natural hazards) in a substantial way. Leoni provided a good description of the health systems of the armies and the great difficulties that caused disadvantages. Among these difficulties, natural features of the mountain environment played an important role in the following ways:

Slope, vegetation, kind of surface, presence of ice on the ground, hydrography, and weather, which contributed enormously to the difficulty to move. This led to the inefficiency of the transportation of the injured, materials, and personnel by making them extremely arduous and slow. Moreover, the difficulty moving, combined with the dangerous environmental conditions at high altitudes, required specialized personnel and physical suitability.

Rugged topography, landslides, avalanches, and hydrography, which contributed to an insufficient presence of infrastructure due to the lack of potential space and the difficulty to build it. In particular, the inadequate amount, quality, size, and location of health facilities resulted mainly in a fragmentation of the means and personnel and in a marked inadequacy of the health service at high altitudes.

 

As for logistics, in general, the negative effects of nature increased with the altitude due to the generally more rugged topography and the worse atmospheric conditions. The main problem at higher elevations was the inadequate amount and quality of the health facilities and personnel, which entailed the development of a complex system greatly dependent on the facilities and personnel at lower altitudes. In this way, the entire health system in general and in particular injured people were doomed to rely largely on the very difficult and slow transportation. This circumstance was particularly challenging considering that the front line of each army, namely, the place where the highest concentration of casualties occurred, often was located at high altitudes. Moreover, in the case of front lines at high altitudes, the enemy created severe difficulties to provide adequate first aid for injured people concurrently with the harsh environment.

Outpost Above a Strategic Pass

It appears. . . even with the current limitations in the knowledge of casualties caused by natural hazards, that the relevance of nature in warfare can exceed its constraining effect on planning and applying tactics and strategies. In extreme environments such as that of the Alpine front, the challenge of fighting due to the difficulties to move and to communicate, for example, could become secondary when considering nature’s injurious potential.

From: "Nature's Tragic Role at the Alpine Front during World War I," Marine Corps University Journal, Vol. 13, No. 1