A(R)MATE MOUNTAINS
by LUCIO FABI
The peaks of the Julian Alps and the splendid scenery of the Soča Valley and the Triglav Park have always been places of the soul for those who love to walk the mountain paths in search of views, peace and tranquility. For some time, it is true, there have been complaints of isolated
Peaks rich in history and beauty still unite Italian, Slovenian and Austrian mountaineers and hikers in an atmosphere of peace and friendship, but there was a time, not too long ago, when those same peaks armed themselves, became the very high scene of a huge clash of men.
The Great War, in addition to many other terrible disasters, also wanted this. He took the conflict where it had never dared to go before, dragging cannons, digging trenches and tunnels, pitting men against each other who until recently had been accustomed to climbing mountains and crossing valleys.
Austria-Hungary’s declaration of war on Serbia catches Kugy and his comrades in the beloved mountains, below the Jôf Fuart. The entire valley is in turmoil. Once in Reibl, the young Erwin Poech immediately left for Vienna, eager to enlist as a volunteer. He died in September 1915 on the Polovnik, near Bovec. When Italy entered the war against Austria, Kugy, at the age of 57, volunteered. It is a duty to serve the country, he says, and he makes his experience as a mountaineer available to General Rohr’s X Army. Osvaldo Pesamosca, now fifty years old, would become a mountain guide in the royal army. The twenty-four-year-old Dougan, recalled in March 1915, much less convinced of ending up in the trenches, did everything not to go to the front. He feigned an epileptic seizure, called in sick, until Kugy’s providential intervention made him transfer to the department of mountain guides he himself conceived and directed within the 184th Infantry Brigade, on the beloved Julians that had become a theater of war.
The war epic of Kugy, Dougan and the other members of the mountain guides group is well described by Flavio Ghio’s work on the Diaries of Dougan, the mountaineer, the soldier, monographic issue of the magazine “Alpi Giulie” (n. 2, 2018). In my brief presentation, I called Dougan a “reluctant” soldier, who thanks to Kugy was able to wage war on his beloved mountains. A war made up of patrols and work at height to prepare observers and safe routes to get supplies to advanced points. Even for mountaineering feats, such as the consolidation of the advanced garrison of the same Jôf Fuart who had violated, in the autumn of 1915 equipped with ropes and ladders to bring reinforcements and supplies to the summit garrison. In that same winter, Kugy organized a real expedition in the high mountains to establish an armed garrison on the Jôf Fuart from which to keep the Italian lines of Sompdogna and Jôf di Miezegnot under fire, held by the “brigands” of the 97th Alpine company of the legendary captain Carlo Mazzoli.
At over 2500 meters above sea level, in the middle of winter, between snow and frost, Dougan is happy, “the best of my memories – he writes – Christmas in the mountains, I have wanted for years to spend a Christmas like this, away from the world”. And from that dirty war, I would add. A dangerous war, from which to defend oneself. Perhaps for this reason, or out of a spirit of brotherhood, that Dougan, at the head of a patrol exploring along the line of the Jôf Fuart, crossing an Italian patrol, led by his climbing partner Osvaldo Fieramosca, avoids the fight. It was September 13, 1915. Climbing with two companions in the north-east gorge of the mountain, arriving at the “Ledge of the Gods” at night, Dougan sees a dozen Alpini coming towards him from the top of Riofreddo, among whom he recognizes his friend Pesamosca. The comrades take up their rifles, they would like to intervene, but Dougan stops them and lets the patrol pass, and then continues towards the top of Jôf Fuart. This transpires from the stories handed down on winter evenings by the valley dwellers, reported in the book by Ingomar Pust, 1915-1918: the stone front (Mursia, Milan 1987). Obviously Dougan mentions something else in his notes, it would have been a serious violation of the rules, even if Kugy, in his war notes, will write that “in patrol action, in case of extreme danger, between the will of the officer and the experience of the guide, the latter prevails, which is not provided for by the military code”.
A film was also made of the fact, Ways of Peace by Samantha Faccio, so suggestive the episode appears. The meeting of two friends, two mountaineers divided by the war, who do not want to submit to the rules of war: shoot, attack, neutralize the enemy. They are friends and to these rules they oppose the universal “do no harm, fear not have”, the primordial animal instinct to avoid danger and confrontation as much as possible.
The mountains don’t want borders, that’s for sure. Just as it is certain that mountain men seem to be linked by a brotherhood that goes beyond the different uniforms. Even if there is no shortage of episodes in the literature of the so-called “white war” that demonstrate exactly the opposite. But Dougan was a “reluctant soldier”, and also lucky, because after several dangerous actions at high altitude, in the summer of 1917 Kugy called him to the Soča Rock School as his personal guide.
Much has been written about the war operations on the Julian Alps and in general about the Alpine war, and much has been exalted for the deeds of men of exceptional fiber, because before the enemy it was necessary to beware of the weather conditions and the harsh climate of the high mountains, which produced more victims than the fighting at high altitude. Never before and not even later did they fight in that heroic and absurd way, clinging to high altitudes, inside shacks or ice tunnels, waiting for a nearby but invisible enemy, struggling with the same problems of survival.
The war of Kugy, Dougan and their fellow climbers may perhaps appear to be a sporting feat, but we must not forget that death was always lurking, even on the highest peaks. And when, in a recovery operation of Italian aviators who had fallen with their Caproni plane due to the fog, Dougan finds himself accompanying the more serious of the two to the valley with his team, he cannot hide the pain for that enemy who is no longer such, in turn happy to be able to speak in Italian with his rescuer. A few words to support the spirit of the wounded man, who became a friend in misfortune, who wanted to give him his pipe. Dougan did not accept it, perhaps he already sensed that that aviator would not survive the freezing in progress. So it was, he died the next day in the field hospital.
Protagonists on the peaks, supporting actors in the most striking war action in the mountains organized by the Austro-Hungarian commands with the decisive support of their German ally, Kugy and Dougan witnessed from afar the preparation and implementation of the Austro-German attack on the Italian lines of the Upper Isonzo, which resulted in the breakthrough of the front between Bovec and Tolmin and the consequent occupation of Friuli and part of the Veneto.
At the end of the conflict, which ended prematurely for Dougan due to the worsening of a providential “chest pain”, the friends of the past, those who survived, will reunite again with an elderly Julius Kugy at the feet of his beloved Julians. Having fought in the uniform of the losers, Dougan suffered the inevitable oblivion reserved for the soldiers of the former empire in the post-war period. Of course he will be worried about it, but I want to believe not too much. He will soon find the old master, a young wife, other wonderful adventures and above all his mountains, without weapons and trenches this time.