Front Line on a Glacier: The Marmolada

North Glacier on the Marmolada

By Richard Galli

The highest mountain in the Dolomite range of the Alps at 3342 meters, the Marmolada (marmalade) Massif or "group" comprises of a vast northern glacier and a soaring, semicircle of cliffs and peaks on the sunny southern side. Three months of summer and nine months of winter make its annual weather cycle. Astride the old, pre-1915 border of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Kingdom of Italy, this icy giant became a major battlefield of the First World War's Gebirgskreig or Italian Front. As with Tofane, Monte Piano, and the Tre Cime massifs in other mountainous sectors, Marmolada was vital to the control of its region.

Topside Ice Trench

Marmolada had all characteristics and dangers unique to high mountain warfare, including the thin atmosphere [70 percent of sea-level at 3,000 meters in altitude]; ice, snow, and scree; and frequent blizzards or dense fog banks covering attacks. Avalanches, falling rock and lightning, long-range shooting duels, artillery, and hand to hand fighting; as well as exposure to extremely low temperatures and high winds killed men in equal numbers. Injuries such as frostbite, snow blindness, altitude sickness, and malnutrition caused by the severe climate competed with the usual war wounds, disease, and stress—especially for troops that must stay on position and not let down their guard. Patrols, observation posts and assault units resembled mountaineers as much as soldiers. Supply was carried out by backbreaking corvée [on the backs of men and mules] and téléphérique [both manpowered and motor-driven cable-cars.] Despite being surrounded by frozen water, this vital need of humans was difficult to obtain or store. 

With most of their army in Russia, the Austrians concentrated on defending their empire's lofty southern flank. On Marmolada, between the Italian and Austrian forces, was a vast no-man's-land of glacier crevasse and bergschrund or soaring rock cliffs, needle-like arêtes, and knife-edge ridges with their blocking "gendarmes." All these are great challenges for mountaineers defining war on this Alpine front as somewhere between unique and incredible.

Glacier Combat
Patrolling — Artillery Port — Connecting Tunnel

Combat on this icy amphitheater began in 1915 with a rush for the high points unoccupied in times of peace. In June the first action took place with the Alpini Belluno Battalion capturing the strategic Padon and Ombretta Passes. The word "pass" is a stretch, for only to climbers were these notches on knife-edge ridges considered passes. They did, however, look down onto the great glacier and Austrian positions. While Austro-Hungarian forces controlled the massif's central ridge, the Punta Penia [3342 m.] summit and the cliffs below it, as well as the great northern glacier, the Italians controlled, or one might say "clung" to the southeast and southwestern cliffs. In winter the basic strategy became survival, a mighty undertaking for large groups of men in these high mountains, from the first deep snowstorms in September until the last blizzards of heavy snow in May.

It was beneath the surface of the great glacier that a "city of ice," unseen and untouchable by Italian artillery or gunfire, was constructed. Designed by Lieutenant Leo Handl of the Kaiserjager, a labyrinth of tunnels connected five clusters of buildings or "cities." [see map] Each outpost was composed of barracks, electric generators, supply depots, first aid stations, and kitchens. Some of these buildings were beneath 60 meters of glacial ice. Cable cars brought soldiers and supplies to the last safe [from fire] ridge, where they went beneath the glacier through tunnels bored through rock connecting to ice passages. From rock ridge and cliff poked the snouts of machine gun and cannon, with their hidden ports and interlocking fields of fire.

Conceptual Scheme for an  Ice City

The last full-scale battle on Marmolada was during the last week of September 1917 when Alpini units, a battalion of the 3rd Bersaglieri and a regiment of regular infantry [Alpi Brigade], captured Point 3259, also known as Marmolada d'Ombretta. The victory was short-lived, as in early November of 1917, the Italians abandoned their hard-won gains and positions on Marmolada without a shot, during the great retreat after Caporetto. Total losses by both sides in two years of fighting on and around the Marmolada amounted to over 9,000 dead—one third killed in action, another third dying in avalanches, and the remainder of cold-related injuries. Most of them remain entombed in the mountain's rock and ice.