Paolo Ferrario

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Paolo Ferrario (born August 20, 1883 in Vanzago , Italy ; † May 19, 1916 Forte Campomolon ) was an Italian engineer and officer in the First World War .

Forte Campomolon with memorial plaque for Paolo Ferrario

biography

Paolo Ferrario was the third of six children of Ambrogio and Maria Gajo. His father came from an old family of pharmacists, even if he hadn't taken this route and worked as a land tenant and operator of a silk mill in Mantegazza, a district of Vanzago. His mother, on the other hand, came from a large farming family from Canegrate in the Milan hinterland.

After attending school, Paolo studied agricultural science in Milan. He then worked as an independent agricultural engineer in the Lombard metropolis and the surrounding area. Ferrario was a passionate alpinist , already during his studies in Milan he devoted himself to alpinism in his free time. In 1907 he became a member of the Italian Alpine Association CAI and a year later he also joined the Trentino mountaineering association SAT , which was then strongly irredentist . From 1911 to 1912 he was president of a section of the CAI Milan and a member of several commissions and among other things he was a member of the refuge and mountain guide commission.

In the CAI he used his professional knowledge as an engineer. He drafted the plans for the construction of the Gianettihütte in Bergell and also directed the construction work on the hut, which opened in 1913. By 1914 he also made a name for himself as a mountaineer with more than 40 first ascents.

After Italy entered the war in May 1915, he volunteered at the age of almost 32. He had not done military service until then, as he had been classified as unfit twice, in 1903 and 1904. He spent the first months in uniform at the officers' school for the engineering troops . In September 1915 he was transferred as a lieutenant in the territorial militia to the front line of the 2nd Genieregiment and in September of the same year he switched to the 35th Infantry Division as a sapper officer under the command of General Felice De Chaurand . While on duty at the front, he did not hesitate to take on risky tasks.

In the spring of 1916 he was transferred with the 35th Infantry Division to the plateau between Tonezza del Cimone and Passo Coe, west of the plateau of the seven municipalities . On May 15, 1916, on the first day of the Austro-Hungarian South Tyrol offensive, he volunteered to supply ammunition to some Italian batteries north of Passo Coe that had run out of ammunition. In the days that followed, he undertook several risky reconnaissance and helped maintain communication with the rear lines. On the night of May 19, he received the order to make the unfinished Italian tank factory Campomolon unusable for the enemy by blowing it up before the troops of the advancing XX. could occupy kuk corps. During one of these blasts, he was hit on the upper body by a falling rock. On the same day, Paolo Ferrario died of serious internal injuries at a nearby first aid station where he had been brought.

For his deed he was posthumously awarded the Golden Medal of Bravery in 1921 . Two commemorative plaques on the ruins of the Campomolon plant remind us of his campaign. In the 1920s a rifugio in the Bernina Alps was named after him, which was destroyed by an avalanche in 1935 and no longer rebuilt. In 1956 a bivouac box in the upper Valtellina was named after him. In his hometown of Vanzago near Milan, a street and a primary school bears his name. The community partnership between Vanzago and Arsiero , which was concluded in the 1970s , also goes back to the events of May 19, 1916.

literature

  • Gerhard Artl: The "punitive expedition": Austria-Hungary's South Tyrol offensive 1916 . Verlag A. Weger, Brixen 2015, ISBN 978-88-6563-127-0 .
  • Fondazione Ferrario, Comune di Vanzago (ed.): 100 ° Paolo Ferrario. Paolo Ferrario: uomo, alpinista, valoroso soldato . Vanzago 2016.
  • Robert Striffler: From Fort Maso to Porta Manazzo: History of the construction and war of the Italian forts and batteries 1883-1916. Book Service South Tyrol E. Kienesberger, Nuremberg 2004, ISBN 3-923995-24-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Fondazione Ferrario, Comune di Vanzago (ed.): 100 ° Paolo Ferrario. Paolo Ferrario: uomo, alpinista, valoroso soldato o. S.
  2. ^ A b Associazione Nazionale Combattenti - Paolo Ferrario
personal data
SURNAME Ferrario, Paolo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian officer
DATE OF BIRTH August 20, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Vanzago , Italy
DATE OF DEATH May 19, 1916
Place of death Forte campomolon