The Schreibstube

Schreibstube is the German term for “orderly room”, i.e. the barracks of a battalion or company used for general administrative purposes. The sign indicates that we’re at the orderly room of the 8th company of a unidentified regiment, but I don’t think there’s any barrack in the surroundings; it should be more probably some hut in the woods. I was struck by the sign, which is beautifully done. You can read the name of the responsible of this orderly room: Feldwebel Hofmann (is he the man on the picture?). Some elements of it may remain mysterious for a long time, such as the word “Herold” which doesn’t sound German and the iconography of a well.

Soldati di terra e di mare!

We celebrate today my 700th post and above all the entry in war of Italy (24 May 1915). I showed you one year ago the official communication of the Italian King, Vittorio Emanuele III, given to Italian soldiers in 1916; I’ll show you today the 1918 version of the King’s communication.

Here’s the transcription:

“Soldati di terra e di mare !

Il quarto anno di guerra, oggi al suo inizio, vi trova sulla breccia, fieri delle dure prove che sapeste affrontare e che con mirabile somma di virtù superaste. Dinanzi al vostro fermo proposito di resistere il nemico fu obbligato ad arrestarsi, e voi in ardite magnifiche imprese, dimostraste più volte, con rinnovata coscienza di forza, lo spirito indomito e la risoluta volontà di vincere onde siete animati. Queste preziose energie, ravvivate dalla fede con cui il Paese concorde vi segue, ingagliardite dalle ansie con le quali vi attendono i fratelli oppressi e spogliati dal nemico, varranno a ricondurvi sulla via della vittoria.

Soldati di terra e di mare !

Con l’immagine sacra, della Patria interamente libera impressa nel profondo del cuore, con gli ideali di giustizia e di civiltà, dalla nostra guerra posti a suoi fini, vi accompagnerò nelle future lotte, certo che il premio all’instancabile opera da voi spiegata insieme con i valorosi Alleati non dovrà ancora molto tardare”.

The rhetoric may sound the usual one, but this statement introduces precise reference to historical context: the defeat of Caporetto of November 1917 and the withdrawal of troops on the Piave River (“Dinanzi al vostro fermo proposito di resistere il nemico fu obbligato ad arrestarsi“) and the fight of Czech soldiers on the side of Italian troops against the Austro-Hungarian Empire (“ingagliardite dalle ansie con le quali vi attendono i fratelli oppressi e spogliati dal nemico“).

Cattle

3 photographs in the same post for today! As stated by my friend Mike Brubaker yesterday in the comment to my previous post, the “modern” war of 1914 still contained elements of medieval warfare. Here’s another example of the link with medieval wars: the presence of cattle. This photograph was taken in Campolongo (a few kms west of Asiago) and shows us a German soldier “surrounded” by cattle. I let the experts define their race and tell me if these were “local” animals of if they were brought for the needs of K.u.K. Austro-Hungarian army. Note in the background the ruins of a house, probably destroyed during the fightings on the Plateau.

For sure, our photographer was probably very interested in these animals, because he photographied them several times. Here’s another photograph, of another breed. Did he find them exotic?

Or was he shocked by their scrawny look? We must remember that Austro-Hungarian civil population and soldiers heavily suffered hunger during the Great War.

The supply depot

A wonderful picture for this Wednesday: Vezzena Plain, i.e. the destination of our German soldier (see the previous posts). Vezzena is located in the north-western side of the Asiago plateau; this should confirm my theory that the Bavarian Column took the road from Caldonazzo. We can clearly see that the Vezzena Plain was transformed into a supply depot by K.u.K. Army. The 15 German trucks (I’ve counted them) are probably going to be unloaded; you can notice huge piles of bags everywhere. Note the carriages on the left of the pics, several horses can be spotted here and there on the picture.

In order to help you to understand where this location is, here’s a view of Google Maps; the shape of the mountain in the background helped me to locate this spot!

View Larger Map

I was going to forget: there is an Austrian fort in this plain: Werk Werle.

On the Asiago Plateau

Our journey goes on! The point is that we don’t know – again – where we are. Yesterday, my friend Mauro suggested that the road may be the Enego one, which means that the column accessed the Asiago plateau from East. Let’s hope that today’s photograph will help us to identify the stages of this journey. I suppose the village we can see in the background is the first one seen by our soldier on the plateau.

A view from above

This picture gives you an idea of the journey of our German soldiers to the Italian front. Logically, we should in some valley leading to the Altopiano of Asiago, in the north-west of this region. Indeed the convoys came from the region of Trento. Maybe some of my Italian readers will help me to understand where this photograph was shot?

A hint may help us to identify the location: on the roof of the buildings, there is a date: 1906, probably the construction date.

The accident

Another testimony of the journey of a Bavarian soldier to the Italian front in 1916. We’ve seen yesterday and the day before the spectacular mountain roads of this region. They were indeed very challenging ones and there were several accidents. Today’s photograph shows one of these: this truck went on fire. Did it have engine problems? We’ll probably never know. Soldiers are throwing sand with their shovel to extinguish the fire. Note the face of the man with a dark great coat and the dirty face: he seems to be shocked; he might be the driver. In the background, we can see another truck of the column and the preoccupied faces of its crew. They had been lucky until now; would they arrive safe and sound to their destination?