The Most Insane Battlefield In History: World War One In The Alps
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- čas přidán 26. 12. 2020
- / history_uncovered
(This video is a remake of one I made over 3.5 years ago that CZcams demonetized and I always felt I wanted to do a bit crisper/cleaner)
The most insane, extreme battlefield in history took place in the Italian Alps in World War One between the armies of Italy and Austria-Hungary. From 1915-1918, one of the most unique battles in military history has mostly been forgotten to this day. Learn what both armies had to face in this arduous and dangerous chapter of the war.
Music:
"Thunder Dreams" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
![Trenches At 10,000 Feet - Fighting On Mt. Lagazuoi I THE GREAT WAR On The Road [4K]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/oTn5aTy38lk/mqdefault.jpg)
This channel is criminally underrated
Thanks! Trying my best.
Just found it and I totally agree!
My maternal great grandfather fought on the Italian Front as an infantryman with the Royal Italian Army from January 1916 to November 1918. He was called back into the army when my grandmother was only three months old. She was born in October 1915. While he was there, he was on guard duty in the trenches one day when, out of the corner of his eye, a man in a grey uniform appeared. It was his childhood friend. They began catching up with each other when the Austro-Hungarians opened up on their position with an artillery barrage. Almost immediately, my great grandfather's friend was mortally wounded, though not killed outright by the shrapnel that had hit him when a shell had exploded nearby. My great grandfather picked him up and began carrying him on his back. His friend said, "Marco, what are you doing?", to which he replied, "You are seriously wounded. I'm taking you to a field hospital to get you help." His friend said, "Marco, put me down. Save yourself." My great grandfather would have none of it and they went back and forth, arguing as he carried his friend on his back. Finally, after they'd gone a long distance, this man said to my great grandfather, "Marco, please. You have a wife and a baby girl waiting for you at home. I am going to die. Leave me here and save yourself. Please." With that, my great grandfather put him down and said, "Fine, but I'm coming back for you when the shelling stops." He hit the dirt and crawled away from his friend and as he went farther, the shells seemed to be coming in closer. One went right over him and exploded very loudly and violently, far behind him in the distance. That compelled him to turn around and go back for his friend. When he got to him, there was a huge crater in the ground in the spot where he stood before he left his friend and beside it was his friend, who was now dead, having been killed instantly by this shell. His friend's dying act as a soldier was saving his life and that's why my great grandfather was able to live to be 92 years old.
I f you have ever fired a gun in a clear valley-mountain area you will know what I mean. Imagine what the sound would have been. . . with each shot echoed over & over again.
My grand grandfather fought in ww1 as infantry soldier in the alps, he was part of a special corp named " alpini" ( alps men). This soldiers where chosed from the small villages all across the alps. Surelly the alp front was the second hardest front of ww1 after western front
My nonno was a alpini also..I still have his photos and stuff from. Alpini.
my great great grandfather fought here too in austrohungary army
Anche mio bisnonno, nei bersaglieri❤
Many people forget that WW1 was indeed a WORLD WAR. The fighting went far beyond the trenches of the Western Front. Maybe as a follow up, you could do the battle between the Russians and Germans for the Caucus Mountains in WW2?
- naval warfare in the Baltics
- guerilla warfare in Africa and Pacific
- last true horse cavalry victories on eastern front and Middle East
- the moshpit that was the Balkan theatre
But unfortunately, schools will teach you only about trenches and the Western front
@@Dr_Doomer www.ljudigovore.com/issue/people-say-2526/article/the-role-of-italy-in-saving-the-serbian-army-and-people-1915-1916/5/
The Western front was the most important, that's why it's the most known.
@@litamtondyit was the slowest moving
I won't be coming home
I won't be going anywhere
I will guard this post forever
Here on the Alpine slope, where I did my final stand I shall remain
Among the ice and snow that binds me to this mountain
A force of nature too strong, sent from above
Where spirits lead the way, the winds will never fade
White Friday, I'll take the
Stairway to heaven
I'm sky high, when I die
I'll be immortal
Forever, I never
I won't return to
Blood mountain, I am the
Soldier of heaven
I saw the end of war
I watched the soldiers come and go
And I kept my watch forever
So many brave men fell in the battles that were raging down below
I have seen it all but none will hear my story
All of these years I have been frozen in time
I cried for spring to come but here
Winter remain!
White Friday, I'll take the
Stairway to heaven
I'm sky high, when I die
I'll be immortal
Forever, I never
I won't return to
Blood mountain, I am the
Soldier of heaven
I always dreamed that I would, serve high above
Where spirits lead the way, the winds will never fade
White Friday, I'll take the
Stairway to heaven
I'm sky high, when I die
I'll be immortal
Forever, I never
I won't return to
Blood mountain, I am the
Soldier of heaven
White Friday, I'll take the
Stairway to heaven
I'm sky high, when I die
I'll be immortal
Forever, I never
I won't return to
Blood mountain, I am the
Soldier of heaven
("Soldier of Heaven" - Sabaton)
a man of culture I see
i started reading it like a poem lol then i realised its sabaton
I've been up there: today it is paradise, but for my great grandfather it was hell.
My bis nonno fought in the Alps as an officre in the italian army. He went to his doctor after one battle and said I have a headache. The doctor took his helmet off and showed him the bullet in the back of it.
Holy crap, your nonno was badass
Horrors of war largely forgotten today
All of these videos are solid, but did my man just level up his sound design or something? The first scene is glorious, evoking the absurdity of war-sound in bleak mountain beauty, but that’s just the beginning.
So, so good.
My family fight and die in the alps with the alpini for the glory of kingdom of Italy.
Glory to the alpini. Viva la Italia, viva il Rei, AVANTI SAVOIA!!!!⛰️🏔🇮🇹🇮🇹
This front is criminally overlooked and especially undervalued. Italy was so crucial for the Entente and the austro-hungarians and the italians fought the highest and the harshest war ever.
This makes my heart hurt. No more brother wars.
But against people who are not brothers wars should continue?
Of course
@@darkone_2013 Not unless absolutely necessary.
My family is from the carnic alps and all my great grandfather’s were alpini who fought in this terrible war and then my grandfathers fought as alpini in the Second World War.
It's nice to see comprehensive coverage of this front. I had several ancestors who were Alpini soliders that participated in the fighting for the last two years of the war. The utter brutality of this section of the conflict cannot be stressed enough.
I find this sad personally, because alot of Austro-Hungarian soldiers were mobilized slovenes that fought in the Alps. And we really didn't wanna be in the middle of all that shit.
No one wanted
I never heard of this before, thank you. It's insane.
That's interesting too...
www.ljudigovore.com/issue/people-say-2526/article/the-role-of-italy-in-saving-the-serbian-army-and-people-1915-1916/5/
One of the worst aspects of the "white war", was that very often Austrians and Italians native of the Alps were RELATIVES.
Few know this today.
Just found and subbed to your channel! I love the topics you're covering and your presentation and narration are spot on. Thank you! I just got off work and this was such a treat to find.
I find the alpine front fascinating
Imagine skiing or hiking in the Alps to find an Austrian Mauser rifle buried in the snow. And to think that such a rifle has been buried under snow and ice... for *over a hundred years.* Rekindles that old realization in your mind; that the Great War... the alleged "War to End All Wars..." really did happen. Right there on that very spot. Real people, real soldiers, men like the men you and I might know today, long gone. They were real. They fought there. On such terrible, unlikely, and deadly battlefields. And the owner of that rifle may very well have died there...
I would love that
You might even find the mummified bearer of the rifle
When I was a kid we went trekking with school in the mountains between Lombardia and Trentino. We went hiking at about 2000m asl and we were able to spot a few objects like artillery "spinters" (one was basically half front part of an artillery shell including the thread) and other objects. Among them a few opened food cans, very rusty but amazingly something was still readable: on the base of one there was embossed the date (expiring or production, who knows) "1917" and another similar had no date (maybe they were opened at the opposite sides) but had embossed on the remaining base "CARNE BOVINA LESSATA NEL SUO BRODO" (beef meat boiled in its broth). Another can had cement in it, with a hole of a smaller diameter, like a candle holder.
its happening, has happened, still happens. North of Trieste, in 2011 i took a walk whilst on a trip nearby the trench remains, with nothing but a spade (intentionally looking for shit). Found a crumbling Adrian model 15 helmet and shrapnel metal .
You always use the most gorgeous paintings and photographs for your videos, I love your channel!!
very well done short docu with all important side note!! subscribed!!👍👍
Finally someone covering this
Very underrated channel, subscribed
Thank you for posting this.. my great grandfather fought for Italy as an already naturalized American citizen .. he was captured at the “Trentino Offensive” and spent a year or two in a POW camp in Austria before the American government secured his release.. I hope to learn more about his battle and the extent of his service
Even today you will find mountainsides covered in barbed wire and and everywhere you can see the tunnels that have been blasted into the rock. I myself found spent cartridges from Austrian rifles at the Wolayer pass.
With the rising value of World War 1 artifacts, I'm surprised people haven't tried recovering the weapons from the Alps. I would imagine the buried ones to be well preserved. They would be priceless.
Maybe it's a boon that this battle isn't well known. The less people that know it, the less there are that are willing to desecrated the dead for artifacts like medals and uniforms.
Maybe one day the bodies can be recovered and laid to rest. I would give anything to help bring them home, even if it meant flying halfway around the world to help.
@@GetDougDimmadomed The only bodies left intact are buried in the glaciers, the rest have been recovered or destroyed by the elements. Bodies turn up every once in a while because of the shrinking of the glaciers but most of the valuable stuff is gone or too dangerous or difficult to access.
The soldiers of heaven
very effective summary, simple to understand and well done.
You're freaking awesome brother thank you.
My grandfather was a member of the Italian shock troops..'ARDITI'..
The Italian Arditti acquitted themselves superbly & fiercely. Much respect & admiration!
The young kingdom of Italy defeating two Empires (Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian) in the same decade
Italy is by no means young. That had almost 2000 years of fighting tradition. The name is new the spirit was old
But foreigners prefer to ignore that
The home of War, war tradition and warriors, Italy.
Italy wouldn't of won without the help of Russia,France, and Great Britain. This is undeniable. Plus the Ottoman Empire was falling apart during the Italian-Turkish War. Hardly a victory.
Austro hungary empire was weaken by russia's brusilov offensive , they nearly getting knock out of the war , italy just finishing up their weaken enemy , after the battle of Caporetto , Italy had been push back 60 km to the Piave river and nearly get knock out of the war , at Isonzo the Italian offensive was halted many times by the A-H army , Finally Italy has won at Isonzo by slowly grinding down the A-H , but Italy have won with a very great cost ( around 40,000 KIA and 108,000 wounded ) , They did actually grinding down the A-H army but their troops suffered nearly double their enemy casualties !!!! (A-H casualties at Isonzo : 10,000 KIA ; 95,000 wounded , missing or being ill ) STAGERING !!!!
Thank you for this video. Very beautifull and exaustive.
I recently got the game Isonzo which shows how much of an attrition it was.
Absolutely insane... destruction of such beauty and for what? I guess it can be said for any part of any war, but especially a beautiful mountain range... stone doesn't heal like organic matter, even dirt can be replaced...
Can you do a video on Kargil War? That war is very similar to the Alpian front
it is Italy that won the war when it caused the capitulation of Austria. France and UK actually just managed to hold the lines, nothing more.
You are absolutely correct.... Once the Austrians collapsed it exposed Germany's southern front and Germany was forced to sign the armistice 10 days later. The battle of Veneto made that possible. It is the least understood and most underrated battle of WW1.
It is debate about who won Austria winning war but than collapse
@@domenstrmsek5625 Austrians After Piave battles were annihilated,they were Just losing badly
That is nuts!
Prepare to receive a skyrocket in views in a week as us Sabaton fans arrive.
This is real history! MORE!
Molt interessant 😦👍
Perbac! Davver sorprendent😳
Is this your voice or you are using any software?
No more brother wars...
absolutely crazy, rip to all of those who lost their life on this front.
What do you use to edit
So basically, if the alliance actually treated well their allies we wouldn't have witnessed another world war. I see...who is the bad guy now?
That would still be Hitler.
@@steveguild871 yeah but...if you remember Hitler was inspired by Mussolini and before knowing him he tried a coup and failed. Even if he managed to get the government, Hitler would have been pressed by almost all sides. We could mention Japan, true, but they only showed up after the Pact of Steel. So imo, no world war
The UK has always been the bad guy. Look at what country 80% of nations in history, even today, hates. That would be Britain. They've been the bad guy for thousands of years.
@@giorgiociaravolol1998 Hitler singlehandedly pulled Germany out of the economic depression the Allies forced on it after the Great War. Watching his people starve, his country go bankrupt and on the verge of collapse, and being pressured on all sides, he went insane because he wanted to help more when there was nothing else he could do. The German depression was ten times worse than the Great Depression. While he did horrible things, I'm not sure he was the bad guy. Not at the beginning at least. France was the main aggressor and cause of World War 2, the French government put the harshest punishment on Germany. And the fact that before the war even started the Allies had decided how to split the German land between them? And no one talks about the American, British and Soviet atrocities, even though they were much worse than anything Germany did.
As a history nut, I would put more blame on the Allies for the cause of World War 2 and the Holocaust. They drove the man clinically insane with their punishments fir a war started by an assassin that happened to be German, and had a surprised pikachu face when he fought back, nearly crushing them all in the process. I mean, people abandoned and killed German Shepherds because they were a German breed of dog. Cross that with the sheer amount of racist anti-german propaganda, which like most propaganda,is mostly false claims made to rile up a country, and you have the recipe for disaster. If Germans hadn't been overperfectionists, if they had chose quantity over quality, Germany would have easily won the war. The Soviets tossed out tanks loaded with spot welds in the thousands against German armor that was made to last a century, but only numbered in the hundreds.
Japan is an entirely different story. Japan was just a bunch of overzealous assholes because America put them through an industrial revolution in about a decade. I'm both Japanese and German, and have done massive amounts of research on war history. It's almost an obsession at this point.
@@GetDougDimmadomed that's one of the best and worst statements I've ever seen. I mean nah fam, you won't change my mind about Hitler. Yeah ok helping the german people, but many jews were german as well. So why punishing them? Because he went crazy? I don't believe it.
dang this place look like Hoth from star war with those ice cave lol.
Every man a commando!
Does anyone know of any good books on the war in the alps?
One of the worst battlefields you could be assigned to. It would be a horrible life
I mean this was WW1. Even disabled men would get attacked back home for not serving. (by women!)
@@Psychol-Snooper meanwhile those women didnt ever have to go through that
@@mbathroom1 Okay...
@@mbathroom1 bruh
@@mbathroom1 mostly true, but all respect to the red cross nurses
At the 1 minute 48 seconds mark ‼️
For some reason I saw the icons for stop play and pause on it thank God for the G ee. Nevermind 😀
November 19th 1911? Sounds like sacred history and knowledge to me 😜 what are we going to do with that little guy that says it all.
where are these photos from
Ww1 alpine front
China and India are doing this in the Himalaya right now
Onore ai nostri nonni
Rommel made his reputation there,
Infact when Rommel met the Alpini on mount grappa he was stopped in his tracks
Would you be willing to sell your channel?
The beauty of learning history is getting to know the real events, which are often more fascinating than the ones known by those who only have a superficial understanding of history. People who think that the Russian winter is the worst? Pathetic. Try fighting on the tallest mountains of Europe.
The fine people of South Tyrol should not allow the Fnglish to set a foot on their soil !
Sabaton got me here!
Which Sabaton's song?
This sounds horrific. I now want to learn more about this. Stay well out there everybody, and Jesus Christ be with you friends.😊
God bless
India and China have fought battles in the Himalayas, which would be comparable to the Italian-Austro-Hungarian front.
This sounds like William Montgomery narrating.
LONG LIVE MY FAMILY
LONG LIVE MY KAISER
LONG LIVE THE LION OF THE ISONZO
I really like the content but the way you talk sounds really robotic and is quite annoying. If you try and talk more naturally I think it would be a great improvement to your videos. Maybe rehearsing a couple more times before shoots might help
Just why, why are people are do fond of fighting amd wars, I watched the silent mountain today, and it made me want to look it up, all I could think about , those soldiers could be fighting and dyiing in horrible ways maybe for a bigger cause im unaware of, but in the end whoever u ask you'll never be able to hear an answer to justify all the horrid things war brings, its just somebody's thirst for power thousands of miles away that affects god knows how many lives
Battlefield alp WW1😢
Today thousands of young men lost their lives on one of the worst fronts in history, dec 13 1916 ‘White Friday’ lest we forget…
420 signal detected
It's 4:19 🤪
@@Psychol-Snooper says 4:20 for me
nice
American sf in high altitude..The enemy is sitting at an Altitude of 29000k feet ...U.S -whats the deal we have choppers ...but sorry the choppers cannot go in that terrain ....U.S Sf ...well we need to train from the Indian army ..for now give me some anti depression meds😅😅😅
The Isonzo however, oh boy...
At least if you died in the alps you would have died in a beautiful place.
The worst thing is that the austrians were winning but then the country collapsed and the Italians won land they didnt fight for. And i would like to point out that the eastren italian front was the worst here in Slovenia they made a huge hole on the side of the mountan, and suposedly there was droped 10kg of ammo pre square meter, and sooooo many dead
They were only winning at first because they got help from the Germans at Caporetto. Also, Austria only started collapsing after Italy kicked their asses at Monte Grappa and the Piave. Stay mad slav(e)shit.
@@mbattalionenjoyer5162 i know im not saying that the Austrians were the best (i know that without germans they would collapse at the start)but they were really making gains in maindland Italy and then lost in a blink off an eye
They collapsed AFTER Italians beat them
The Austrians weren't winning.
Most of the battles of the Isonzo ended in Italian victories, the battle of Caporetto was a German achievement, and Italy successfully defended on the Piave twice, first in November 1917 and then in June 1918 when the Austro-Hungarians tried to push past the river.
Austria-Hungary after the battle of the solstice lost all offensive capabilities it had left. All Diaz had to do was wait until Austria was weakened enough by its internal issues to push back and retake the territory that was occupied after Caporetto.
To say Italy didn't fight for the territory it gained is simply wrong and shows a clear bias.
PURE/BS
I am leaving this service. Stop posting on a platform that censures its creators and its users.
How about India and her neighbors
sounds like it needs an anime with odm gear, two even powers, and an x factor being flying beasts/monsters
nothing needs and anime adaptation.
Hi
Hi
Alexander the Great crossed the Alps with Elephants...
Hannibal
Alejandro estaba ocupado en el Oriente 🙂 tuvo que ser un imitador.
As if he'd get those on the ski lifts.
@@Stevo_CZcams no, really. I know a pimp called Alexander da great, and he crossed the Alps with his girls
Who cares we got single gorls in the comment section Bois let's feast
Italy could have walked into Austria at the beginning of the war. The Austrian alpine troops were fighting the Russians. Italy had bad recon and poor leadership. In addition, the Austrians, once they got troops assigned to the southern front, pushed the Italians back. Only with the help of the British and French forces were they able to stop them at the Piave. The darkest moment was, after the truce was signed, Italians attacking and killing Austrian soldiers on their way home after they already put down their weapons.
Sorry, you forgot to mention that Italians ate all types of children with a predilection for newborns. It was just for accuracy.
Italy almost did, before Austria called the Germans.
Also, you forget it's thanks to Italians soldiers French, Americans and English won on the Western Front
jesterhead8028 You're still here spouting your bollock
Seems then, that Italy changed allies in both world wars. Say no more....
Sure, you would like that but I will say more...WWI, Austria broke the pact attacking Serbia without notification and had intentions of attacking Italy it's ally. WWII, Germans broke the Pact of Steel only 4 months after signing by attacking Poland and dragging an unprepared Italy into WWII. The pact stipulated Italy be given 3 years to prepare, Germans had no intentions of doing so since they never notified Italy they would invade. TWICE, the Germanic's betrayed Italy NOT visa versa. And dozens of nations switched in both world wars, Finland 3X.
@briankorbelik2873 It sounds like you're the typical ignorant hater.....
Hi Guys 😍💋 💝💖
and they werent germans but they were slovenians and croatians who fought here only 3 % of germans fought here