Lagazuoi again. In 1916 both sides started honeycombing the mountain with tunnels (Italians in red on the sketch). The Austrians blew a mine in May 1917 that displaced 320,000 tonnes of rock but still failed to oust the Italians. Caporetto eventually brought a halt to proceedings
WWI in #Lagazuoi in Dolomites Both armies began to dig the rock of the mountain. They soon discovered that the only way to conquer the enemy's fortified emplacements was to dig a mine tunnel, to approach the enemy this way and blow him up.
I’m dumbfounded by the depth and quality of work that went into Robert Striffler’s books. The section about the Lagazuoi tunnels alone runs to 45,000 words (147 pages), has 34 maps/plans, and 32 photos. An engineer by trade, he left an incredible body of work on WW1 mine warfare.
Then and now of the Lagazuoi, a confusion of tunnels, lookouts, and ledges. It was mostly Austrian-held, but the Italians occupied an important ledge (Cengia Martini) from which the Austrians tried unsuccessfully to evict them for 2 years (yes, they lowered men on ropes 😱)
