ROMBON – ILL WILL FOUGHT OUT HIGH ATOP THE JULIAN ALPS

The Italian Alpini monument high on Čukla, a long way up from the valley floor below.

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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EVOKING EPIC STRUGGLES FROM A TEMPESTOUS TIME ON MENGORE

Aljaž-like refuge atop Mengore – only large enough for pigeons, however.

There are several open-air museums relating to the ghastly events of World War 1 along the Soca-Isonzo River valley. Six are found in the upper reaches from Bovec in the north to Tolmin in the south. Here, we concentrate on those found on three hillocks – one being Mengore – across the river from Tolmin on the west side which made up the Tolmin Bridgehead.

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CAPORETTO OSSUARY – CATRASTROPHIC DEFEAT REVISED AS A NEW BEGINNING

Road entrance leading from Kobarid up to the Italian Ossuary.

Over 600,000 Italians lie dead on the battlefields of the Great War with another 170,000 dying of illness or wounds in hospitals further back.  Buried in small battlefield cemeteries, like elsewhere across the destroyed landscapes of Europe, remains in the small cemeteries were gathered up into larger cemeteries.  Unlike the American example of offering repatriation of remains to families – two thirds of American families opted for that option – here in Italy, only about 50,000 remains returned to the families.  By 1927, too many cemeteries remained for the State to maintain upkeep.  So, the huge ossuaries – charnel houses, in England – came onto the scene. Here at the Caporetto Ossuary, mythology transposed defeat into victory of sorts. A victory leading to the Blackshirt March on Rome; a renewed and greater Italy.

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BATOGNICA – GREAT WAR STALEMATE HIGH IN THE JULIAN ALPS

Grenades, shoe leather, wire and bones – all atop Batognica, where time stood still for 26 months.

Rising as a bump on the long Krn-Vršič ridge just to the south of the pyramidal climax of Krn, Batognica looks nondescript from afar.  Closer up, say from the peak of Krn, that impression changes.  Standing not unlike an aircraft carrier as the last mound rising above the 2100-meter mark as the ridge begins its precipitous drop to the south – and the murderous grounds of Myrzli vrh – Batognica takes on a different impression.

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