Battle of Monte Corno

The Battle of Monte Corno was a series of war events of the First World War on the mountain then known as Corno di Vallarsa, a peak of the Pasubio massif, in the Vicenza Prealps group . The mountain was the scene of two of the most famous actions of the conflict: the capture of Cesare Battisti and Fabio Filzi and the conquest of the mountain itself. After the war events the mountain was renamed Monte Corno Battisti. For the war actions that took place between 1916 and 1918 on Monte Corno, four of the twelve gold medals for military valor awarded to fighters of Pasubio were awarded and mentioned with a special plaque on the Road of Heroes.^[1]

During the start of expedition of May 1916 the mountain, in Italian territory, was conquered by the troops of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The presence of Cesare Battisti seems to have been known to the Austrians only since July, perhaps following the surrender of two Alpine soldiers who described their commander (Battisti) as a fanatic who would have sent them all to their deaths. In the attack which was known to be imminent, the order was given to capture the Italian soldiers and their officers.^[2]

On the night between July 9th and 10th, the Italians attempted an offensive to recapture the tower, which, due to its position, allowed them to monitor Pasubio. The Vicenza Alpine Battalion , led by Major Carlo Frattola, conquered the summit, but the two infantry battalions, the 69th and 71st, which were supposed to support the action, were unable to reach the position due to the difficult terrain. During the fighting, Major Frattola, Cesare Battisti, commander of the Vicenza marching company, and Fabio Filzi were captured. During the clashes, Alpine second lieutenant Luigi Casonato fell, and he is remembered with a monument placed by the National Alpine Association on the Selletta Battisti next to the steles of Battisti and Filzi.^[2]

According to some sources, Bruno Franceschini was in charge of the action by the Austrian troops, but in the Trento trial which was held the following day, those responsible for the capture were found to be lieutenant Vinzenz Braun with the sharpshooters Alois Wohlmuth and Franz Strazligg.^[3] It was confirmed that it was the corps of the KK Landesschützen who carried out the arrest but the circumstances of the recognition of the two irredentists are controversial. The presence of Franceschini in those hours is demonstrated by various sources, and the figure of the soldier born in Trentino and enrolled in the Austro-Hungarian army was immediately the object of propaganda on the Italian side and, later, also on the Austrian side. Both irredentists were tried and sentenced by state court to the death penalty for high treason, just two days after their capture, in the Buonconsiglio Castle in Trento.^[4][5]

On Mount Corno, a system of underground tunnels was dug to blow up enemy positions if necessary. Both armies tried to obtain information from deserters and prisoners, and the Italian commanders planned to move up the Foxi Valley from Raossi, in order to conquer the mountain during the night between May 9th and 10th.^[6]

The operation achieved an initial, provisional success when the Italian assault troops managed to conquer the summit, despite the hoped-for surprise having evaporated. The 2nd Company of the 3rd Assault Unit of the First Army achieved what had been expected, but the bulk of the infantry forces, due to enormous natural difficulties and excessively heavy equipment, were unable to support the units on the summit, which had been captured from the enemy. The pass was supposed to be surrounded by the Italians, but this never happened. Second Lieutenant Fulvio Bottari had led four platoons of Arditi, followed by a total of about thirty men, including three sergeants. The observation post on the mountain spur became Italian, and the Austrian forces suffered twenty dead and numerous wounded, while the Italian forces suffered much fewer losses. Communications between the Italian units were imprecise, and at one point it was even thought that the operation had failed.^[6]

In the following hours, various reinforcements (the first of which, in the late morning of the 10th, consisted of seven surviving infantrymen from a patrol of about thirty men, coming from Corno Sinistro) were gradually sent to the summit of Monte Corno, despite numerous counterattack attempts subsequently launched by the Austrians. The counterattacks, which took place between May 12th and 15th, are documented in particular in three successive communiqués from the Supreme Command, which confirm that the positions on Corno were by then firmly in Italian hands.

During one of these enemy counterattacks, however, a patrol of about twenty Austrians managed to infiltrate a portion of the emplacements. Having overwhelmed the sole lookout, positioned at the mouth of the tunnel leading to the spur of the mountain a position deemed of little use to the defense and therefore partially unguarded the enemy took refuge there, subsequently refusing to surrender.^[6]

It was this particular position that was then retaken, on May 13, by Lieutenant Carlo Sabatini , in an action quite distinct from the previous one, which had involved the capture of all the Corno Battisti positions. Sabatini's action, made urgent by the announcement of General Badoglio 's imminent arrival at the base, was announced by Sabatini himself to the commanders, who were therefore able to monitor it with binoculars. It involved climbing a section of the Corno Battisti face in broad daylight, on a slope characterized by loose rock, which nevertheless allowed them to avoid being seen by enemy lookouts. The high risk and visibility of this action contributed to an almost immediate decision to award him a high field honor.^[6]

Having previously cited the motivation for the silver medal awarded to Second Lieutenant Bottari, it is important to then report the one definitively attributed to Lieutenant Sabatini for the gold medal that was conferred to him on the field.^[6]

The assault was successful. The lookouts were surprised and overwhelmed, as were most of the Austrians who had barricaded themselves inside some of the observatory's tunnels. However, after the initial assault, it took another five or six hours for the last resistance to be overcome, thanks to the intervention of other soldiers.^[6]

The discovery of new documents, the re-examination of archives and family memoirs, and comparison with published or commonly available information have allowed, since the final decades of the 20th century, a reconsideration of some historical reconstructions. From a military perspective, the conquest of Monte Corno in May 1918 was significant because its position allowed the Austrians to monitor the movements of Italian troops and thus more precisely direct their artillery fire. Symbolically, it was significant because Cesare Battisti and Fabio Filzi had been captured there two years earlier.^[7]

Some of the Italian versions of the conquest in May 1918 propose the date of the 13th while others propose the 12th and 13th.^[7][8] Austrian versions speak of two distinct dates, namely 11th and 18th May.^[9]

Even in the motivation for the gold medal for military valor awarded to the Arditi officer Carlo Sabatini , who is credited with the merit of the action of conquering the mountain, the date of 13 May is reported.^[10]

In the autumn of 2014, however, a document in the possession of the family of Second Lieutenant Fulvio Bottari, another Arditi officer, was deposited in the archives of the Italian War History Museum in Rovereto. This document was produced in support of an appeal presented to the competent bodies, an appeal which was accepted favourably and sanctioned by the Royal Decree of 2 June 1921 with a modification of the motivation of the aforementioned medal of Lieutenant Sabatini, where the passage, “… was the first to set foot on the treacherous and inaccessible peak of Monte Corno,” was suppressed. Both the revision of the motivation and the documentation mentioned above definitively establish the important role played by Second Lieutenant Bottari, who, at the head of a small group of Arditi, conquered Monte Corno a few days earlier than previously thought.^[11]

The action and the date must in fact be anticipated, and refer to the day of May 10, 1918. Confirmation is valid - in addition to the reports of correspondents from the front of various newspapers of the time, or what was illustrated by popular magazines of the time - both the motivation of the silver medal awarded to Second Lieutenant Bottari.^[12]

In broad daylight, after overcoming difficult terrain, he and a group of Arditi attacked the positions on Monte Corno and, after intense hand-to-hand combat, managed to capture the entire garrison. He remained with a few soldiers under heavy bombardment to guard the captured position.

Both the General Staff Communiqué of May 11, signed by Armando Diaz which states:
May 11, 1918,

In Vallarsa, on the night of the 10th, infantry and assault units, after a lively fight conducted with great courage, took the rugged and well-fortified peak of Monte Corno from the enemy; capturing over 100 prisoners, two cannons, four machine guns and abundant material

Finally, the report contained in the Military News (Complement to the Daily News) , edited by the Supreme Command - Operations Office and dated 31 May 1918, is important, with a detailed account of what happened between the 9th and the 13th.^[13]