Tram, train and airport on the Austro-Hungarian and Italian front
Austro-Hungarian military cableways
in Giudicarie
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With the outbreak of World War I and the militarization of the Giudicarie, it was vital to ensure the area’s continuous connection with the railway stations of Trento and the Adige Valley.
This was made difficult by the poor state of the roads at the time, as they were not able to support the intense traffic of heavy vehicles and marching troops. The situation was different on the glacier front, where, for the first time in history, two armies found themselves fighting in prohibitive conditions and altitudes. Here, continuous supplies of materials were needed for the construction of shelters and the transport of the wounded and of food and ammunition. At first, this was made possible by the tireless work of (mostly Russian and Serbian) prisoners of war and of the “porters”, i.e. women (and often also children) from the villages at the base of the valley who were enlisted and militarized with a salary to carry the material on their backs to the soldiers at the high-altitude front lines. As fighting intensified in the high mountains, many small cableway lines were set up to connect to the depots on the valley floor. However, the fronts of western Trentino soon required a direct connection to the base in Trento without having to depend on the unreliable roadways.
During the war, both armies invested heavily in the construction of these cableways. The Imperial-Royal Army drafted the Seilbahnsbauprogram (Cableway Construction Plan), a program that provided for the strengthening of the network of military cableways along the entire front. With the rise of these cableways, special cableway units (Seilbahnkompagnie) were also established and trained in the construction and maintenance of these systems.
Feldseilbahn 08: the Austro-Hungarian cableway from Trento to Giudicarie
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Between 1916 and 1918, the construction of a 43-kilometer-long field cableway line was planned. It was a single-cable system (similar to today’s chairlifts), powered by gasoline engines at the various drive stations.
Starting from the Trento railway station (where goods arrived from the north), it continued west through numerous small stations and the four large main stations at Vezzano, Sarche, Ponte Arche, and Tione.
Austro-Hungarian narrow-gauge railways in Giudicarie
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To further improve military transport along the Giudicarie valley floor, small narrow-gauge railway lines (Feldbahn) were also built alongside the cableways. These practical railways (or “ferratelle” as they were called in Italian), which were simple and quick to install, were powered by electric or gasoline engines and could quickly connect warehouses, cableway stations, and command centers.
Nothing of these railway and cableway infrastructures survived the war. Initially, they were damaged by the fleeing Austro-Hungarian army, and then the Italian military engineers removed them to recover the metal. Only a few of their reinforced concrete bases and anchors remain as evidence of these enormous militarization works in the area.
Aviators in front of their Albatros fighter at the Campo Maggiore camp from the book Ricordando by Luigi Bailo
Austro-Hungarian airport at Campo Lomaso
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What began as an experiment, aviation proved to be a decisive factor and a radical change in war strategy over the years.
Italian aircraft departing from Castenedolo or Desenzano carried out reconnaissance and bombing runs in the Giudicarie area. For this reason, a military airport was set up in 1917 on the land between Campo Lomaso and Dasindo.
The airfields consisted of dirt runways just under 1 km long, equipped with fuel depots, hangars and anti-aircraft machine gun emplacements.
Italian military cableways in Giudicarie
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Once the war materials reached Cà Rossa di Storo, they proceeded by road or motorized cableway. Wire networks were essential for connecting places that were difficult to access by other means, making it possible to supply soldiers stationed in high mountain areas.
The main military cableway lines in operation on the Italian front started from the valley floor.
The supplies arrived in La Santa, in Condino, from where the first section started in the direction of Romanterra and Porta di Bosco. In the Caffaro valley, in the area of Presa Cappella, there was the start of a section that wound up to the Bruffione pass, Bocca di Bondolo, the Clef and Cleabà mountain huts, and the Nuova and Frontale passes. Obviously, there were many smaller sections that ran from the rear valley floor up to the mountain pasture areas and the ridges.
Nothing survived of these infrastructures after the war, both the railways and the cableways: first damaged by the retreating Austro-Hungarian army and then removed by the Italian military engineers (Genio) for the recovery of metal materials. Only some of their reinforced concrete foundations and anchorages remain as a testament to these enormous works of territorial militarization.
The steamer Italia on Lake Idro with Italian soldiers, teachers and schoolchildren on board. In “Immagini e storie dal Fronte delle Giudicarie, Valle del Chiese 1915-1918”, by Ovidio Pellizzari
Lower Chiese military railway
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In the period just before entering the war, the Royal Italian Army began to amass troops and armaments along the border of Bagolino and Ponte Caffaro.
The Rezzato-Tormini-Vestone tram was in constant operation. Soon the tram was extended to Idro in the Grotta area. From here, the goods continued by water on Lake Idro via two steamboats. The docking points on the northern shores of the lake were the port of Camerelle in Baitoni and the port of San Giacomo in Ponte Caffaro. All the materials continued on a steam-powered decauville railway with a reduced gauge of 60 cm (23.6 inches), along a line of just over 15 km (9.3 miles) that was arranged on two trunks that connected the two ports on the lake with the Italian rear area of Storo.
Province of Brescia – Historical and Cultural Institute of the Rome Engineer Corps
Lodrone military airport
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On the Giudicarie front, the Italian Army had a small military airport from 1915. An occasional dirt landing field was built in the countryside to be used for emergency landings. In March 1918, the 9th Air Group recommended that the Command of the 14th Army Corps transform the Lodrone camp into a rescue camp or aircraft service.
Here are a few excerpts from the letter: “We have the honor of informing this Command that the Lodrone Rescue Camp, as it currently stands, does not give any guarantee of being able to land there without damage and danger, in the event of malfunction or other aviation accident that may occur during a reconnaissance of the lines. It is therefore necessary that the plot of land ... be completely free of holes, furrows and depressions...“ After the appropriate technical assessments, the Command of the 7th Army authorized the works that began on March 26, 1918.
Lodrone Landing Field. In www.ilfrontedelcielo.it
Source: Aldo Gottardi and Ovidio Pellizzari​