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| Hemingway on the Italian Front |
Ernest Hemingway was wounded by a mortar shell on 8 July 1918 at Fossalta di Piave in a trench on a levee overlooking the Piave River. At the site, located 17 miles northeast of Venice, is a memorial kiosk remembering the event. Also located there is a monument to the “Ragazzi of ’99” (The Boys of ’99) which commemorates the Italian soldiers born in 1899 who were thrown into the Piave defense at a young age in 1917/18.
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| Hemingway Panel |
The Piave River sector is the most forgotten sector of the Italian Front. It was the barrier behind which the retreating Italian Army reorganized after the disaster at Caporetto. In June 1918 it became the sector where the Austro-Hungarian Empire launched the last offensive in its history. That failed, and in October 1918 the Piave line was the launching position for the opening of the Battle of Vittorio Veneto, the last act of the Great War on the Italian Front.
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| Side View of Hemingway & Boys of '99 Memorials |
'A Farewell to Arms' is a great and beautiful book. Re-read it last year (after fifty years) with much more feeling and understanding.
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