Isonzo Front

This paper presents the events and interactions of solidarities that occurred in the area of upper Soča/Isonzo valley (today northwestern part of Slovenia) through years 1915-1917. The town Bovec and its surroundings were evacuated in May 1915, most of the inhabitants had to flee inside Austria-Hungary or Italy. All the evacuated area became to be the new battlefield of Isonzo front, where the front line was brought to standstill until October 1917. Because there was only static fighting in fields, the rear of some valleys in Bovec area stayed inhabited. With this research I would like to present the solidarities on three levels: between soldiers in the field and in the rear; between soldiers and civilians; and between civilians. Through memories, letters, reports and other documents we can observe a number of interactions that show solidarity, for example, the solidarity that was presented to local children of Soča village on 4th of October 1916, name day of emperor Franz Joseph, when the k.u.k. staff officers gave each child a loaf of bread. And this is just one of the interactions between soldiers and civilians, where some interactions may not be so kind as others. Soldier of 27. Landwehr Infanterie Regiment Ivan Matičič observed when fighting in the mountains over the area of Bovec that some officers had no solidarity towards lower ranking soldiers and treated them scornfully. We can also observe solidarity from communal officials towards those who had to flee the area, as records show they sent seeds for sowing to local refugees in a refugee camp inside Austria so that they could grow them some food. This and many more acts of solidarity or non-solidarity that happened through the war years will be presented in the paper.

Damir Feigel, primorski pisec humoristične proze, ki je največ ustvarjal v obdobju med dvema vojnama, je s stališča slovenske literarne zgodovine nedvomno obrobni avtor. Podobno je z njegovo prisotnostjo v slovenskih srednješolskih berilih, saj so se odlomki iz Feiglovih leposlovnih besedil pojavili le v zamejskih berilih, in sicer najprej v Budalovem Slovenskem cvetniku leta 1928, po drugi vojni pa še v Čekutovi Slovenski čitanki leta 1947 in v Slovenski čitanki za II. razred Mare Blažina s sodelavci leta 1948. V zadnjih desetletjih se povečuje zanimanje za Feigla kot pisca pustolovske, znanstvenofantastične in humoristične proze. Vsekakor pa je premalo ovrednotena vloga njegove humoristične literature v obdobju fašizma, ko je podobno kot širše znani France Bevk pomagal ohranjati slovensko pisano besedo in s tehniko prikritega sporočila spodbujal nacionalno zavest.

Kratki uvod predstavi kulturo spominjanja in njeno nasprotje, kulturo pozabe. Pri tem posebno pozornost posveti prvi svetovni vojni, ki je v zadnjih štirih letih bila deležna veliko pozornosti. Kratek prispevek o soški fronti predstavi eno najbolj krvavih bitk na Slovenskem. Bitka je trajala 888 dni in je zahtevala okrog 250.000 smrtnih žrtev na obeh straneh.

Izvleček: Članek se poveča času od začetka prve svetovne vojne do začetka druge svetov-ne vojne, obravnavan je kolektivni spomin na begunsko izkušnjo, ki jo je skoraj celotno prebivalstvo Bovškega najprej doživelo v letih 1915–1918, nato pa je še del prebivalstva zajela v dneh pred začetkom druge svetovne vojne. Skozi arhivsko gradivo, časopisne članke, spominske zapise in ustna pričevanja skuša pokazati ti dve izkušnji v okviru do-gajanja na Bovškem v letih 1914–1941, ko se je umirjeno življenje prebivalstva obrnilo na glavo in se globoko vtisnilo v spomin. Gre le za eno od zgodb, ki so se vzdolž soške fronte in rapalske meje dogajale v zgodovini prve polovice 20. stoletja.
Ključne besede: velika vojna, begunstvo, kolektivni spomin, fašizem, begunske izkušnje, pričevanja, življenje med vojno, začetek druge svetovne vojne.

Abstract: Th is article is focused on the period from the start of World War I to the start of World War II, discussing the collective memory of the refugee experience, which almost the entire population of the Bovec region experienced in the years 1915–1918, and again by a segment of the population in the days leading up to World War II. Th rough archival material, newspaper articles, memoirs and oral testimonies, it attempts to present these two experiences within the scope of events in the Bovec region in the years 1914–1941, when the peaceful life of the population was turned upside down, leaving a lasting impression. It is only one of the stories that took place along the Isonzo Front and the Rapallo Border in the fi rst half of the 20th century.

Absicht des vorliegenden Beitrags ist es einige Aspekte im Bezug auf die Kriegserfahrungen und die Stellung der Kroaten in der Donaumonarchie während des Ersten Weltkriegs und unmittelbar nach dessen Ende darzustellen, um damit ein historisches Schlaglicht auf die 1918 erfolgte tiefe Zäsur zu werfen, welche der Untergang Österreich-Ungarns auch für die Kroaten, als eines der Völker des Reiches, bedeutet hat.

Mt. Rombon, located in north-western Slovenia, was a part of the
Soča Front during the First World War. The conflict that lasted from
the end of May 1915 until the end of October 1917 left numerous
traces in the landscape, whose social meanings and understandings
changed as it shifted from a landscape of peace to a place associated with war. Alongside social meanings, the human experiences
with the landscape also changed. This is evident through every
main episode of the landscapes constructed biography. It also
became clear that this alpine landscape has had a great impact
on human activities and vice versa, which is noticeable in the nature
of anthropogenic features and organization of the landscape itself
throughout history.

Mi ritrovo ancora a scrivere di questi eventi dolorosi. Come mi rendo conto di quanto sia necessario il divulgare queste parole quanto mi sento sempre di profanare qualcosa di altri e, in tutto questo materiale che è stato accumulato in quasi 50 anni, non si può sapere cosa uscirà ancora fuori di drammatico o sofferto.Di sicuro c'è solo che usciranno comunque solo dei piccoli frammenti di vite vissute con dolore, sofferenza, privazione e morte.Ma, più queste tragedie vengono alla luce, più è doveroso il divulgarle, anche quando, come succede in questo scritto, viene raccontato il volto spietato, sanguinoso e violento di una guerra e di tutte le sue sofferenze, in una maniera cruda e disumana ma purtroppo reale in tutte le sue forme di odio e cattiveria. Personalmente non avevo mai trovato descrizioni così terribili di battaglie narrate con naturale atrocità, con spavalderia e con cieca giustificazione. Il drammatico e spontaneo eroismo e l'estremo sacrificio delle nostre truppe durante e dopo Caporetto, riprende tristemente vita, leggendo questo manoscritto. La XII battaglia dell'Isonzo fu, nella pianificazione degli austro-tedeschi, un gioiello di strategia militare per cercare di porre fine ad una guerra che aveva creato una crescente disperazione civile e morale, un disagio militare, sociale, la fame e una serie infinita di conflitti interni in quei due imperi ormai vicini e destinati al collasso. L'esercito italiano era impreparato logisticamente e moralmente ad un attacco di quelle dimensioni ma fu, in qualche modo "graziato" da una parte, dal fattore atmosferico che non permise a gli attaccanti di portare, in maniera più veloce ed incisiva l'attacco in profondità.Infatti, le intense nevicate su i monti e le piogge torrenziali in pianura, sbarrarono il passo a gli austro-tedeschi costringendoli ad una fatica immane nell'avanzata e nella gestione dei rifornimenti e dei collegamenti.Dall'altra parte, i nostri soldati, pur ritrovandosi privi di ogni supporto e difesa importante,senza alcuna organizzazione logistica, senza vettovaglie, senza vestiario adeguato, senza armamento e proiettati in una disperata lotta contro il tempo, contro un clima drammatico e letale, si comportarono in maniera eroica con uno sprezzo totale per la propria vita e con un sacrificio al limite dell'umano, sorprendendo totalmente il nemico ed impedendogli una facile avanzata militare e morale. Nonostante tutto questo, questi ragazzi giovanissimi con età fra i diciannove ed i ventitré anni sono stati disegnati in Italia alla stregua di: VILI, VIGLIACCHI, DISERTORI oppure ANARCHICI, ANTIMONARCHICI, TRADITORI DELLA PATRIA, SENZA DIO. Mi chiedo e vi chiedo come si possono immaginare così queste uomini.

On May 24 th , 2015 one hundred years will have passed since the beginning of the armed conflict between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Kingdom of Italy on the Soča / Isonzo Front. We would like to mark the occasion of the centenary with the first international conference on multidisciplinary research of modern conflicts, focusing on the Great War and its numerous legacies, to take place in Slovenia.

This paper was presented in Grad Kromberk of Goriški muzej on 5th April 2016. In the presentation I reviewed the events that followed the Italy's declaration of war to Austria-Hungary. The area of city Bovec was immediately evacuated, the inhabitants had to flee inside the Habsburg monarchy some even to Kingdom of Italy.
The area of Bovec and surrounding villages was entrenched, only a few villages were still occupied. The army behind the front line made its own rules that the remaining people had to comply with. In the review I tried to present some of the changes that happened in years 1915-1917.
Only after the successful 12th offensive the Austro-Hungarian army abandoned their posts and advanced inside Italian land. After this the people in exile started to return to Bovec area, but the view that they encountered was far from pleasing. In the final part of this paper I tried to present the difficulties that the returning inhabitants came across. Establishing their lives back on track in the home area was far from easy.

The paper analyses war memorials and commemorative practices in Venezia Giulia from 1918 to 1922. In this regard Venezia Giulia offers an especially relevant case study, as, due to heavy fighting along the Isonzo front, various local settlements and territorial features became present in the Italian national consciousness. They thus became typical Italian sites of memory, a process which was stimulated by national commemorative policy. Furthermore, presence of the Slovene population in the region contributed to the fact, that monuments to fallen soldier did not represent only sites of memory and mourning for the Italian nation, but also sites of national demarcation. They served as a physical reminder of Italian claims over these lands, for which so much “Italian blood” had been spilled. Lastly, they also represented sites of mourning, where the suffering caused by the war was at least implicitly expressed.

Prispevki za novejšo zgodovino LIV -1/2014 275 * Uroš Košir, univ. dipl. arheolog, Zavod za varstvo kulturne dediščine Slovenije; Center za preventivno arheologijo, Uroš Košir: Arheološko dokumentiranje bojišča prve svetovne vojne na Rombonu 276 Ključne besede: 1. svetovna vojna, Rombon, arheologija soška fronta, bojišče, oborožitev ABSTRACT »Th e following contribution describes the results of the archaeological survey of the high mountain range battlefi eld at Mr. Rombon, where the Austro-Hungarian and Italian Armies fought between 1915 and 1917. An analysis of modern aerial photographs, revealing numerous fi re and communivcation trenches as well as terraces for military barracks, was carried out, while the fi eld survey involved the photographic documenting and mapping of the various positions with the aid of the global positioning system (GPS). Th e author shows the situation at the individual selected areas of the former battlefi eld, and he also focuses on the certain aspects of structuring the military positions and their adaptation to the natural circumstances in the high mountain enviroment. On the basis of selected fi nds from private museum collections, an analysis and presentation of the armament of the Austro-Hungarian and Italian Armies at Rombon was also carried out. Th is was one of the few examples of the archaeological research of the Soča Front, which would also deserve more attention from the archaeological science.

Vojni načrti Kraljevine Italije proti Avstro-Ogrski do vstopa v prvo svetovno vojno
I piani di guerra del Regno d’Italia contro l’Austria-Angheria fino
all’entrata nella Prima guerra mondiale
Italian War Plans against Austria-Hungary before entry into World War On

The paper deals with responses to World War I in Slovenian secondary school literature textbooks in the interwar period. Among other texts, these textbooks in the 1920s feature writings about the Isonzo front, expressing the pain due to the loss of the Littoral region. The textbook published within the frames of fascist Italy is a special case, since its compiler had to express his national awareness and the condemnation of war atrocities in a concealed way. In the 1930s, only texts describing the retreat of the Serbian army to Corfu or to the Macedonian front are published, since the Kingdom of Yugoslavia could not build national awareness with texts depicting suffering or heroism of the defeated soldiers.

Le ravitaillement en vivres des soldats sur les champs de bataille a toujours été un défi très important pour l’intendance et la logistique militaires. Une alimentation inappropriée provoquait la faiblesse des soldats sur les plans tant physique que moral. Or, le ravitaillement de l'armée austro-hongroise sur le front italien échoua à répondre à la demande, laissant souvent ses soldats le ventre vide, surtout après 1916. Une analyse des journaux intimes, mémoires et lettres des soldats permet d'avoir un aperçu de leurs expériences et d'identifier les difficultés qu'ils rencontraient.

Prispevek poskuša orisati strukturno ureditev vojaške duhovščine pri soški armadi, kakor tudi delovanje vojaške duhovščine v času velike vojne. Pri tem se opira zlasti na arhivsko gradivo Vojnega arhiva z Dunaja in na poročila, ki so jih sestavljali vojaški kurati vseh veroizpovedi v času vojne vihre. Nekateri od dokumentov so v tem prispevku tudi prvič objavljeni.

/The article tries to outline the structural arrangement of the military clergy at the Isonzo Army, as well as the operation of the military clergy during the World War I. It is primarily based on the archival records of the War Archives in Vienna and the reports compiled by military curates of all religions during the maelstrom of war. The paper also presents some documents that have never been published.

This article explores three recent representations of the First World War—specifically of the Isonzo Front—in Slovenian popular music. It considers the works of Rodoljubac, Bakalina, and Bratko Bibič. These musicians and music collectives share a connection to the historical region of the Isonzo Front. The article investigates how these musicians’ knowledge of place informed their compositions. Four ways of knowing a place are identified, distributed to varying degrees among the musicians: absorbing locally shared narratives about a place, engagement with landscapes and the environment, personal memories, and analyzing and reconsidering a place. The article contributes to the literature on the involvement of music in the production of place by examining the multitude of ways of knowing a place.

Successful joint operation of Austro-Hungarian and German army on 24th October 1917 moved the front between Italy and Austria-Hungary from Isonzo to Piave River. The area of town Bovec in Upper Soča valley, where part of the offensive was taking place, was almost emptied of soldiers. Only empty trenches, destroyed weaponry, and ruins were left behind. In this research I would like to present the events that took place in the area of town Bovec and its surroundings after the October Isonzo offensive. The area of Bovec, which after May 1915 was evacuated and most of its inhabitants had to flee inside Austria-Hungary or Italy, was now out of the danger zone, and the refugees had the chance to return home. But that was easier said than done.
After the October Isonzo offensive when only some military unites stayed in the area the locals slowly started to returning home. At first only the communal officials were sent to Bovec to observe the damage and to report back to hinterland, but after a while more and more refugees were coming back. Because there were many buildings in ruins they were not able to just move back in, so they had to find themselves substitutional homes in abandoned military sheds. The second problem was their food supplies, which in the final years of the war were very low. The communal officials were trying to supply the inhabitants with some additional flour, sugar, and meat from the inside of Austria. There were occasions when ordered food was stolen from trains or as officials at train stations reported “lost”, which were additional blows for the starving inhabitants.

The paper deals with responses to World War I in Slovenian secondary school literature textbooks in the interwar period. Among other texts, these textbooks in the 1920s feature writings about the Isonzo front,  expressing the pain due to the loss of the Littoral region. The textbook published within the frames of fascist Italy is a special case, since its compiler had to express his national awareness and the condemnation of war atrocities in a concealed way. In the 1930s, only texts describing the retreat of the Serbian army to Corfu or to the Macedonian front are published, since the Kingdom of Yugoslavia could not build national awareness with texts depicting suffering or heroism of the defeated soldiers.

The Great War brought major changes along the valley of Isonzo river, as the Italian announcement of war meant new problems for the Austro-Hungarian army. During the period from 1915 to 1917 Italian army tried eleven times to break through the opponents front line with just some minor successes. But after the 11. Isonzo battle Austro-Hungarian army knew, that this was the last attack they could withstand. In cooperation with the German army a battle was planed, to push the Italian units back to the Italian hinterland. On 24 October 1917 an attack was launched towards the Italian units in the area of towns Tolmin (Tolmein) and Bovec (Flitsch), that turned out to be a success, in Slovenian historiography known as “the miracle at Caporetto”.
In my paper I will focus on the region of Bovec, where a part of the Austro-Hungarian-German units - in particular “Gruppe Krauß” - were attacking towards the Italian front line. Through the diaries, memoirs, letters, official reports and other sources I would like to present the experience of the Great War - which is still quite unresearched field - as it was seen through the eyes of the attackers, who had to fight in the hard conditions of the mountains. I will try to show how the soldiers experienced the weeks of preparation for the battle; what was their “D-Day” like, as the weather in the mountains was cold, foggy, and snowy on the day of the attack; and how they experienced the success of this battle in the upcoming days and weeks - was it a genuine boost of moral for the troops or just a heat of the moment that faded away with a hangover.

"On Hostile Feelings". Internment as an Anti-Slavic Practice on the Soča-Isonzo Front during the First World War.
This article focuses on the characteristics on the Anti-Slavic practices set by the Italian military in order to legitimize Slovenian population's internment on the Soča-Isonzo front during the First World War. In the first section the article shows the legal and the formal characteristics of internment. In the second one, it deals with the issue related to the construction of the enemy in Italy during the war. In the third section, it examines the characteristics of the internment of Slovenian population. The article aims to demonstrate that the process of Italian nationalization of the new territories began at the same time as the mobilization of the army during the Italian miltary advance.

Il Progetto “www.sanitagrandeguerra.it - banca dati dei servizi sanitari italiani nella Grande Guerra” è ideato, curato e realizzato dall’Associazione Storica Cimeetrincee (ASCeT), un'associazione storica, apolitica e senza fini di lucro, attiva nella ricerca e memoria storica del primo conflitto mondiale con sede in Castello, Calle S.Gioachin, 450 - Venezia.

Il Progetto ha prodotto la digitalizzazione di 25.210 dati quali sedi dei seguenti reparti di sanità italiani mobilitati nel periodo maggio 1915 – novembre 1918:

Regio Esercito – Servizio sanitario militare:

 Sezioni di Sanità;
 Ospedaletti da campo da 50 letti;
 Ospedali da campo da 100 letti;
 Ospedali da campo da 200 letti;
 Ambulanze chirurgiche;
 Ospedali militari di riserva e civili (in fase di realizzazione);

Croce Rossa Italiana:

 Sezioni di sanità;
 Ospedali di guerra;
 Ambulanze chirurgiche;
 Ambulanze da montagna;
 Posti di soccorso ferroviario;
 Ospedali territoriali (in fase di realizzazione);

Corpo Ausiliario del Sovrano Militare Ordine di Malta:

 Posti di soccorso;
 Ospedali di guerra;
 Treni ospedali

On 23 May 1915, Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary. The very next day the Italian army crossed the border and attacked the fortified positions of Austro-Hungarian armed forces in the Austrian Littoral (Österreichisches Küstenland). However, preliminary Italian military operations were not particularly successful and after several weeks of uncertainty a stable zone of engagement along the Isonzo River had been established in the county of Gorizia and Gradisca.

The formation of Isonzo front shattered the everyday life of the multinational civilian population that had lived under Habsburg rule for many centuries. During the summer of 1915, villages, towns and whole regions on both sides of the front were transformed into a war zone. Such circumstances meant that many civilians had no option but to leave their homes and move to the hinterland, either as a part of organized evacuation that was planned and executed by Austrian interior ministry or in a completely disorganized fashion, mostly out of fear for their lives and sometimes even under heavy artillery fire.

According to sources, the majority of the Slovene-speaking inhabitants of Gorizia and Gradisca fled to Carniola, the nearest Austrian crownland, and one that was mainly populated by Slovenes. But because Carniola has been incorporated into the war zone (Kriegsgebiet) - a special administrative region under direct military command - not all of them could stay here. After much deliberation, the Austrian army finally decided that staying within the war zone would be allowed only to those refugees who had the financial resources to support themselves and their families without the help of the state. Those who could stay remained in the area for more than two years and began to return to their demolished villages and towns only after a heavy defeat and retreat of Italian army from Isonzo front in the autumn of 1917.

After the dissolution of Austria-Hungary and as a consequence of the Treaty of London (1915) and the Treaty of Saint Germain (1919), the entire Austrian Littoral was incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy and became a part of the Julian March. With such a territorial transformation, the Slovene inhabitants of this area found themselves in a completely new political reality: nationalistic repression and persecution of minorities with the tacit support of the Italian government and bureaucracy, was in a stark contrast to the multilingual and multinational tolerance of the late Austrian era. Thus situation became unbearable for many Slovenes, especially after Benito Mussolini came to power in 1922 and introduced his fascist politics of national exclusivism. Several thousand Slovenes either voluntarily emigrated or were forced to flee to the nearest Slovene region, which had become a part of the new Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

In a time span of several years, Slovenes from the Austrian Littoral endured evacuation, flight, living as refugees, repatriation, political violence and second emigration to the nearest Slovene-speaking region. Which survival strategies did they use? How did the domestic Slovene population accept them? What was the attitude of the government and state bureaucracy towards refugees? Did the state attempt to integrate them? If so, how? How did refugees adjust to the local communities in which they had taken refuge? How did women refugees fight social prejudices and gender discrimination? In my paper I presented some preliminary answers to these questions.

Prispevek obravnava odmeve na prvo svetovno vojno v slovenskih srednješolskih berilih v obdobju med dvema vojnama. V dvajsetih letih 20. stoletja se poleg drugih pojavljajo tudi zapisi o soški fronti, ki se povezujejo z izpovedjo bolečine zaradi izgube Primorske. Posebnost je berilo, izšlo v okvirih fašistične Italije, ko je moral sestavljavec izpovedovati narodno zavest in obsojati vojne grozote na prikrit način. V tridesetih letih se pojavljajo samo še sestavki s tematiko umika srbske vojske na Krf oz. solunske fronte, saj Kraljevina Jugoslavija ni mogla graditi državotvorne zavesti z zapisi o trpljenju ali junaštvu poražencev.

15 novembre 1915. Un giovane uomo, sottotenente nel 2° Reggimento Artiglieria stazionante sulle alture antistanti il monte Podgora, sta dirigendo il suo cannone da 149 mm contro le posizioni austro-ungariche. Una granata, proveniente dal fuoco degli obici nemici, colpisce il pezzo e i suoi serventi: il giovane, colpito da una scheggia, muore sul colpo. Il corpo viene recuperato poche ore dopo, e sepolto in tutta fretta nelle vicinanze del luogo di morte, oramai saldamente sotto controllo italiano [figura 1]. Il comandante del reggimento invia subito telegrammi a Udine per comunicare il decesso del giovane alla famiglia: comincia un fitto scambio di biglietti, telegrammi, lettere di condoglianze da parte di amici, conoscenti e istituzioni. Fra queste c'è anche la Regia Scuola di Commercio di Venezia, nella quale il giovane aveva studiato durante l'anno scolastico 1913-1914, che espresse, attraverso il direttore Fabio Besta, il suo «vivissimo compianto» e serbando la sua «non peritura memoria dell'eletto allievo che diede alla Patria la sua giovane vita». 1 Nei tre anni di guerra, Ca' Foscari scrisse almeno 77 telegrammi simili, e molti altri furono scritti dalle università di tutta Europa, tutte a loro modo impegnate nella prima guerra totale della Storia. La breve vicenda terrena di Bruno di Prampero -così si chiamava il gio-300 Romio. Olocausti alla Patria. Morte e vita di Bruno di Prampero, cafoscarino La corte della Niobe, 299-311

It was on the 23 of May 1915 when the Great war brought great changes to the judicial district of Bovec. The beginning of the war between the Kingdom of Italy and Austria-Hungary was in the Bovec’s district followed by the exile of most of the inhabitants and establishment of the front line, which divided the Bovec basin. Fates of the inhabitants were different as some had to search for refuge inside Italy, others inside Austria. Only the minority of people was allowed to stay at their homes in the rear of Isonzo front.
As through the course of war more and more men were enlisted care for families and homes mostly fell on women. What was women’s situations during the war that can be obtained through memoirs, letters, archive documents and other sources. I want to show the different situations that appeared among women at home and women in exile, as the latter were experiencing war in an unknown land, searching for shelter and trying to maintain their family. Doing so some of them turned out to be very resourceful, sometimes even on account of others.