53
Alpine crampons
ITALY ENTERED THE war on the side of the Entente in 1915. Previously, the country had been part of the Triple Alliance that, since 1882, had bound it together with Germany and Austro-Hungary. But with the Austro-Hungarians eyeing territory in Italy, and with sensitivities over the Alpine border that defined their countries, public opinion in Italy at least was less than enthusiastic about this relationship. It was not unexpected, then, that when Austro-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and Germany attacked France and Belgium, Italy took a step back from its former agreement. Italy pushed the view that it had no obligation to attack the Entente powers, and used this as a means of staying out of the war. Not surprisingly, Britain and France actively made it their business to charm Italy into joining the war on their side. With the idea of picking territorial gains from the bones of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Italians finally threw in their lot with the Allies, signing the Treaty of London on April 26, 1915, a treaty that guaranteed territorial gains in exchange for a declaration of war on Austria-Hungary—which was duly announced on May 23, 1915.
The Italians were now immersed in the war, and the Austro-Hungarians faced enemies on three fronts. But the practical aspects of the Italian war effort were daunting. The border between Austria and Italy stretched some 400 miles from the Swiss border in the west to the Adriatic coast in the east. For the most part, the front was mountainous—and the Austro-Hungarians were in the favored position of holding the highest points over most of it. The Italians, committed to an offensive war against the dual monarchy, had little choice but to hold the defensive along the mountains and prosecute offensive action against the Austrians along the line of the southward-flowing Isonzo River, which divested itself into the Adriatic Sea. From 1915 to 1918 there would be twelve separate battles along this river line—the most decisive being that prosecuted by the Austro-Hungarians in October 1917, the disaster at Caporetto, which almost saw the Italians defeated.
The Alpine crampons illustrated are indicative of a completely different kind of war, one that was fought in difficult conditions of snow and ice, rock fall and avalanche. Recovered by an amateur Italian archaeologist, among other relics of the war from both sides, these are believed to be Italian crampons—though the Austro-Hungarian Gebirgsjäger could just as easily have worn them. The Alpine war was another extension of the siege war that was being fought across the Western Front—except that here, the slopes were sheer, the climate difficult, the chance of death through avalanche ever-present. The crampons were there to do an important job: to maintain the grip of a man’s footing, aided by ropes, ice axes, and Alpine boots. Robust, the teeth of the crampon would have to bite deeply into the smooth surface of the ice, allowing whoever wore them to hold on to his footing—just as the Italian nation had to do in the wake of the German-bolstered attack at Caporetto. No doubt the soldier carried out his duty in maintaining the line before discarding these fearsome objects on the mountainside. Monte Grappa, built into an impregnable mountain fortress, would be instrumental in keeping the Austrians at bay.