Vezzena post

Vezzena post from the covered route 1915/16

Vezzena post plan

The post Vezzena , (Italian Forte di Cima Vezzena or Cima Verle ), is located 1908 meters above sea level on the summit of Pizzo di Levico (also called Cima Vezzena), above the Val Sugana and south of the village of Levico Terme and Lake Levico . Directly behind the back of the structure begins the 1400 m deep rock drop into the Valsugana. It was just a small fortress without artillery and served primarily as an observation station for the neighboring Verle plant to the west . It was the north-easternmost pillar of the fortress chain .

On newer Italian maps, the facility is also referred to as "ex Forte Spitz Verle".

• Name: Vezzena Post
• Start of construction: 1910
• Completion: 1914
• Armament:

2 armored domes with two machine guns each

a rotating observation dome with a machine gun

a throat case with five reject openings

• to:

an armored observation post

3 acetylene headlights, each 30 cm in diameter

• Crew: A detachment of the Imperial and Royal Landess Rifle Regiment "Trient" No. I was assigned as a standardized war crew ; a total of one officer or 45 non-commissioned officers and men, including sappers , telegraph operators and telephone operators . Optical connection (light signal) could be established with the Verle and Lusern plants as well as the positions on Horst, Selva, Busa grande and Monte Agaro. There was a telephone connection with the Verle plant. The factory commander at the outbreak of war was ensign and later lieutenant Kurt Schwarz from the fortress artillery battalion No. 5 from Trento.

Building

It was a three-storey building, the rear wall facing north is free-standing from masonry and which forms an obtuse, protruding angle. The work is literally set on the top of the mountain, with a kind of gradation on the north side (whether this already existed or was created by blasting is not known) was used to create the ground floor and the first floor completely covered by the rock wall . The second floor with the fighting stalls towers above the natural cover and was covered with concrete. The cross-section was a kind of wedge, the flat side of which was directed south towards the Italian border and secured with wide, multi-row wire obstacles. It is not clear whether the plant had electrical power, there was no unit for generating electricity, it was probably supplied from the Verle plant. To defend the throat, a small, semicircular throat case made of 12 cm thick armored steel was used, which was considered to be safe from field guns. It was placed on the bend of the jumping out angle and had a total of five reject openings. The Sugana Valley could be observed through an armored observation post on the left flank of the rear. The replenishment was carried out peacefully via a fully visible access road, so that after the start of the bombardment a covered path had to be created on the north side of the steep slope. Water came from a pipe from the neighboring Verle plant. The area of ​​the enclosed space was around 25 × 9 meters.

Premises

• ground floor

Entrance with kennel

1 guard room

1 throat case / rifle stand

1 toilet

1 kitchen

1 genius material depot

1 ammunition magazine

1 material depot

1 crypt for six coffins (placed under the floor)

• 1st floor

1 crew quarters

1 first aid room

1 commanders room

1 ammunition magazine

1 food magazine

• 2nd Floor

1 Open local defense system attached to the west as an annex and only accessible from the outside

1 optical signal station to the west and north

1 crew quarters

1 rotating observation stand (type BuM 14)

1 telephone exchange with optical signal station to the east

1 ammunition magazine

1 fixed observation stand (type B.St.f. 3)

2 fixed armored domes (type BuMf11 and 12) for 2 machine guns each

1 armored gun and searchlight stand (type MuSH 16)

1 emergency exit on the convertible top

Because of the exposed location, the plant was equipped with ammunition and food above the norm; 200,000 rounds of machine-gun ammunition and food were stored for 90 days.

First bombardment

Immediately after the start of hostilities on May 23, 1915 at 4:00 a.m., the Italians began work with 28 cm howitzers from the Bosco Azari, 21 cm mortars from the Porta di Manazzo and the 14.9 cm turret guns of the Forte Verena . The result was not very serious, a first infantry attack on May 30, 1915 by the 63rd Company of the Alpine Battalion "Bassano" failed. After the first phase of the bombardment was over, structural reinforcement measures were already carried out.

Second bombardment

From August 1915, the second phase of bombardment took place, in which the 30.5 cm howitzers were also used, which the factory had nothing to counteract, resulting in massive damage.

• Hits:

August 16, 1915: The armored machine gun and headlight stand on the deck was penetrated and destroyed.

August 17, 1915: Breakthrough through the factory ceiling with subsequent detonation in a casemate on the 1st floor.

August 18, 1915: Hit on the notch of the right machine gun armored dome, which was temporarily unusable as a result. Two ceiling punctures with destruction of the telephone switchboard.

August 19, 1915: The already destroyed machine gun and headlight stand on the deck was thrown forward from the bedding by a direct hit and slid down the embankment. A direct hit hit the ceiling, crossed the entire structure and emerged again at the throat wall without detonating.

August 21. 1915: After the right machine gun armored dome had been literally shot free, it detached itself from its bedding and rolled down the front embankment. The left machine gun armored dome was also unstable, but remained in place. However, an occupation was no longer possible.

The crew now left the factory during the bombardment and went to safety in a rock casemate.

After another attack by the Italians on August 24, 1915 with infantry regiments 161 and 162 failed, the artillery bombardment continued on Vezzena, but subsided somewhat from autumn of the same year.

Nonetheless, in September 1915, the rotating observation stand on the factory roof came loose and fell down the embankment. The water pipe at the Verle plant failed, the cistern cracked from the constant vibrations and was leaking. From February 1916, the construction of caverns in the natural rock began. A protected aqueduct was laid and a material ropeway was built from Monte Rover.

In total, the work was filled with 2027 grenades of 21, 28 and 30.5 cm and 4200 grenades of 14.9 cm.

The commandant of the Vezzena post, later Lieutenant Schwarz, was awarded the gold medal for bravery and the Order of the Iron Crown .

Repair

After the Italians had been pushed back due to the spring offensive in 1916 , the repair of the plant began. A new concrete ceiling was put in place, the rotating observation post and the right machine gun armored dome were set up again. The 2nd and 1st floors could only be used to a limited extent as they were severely damaged by grenade explosions. In the spring of 1916, several advanced observers took up their position at the Vezzena post in order to direct the artillery fire from here during the South Tyrol offensive .

Current condition

Pizzo di Levico (Posten Vezzena) from the Valsugana

Today the plant is very ruinous, as scrap collectors blew out the iron parts in the 1930s and thus did more damage in the end than the war was able to do. The facility can be reached from the Albergo Vezzena car park via the old military road and is very popular with tourists in summer. The summit cross is on the factory roof.

literature

• Walther Schaumann: Scenes of the Mountain War in 5 volumes. Ghedina & Tassotti Editori, Cortina 1973.
• Erwin Anton Grestenberger: Imperial and Royal fortifications in Tyrol and Carinthia 1860–1918. Verlag Österreich, Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-7046-1558-7 .
• Rolf Hentzschel: Fortress war in the high mountains. Athesia, Bozen 2008, ISBN 978-88-8266-516-6 .
• Rolf Hentzschel: Austrian mountain fortresses in the First World War. Athesia, Bozen 1999.
• Military history guide to the Dolomites. Mittler Verlag, Hamburg.
• CH Baer: The struggles for Tyrol and Carinthia - eleventh volume. Hoffmann publishing house, Stuttgart 1917.

Footnotes

1. ↑ Hentzschel p. 38
2. ^ The Italian alpine companies were numbered consecutively, regardless of the battalion affiliation

Web links

Commons : Posten Vezzena  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 45 ° 58 '43 "  N , 11 ° 20' 43"  E