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The first exploring Ride on Mount Nozzolo
Identification of Battery Pozza and presumed position of “ELLALAK”
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At first: Many Thanks to Barbara and Wendl Pircher from Marling/South Tyrol for this exploring Ride! The weather wasn’t the finest and so they could not reach the highest peak of Mount Nozzolo. It was a real and hard adventure tour climbing up in an old bed of an avalanche, deep snow and ice everywhere. But they did it and they found the traces of the life of Lieutenant Fischmann: They found the rests of casemates and gun positions of Battery Pozza! Battery Pozza , today the place is called Pozza di Cadria, is located above Malga di Cadria and in the shadow of Mount Nozzolo. It’s something of 1500-1600m high (within 4500ft). The day wasn’t very clear, it was foggy and wet, but they took some pictures from the place. Mount Nozzolo has three peaks, on the highest one is a stone or concrete made casemate protected against enemy sight close behind the ultimate peak. It was the position of an artillery observer. From here the Austro-Hungarian artillery was guided with its fire against italian positions in the valley. Battery Pozza was one of these numerous batteries in this defence section. And Lieutenant Fischmann was the responsible artillery observer. Probably it is “ELLALAK”, but at least they couldn’t verify it. We have to go back in the summer when the snow is gone. Here are the pics they made from the small combat area of Lieutenant Fischmann in the year 1916. It’s a high mountain area from 6000ft to 8000ft high. This was the frontline, never given up for 3 years. The winter is extremely cold, -30 degrees Celcius can be reached there, snow- and thunderstorms are normal and tremendous avalanches can go down to the valley at every moment. Never one soldier left his position where he was ordered to go. Lieutenant Fischmann stood there, too and he was wounded by a shrapnel splinter in the neck guiding the fire of his batteries and the guns and armoured turrets of Fort Carriola against enemy positions. Look to the pics and imagine what kind of war it was in the high mountains. A forgotten war? Most of us are knowing something about the trenches at the western front in France. But nobody knows something about the cruel battle which took place there for three years, day by day, the hole year without any break. Heavy shell firing, shrapnel’s and gas granates, surprising attacks during night time….But the real enemy was the nature. Many ten thousands of soldiers on both side died due to enormous avalanches which were going down into the valley with roaring thunder, destroying trenches, casemates, bunkers, barracks, hospitals, commandos in less than e few seconds. Nobody survived! Nobody knows until today how many thousand soldiers on both side died in their trench positions during the night, killed by -30 degrees Celcius and a surprising snowstorm. Only when the sun raised their frozen bodies were found. An artillery observer in the year 1916 was a lonely soldier, he stood on the highest peak, connected to the rest of the “world” with a telephone line. Only this line and nothing else. Often this line was interrupted, hit by an enemy shell or by an avalanche. Than, two or three soldiers had to go out, following the cable, find the interruption and fix it. Sometimes, these soldiers never returned and never were found any trace of them anymore. A lot of artillery officers were killed. They were the first of all in the frontline in their very exposed positions in the high mountains. Once identified by enemy artillery a concentrate shell firing tried to destroy their casemates or their caverns, and so to silence the own batteries. Without this guide, all guns were blind and unable to fire in a precise direction. Lieutenant Ferdinand Nandor Fischmann survived and on Mount Nozzolo (Judicarien front section) you can follow the track of his boots to his solitary cavern. Volker Jeschkeit, Villamontagna-Trento- April 2006 The pics, 90 years ago and today: Follow the link: monte nozzolo
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