The Dente Italiano and the Dente Austriaco are two rocky towers of equal altitude that face each other, separated by a saddle but sadly united by History: during the First World War they were in fact the point of Pasubio where the enemy lines were closest.
With the Strafexpedition of 1916, the imperial army reached the Dente Austriaco, but was blocked by the royal troops who had arrived on the Dente Italiano: a grueling and bloody tug of war began, with various attempts to break through, but all in vain.
The impending winter did not allow further clashes and both sides began to fortify and make their position livable...
In the Dente Italiano, the Military Engineers created a real underground citadel. It could accommodate 500 men, with all the necessary means of subsistence: shelters, warehouses, a cistern for drinking water, a generator for lighting, dressing stations, commands. The armament consisted of 5 machine guns, 2 cannons, 1 flamethrower, supported by artillery from the nearby Palon and Cogolo Alto peaks.
On the other hand, the Dente Austriaco was transformed into an impregnable fortress, thanks to its elongated and square shape, with fire actions on three sides. There were 10 machine gun positions and 6 artillery positions in the cave, supported by the armament arranged along the trenches on the summit: 18 grenade launchers, 12 grenade launchers, 4 flamethrowers, 5 cannons, 10 machine guns. Here too, the bowels of the mountain hosted the troops with all the logistical and survival means: shelters, depots, lighting, ventilation, cistern, telephone exchange, searchlights, etc.
Faced with the impossibility of advancing, both commands thought that the only solution was to blow up the enemy stronghold from the foundations: thus began the war of mines and countermines, with a dense network of underground tunnels. Between the autumn of 1917 and the spring of 1918 there were 10 explosions, 5 Austrian and 5 Italian, until the gigantic Austrian dynamite charge of 50 tons on March 13, 1918, which shattered the northern slope of the Dente Italiano, modifying its morphology and causing victims on both sides. After years of war and thousands of deaths, the great war on Pasubio ended with the front line remaining almost unchanged!
To pass between the two Denti, you cross the chasm caused by the mine, among enormous boulders and debris: impressive.
Translated by Google •
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