Very similar to the Italian episode of 1918 in France, Austria-Hungary sent several divisions to help her Central Power ally Germany in the last summer of the Great War. Unlike the Italians, there are no monuments or military cemeteries marking their presence on the battlefields. The only evidence of their participation is a lonely memorial and the few graves left behind in several German military cemeteries. You must look closely to find them.
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In 2018, as part of centenary observances of World War 1, a monument unveiled at Fiume Road Graveyard in Budapest. This became the first national memorial erected commemorating the efforts Hungarians undertook during the Great War. Government officials noted the memorial was in line with a fundamental theme of the nation: to restore historical continuity broken during the Nazi and Communist occupations.
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Ravelnik and Čelo are two open-air museums allowing visitors a chance to visit spaces where soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian army defended the Bovec basin from invading Italian troops from the end of May 1915 until the end of October 1917. The two sites restored by locals and the Slovene government are different in what they offer as well as their original purpose with regard to their roles in holding off the Italians.
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Stuck away on the east side of multiple train tracks at the train station in Trieste is a small monument. It stands forlornly nest to a like sized monument dedicated to rail workers who died in World War 2. The monument in question reads: “In riccordo di cittadini del littoral Austriaco partiti da questi binary nell’agosta del 1914 per lontani cmapi di battaglia” – “In memory of citizens of the Austrian Littoral who left from these tracks in August 1914 for battlefields far away.” The sign is fixed on a large stone on which also is placed, a cap design for the Imperial and Royal – Kaiserliche und Königliche (K. und K.) – Infantry Regiment 97. The K. und K. Infantrie Regiment 97 entrained from here to the battlefields of Galicia from which many of the men, locals from Trieste and the surrounding region, would never return.
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Monte San Michele. Welcome to one of the battlefields upon where so many Italians, as well as their opponents from Austria-Hungary, spilled blood during the 1915 to 1916. These campaigns fought in the harsh limestone hills just east off the Isonzo River. The extreme efforts of that long year and three months remembered by King Vittorio Emanuele III’s proclamation in 1922 of the hill’s inclusion as a zona sacra, a place of special memory to the Italian nation. At least three zone sacra in Italy relate to World War 1 – Pasubio and Monte Grappa are the other two. There might be more but those along with Monte San Michele are the big three.
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Rombon sits at the eastern end of the dolomitic Kanin massif. It is a serious mountain. The climb is relatively straightforward, but it entails 1,750 meters of elevation gain over 5 ½ to 7 hours of climbing. Once you are up there, you have all of that elevation to lose. There is no water nor alpine huts up here. The mountain rises to 2298 meters while Bovec, the normal starting point, sits at a mere 460 meters. For over two years, Italians and soldiers from the Austro-Hungarian Empire grappled with each other amidst the alpine splendor. The fighting conducted sporadically, but when fought, bitterly.
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One of the true gems of the Mediterranean world is the little town of Kotor lying at the head of a ten-mile-long fjord system flanked by huge peaks rising over 4,000 feet above the waters. Lying deep in its mountain fastness, Kotor positively exudes magic, even in the wake of ever-increasing numbers of tourists and development threatening to divest the enchantment. Hidden amongst the cliffs and peaks the bays and fjords lie 83 forts around Cattaro erected during the 19th century by the military of the Austrian empire. Their role, to both defend the Bocce di Cattaro – Bay of Kotor – from sea and land attack.
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In the past, I have not been a big fan of vacationing on huge cruise ships. A few friends and I watched from the shore of Glacier Bay as cruise ship after cruise ship made their way up the large fjord. We were happy experiencing the wilderness of one of the America’s most magnificent national parks on a more personal scale. Just us and the grizzly bears. Could the Bays of Kotor change that feeling?
Another time, I stayed at a hotel in Kusadsi for almost a week a few years ago. Every day brought several behemoths to dock at the waterfront. Buses lined up for the inevitable bus pilgrimage to nearby Ephesus. And then, at sunset, the giant ships would set sail into the sunset for their next day’s destination – Bodrum, Mykonos, Santorini, Istanbul. Again, I was happy to be staying behind. This year, I bit the bullet joining a cruise taking in the Adriatic and western Mediterranean. The cruise turned out very enjoyable. The highlight, the slow entry into the wondrous fjord system making up the Bocche di Cattaro, known locally as the Boka Kotorska or simply, the Magic of Kotor.
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A recent trip took me to Kotor, Montenegro. The city sits spectacularly ensconced amidst mountains and fjords, probably the most scenic port in the Mediterranean. Kotor has seen its share of history over the centuries, but one relatively recent story gets overlooked by even more recent events leading to one of the most famous movies of all time, The Sound of Music. Understated and often forgotten, here, the story of Georg Luther von Trapp, ace of Austro-Hungarian submariners from World War 1. His career before falling back on family and music concerned the sea and the Bays of Kotor.
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To better understand the eleven Italian offensives of World War One on the lower Isonzo River, two highpoints should be among your tour stops – Monte San Michele (for the first six offensives) and Cerje (for the rest). Atop the tower built on Cerje, one has a view over most of the Isonzo battlefields from Sabotin-Monte Santo to the final Austrian lines atop Monte Ermada. The vastness of the Carso-Kras region lays out at your fingertips. The Adriatic Sea glints in the distance to the southeast while the snowcapped Julians shine to the north.
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