Lusern plant
The Lusern plant ( Italian Forte Campo de Luserna , Cimbrian Obar Forte ) was a fortification of the Austrian barrier on the border with Italy . It is located on the southern foothills of the Costa Alta Ridge (1,548 m) about one kilometer northeast of Lusern , was part of the Lafraun (Lavarone) defense section and - regardless of its actual geographical location - belonged to the so-called blocked group by the Austro-Hungarian military administration the plateau of the seven municipalities .
The Lusern plant was the most advanced plant of the blocking group and covered on three sides:
- The Asticotal (Val d'Astico) in the south of Lusern, which comes from Arsiero under Lusern and leads northeast to Carbonare.
- The Valle Rio Torto, which branches off from the Asticotal near Longhi (southwest of Lusern) and leads north into the back of the restricted group.
- The Val Torra, which branches off from the Asticotal to the north near Casotto (south of Lusern).
The latter separates the Lusern plant from the Italian tank fort “ Forte Campolongo ” six kilometers away . Due to its own equipment with very short-barreled howitzers and because Campolongo was still almost 200 meters higher at 1,720 meters, it was just within reach. The " Forte Monte Verena ", however, could no longer be reached with the tower howitzers.
history
- Start of construction: July 15, 1908
- Completion: October 30, 1912
- Crew in the main plant: 3 officers, 247 NCOs and men
- Crew in the Oberwiesen melee system: 1 officer, 33 NCOs and men
- Crew in the Viaz melee system: 1 NCO and 22 men
- Planning: Captain E. Lacom (also Lakom)
- Commanders: First Lieutenant E. Nebesar / First Lieutenant Schaufler
- Estimated construction costs: 1,605,400 crowns
- actual construction costs: 2,259,648 crowns
Detachments of the Imperial and Royal Landess Rifle Regiment "Trient" No. I , the fortress artillery battalion No. 6 from Trient and Chiesa di Lavarone were assigned as war crew. However, since these units were all on the Eastern Front when war broke out with Italy, everything that was available was initially used. (Plant commandant became an officer of a fortress lighting department!) The emergency crew for all plants therefore initially consisted of a detachment of the Imperial and Royal Bozen Rifle Regiment No. II , the 2nd company of the fortress artillery battalion No. 1 from Tenna (battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel Ludwig Pengov) and the 1st .– 4th company of the fortress artillery battalion No. 8 from Haidenschaft and Wippach (battalion commander Colonel Alfred Langer). The infantry close defense was transferred to the Standschützen Battalions Meran I and Kitzbühel.
Factory description
The Lusern plant was already one of the more modern plants and was accordingly constructed using concrete , with iron reinforcement in places. However, it was not yet broken down as planned and partially implemented in the planning for the last works. The plant was surrounded by a moat up to eight meters deep and ten meters wide. At the front tip of the fortress trench there was a trench that secured both the front trench section and the right flank trench. There was an optical signal connection to the Verle works and the Vezzena post , as well as to the command post on Monte Rust and Monte Cornetto. The aboveground structure formed an acute angle of about 45 °, the longer leg of which was the battery block. This runs exactly from north to south and is oriented with its front to the east.
Sections
- Casemate block
The casemate block had three floors and its two upper floors touched the left shoulder of the battery block, which only existed on this level. The top floor merged into the battery block, while the middle floor with the traditional battery was pushed under the battery block. The bottom floor was smaller in terms of area and did not reach the battery block. The casemate block had the following rooms:
Division of the rooms and fighting stalls
| Lower floor | Middle floor | Upper floor |
|---|---|---|
|
|
|
- Battery pack
- 1 × rotating observation stand (access from the middle floor)
- 4 × tower howitzers THM9
- 1 × ready room (in the transition to the casemate block)
- 1 × armored dome for two machine guns and two flare pistol stands
- 1 × ammunition magazine for tower howitzer No. I and II
- 1 × protected output on the battery deck
- 1 × toilet with emergency exit and a signal pistol stand
- Trench pranks
It was not a case of a counter-trench case protruding into the trench, as was the case at the Gschwent plant , but a defense structure integrated into the outer trench wall. It had two floors and was equipped on the ground floor with two 6 cm M10 casemate cannons to coat the front and flank trenches and a machine gun in a wall notch to coat the flank trench. The stairs to the access post and a toilet were also located here. On the floor above, an armored casemate was installed above the cannons for two machine guns to fire on both the front and flank trenches. Next to it was a wall notch for a machine gun aimed at the flank trench. There were also two 21 cm headlights and an artillery depot.
- Melee facility Oberwiesen
- 1 × armored casemate for two machine guns and a 35 cm searchlight
- 1 × armored casemate for two machine guns
- 1 × crew room with optical signal station
- 1 × officer accommodation
- 1 × toilet with gun slits
- 1 × armored dome for two machine guns
- 1 × stand for headlights 35 cm
- Melee system Viaz
- 1 × armored dome with two machine guns
From the Viaz hand-to-hand combat facility, there was visual contact with the Italian Forte Casa Ratti south in the Astico Valley, about ten kilometers away.
Armament
- four 10 cm M.9 tower howitzer under rotating armored domes
- two 8-cm M5 / 9 minimal -chart cannons as a flanking battery ( Traditor ) in the direction of the neighboring Verle plant
- two 6 cm M10 casemate cannons as close defense in the front line of the trench
- four tank casemates, each with two Schwarzlose machine guns
- three armored domes with two machine guns each
- two rotating observation stands, each with a machine gun
- three wall slits each with a machine gun
- a total of 19 machine guns
- four headlights 21 cm
- a 35 cm spotlight (in the Oberwiesen melee system)
_Monte_Verena,_Campolongo_Carbonare_(Kohlingen)_und_Tonezzaspitzen._(BildID_15733976).jpg)
Lusern plant in the First World War
First bombardment
No later than two days after the declaration of war, the Italians fired at the plant from May 25th with the four turret guns of Fort Campolongo (149 mm A cannons) and the 28 cm howitzer batteries Costa del Civello and Spelonca delle Neve both stood south of the fort on Monte Verena. In the period up to May 28, around 700 rounds 28 cm and around 600 rounds 149 mm were fired at the movement. Of these, about 950 shells fell on the factory premises, around 320 hit the concrete ceiling and four shells hit the steel armor. On May 26, 1915, a 28 cm shell penetrated the armored armor of the tower howitzer No. III and claimed one dead and two wounded. Another hit the following day jammed armored dome No. II and made it temporarily unusable. Two of the observation stands also received hits and the battery passage showed cracks.
The Nebesar affair
Three days after the start of the fighting, the works commander, First Lieutenant Emanuel Nebesar (until his detachment he was a member of a fortress lighting department) collapsed physically on May 28 under the impact of the fire. He came to the conviction that the work could no longer be held and wrote a related report to the section commander Major Jelinek ("Impossibility to persevere"), who then, without consulting the next higher command, cleared the work agreed. As a result, Nebesar had the artillery and parts of the plant's equipment rendered unusable and the plant cleared after a white flag was hoisted. As soon as this became known to the brigade command, it immediately ordered barrage fire from the neighboring Verle and Gschwent plants in the vicinity of Lusern to prevent an Italian attempt at capture. Since the Italians did not notice the whole thing and infantry attacks that had been carried out in the meantime were repulsed from the trenches, the matter was settled after about an hour by re-occupation with the old factory crew - under the new commandant, Lieutenant Schaufler. The Standschützen - patrol leader Otto Jöchler from the 2nd Company of the battalion Standschützen Merano I had in the meantime the white flag away, for which he ultimately with the Silver Medal of Honor was awarded.
First lieutenant Nebesar was arrested and there were four military court cases against him (three convictions were collected for formal reasons), the last of which led to an acquittal for insanity due to poisoning with explosive gases. This judgment, too, was then overturned by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Military Appeals, but there was no further trial before the end of the war.
Legal proceedings against Olt. Nebesar
- Judgment of the stand court 4-5 / 6
- Acquittal (judgment collected)
- Judgment of the first main hearing in Trento (July 21-22, 1915)
- six months imprisonment (judgment collected)
- Judgment of the second main hearing in Trento (October 23, 1915)
- Six years of imprisonment and cassation (judgment collected)
- The scheduled third main hearing was postponed
- Judgment of the fourth main hearing in Innsbruck August 17, 1916
- Acquittal (judgment collected)
Other events
The repair of the damage caused by Lieutenant Nebesar dragged on until June 13, 1915. Although the bombardment had decreased in intensity, it lasted until June 30th. From this point on, the 28 cm howitzers stopped firing, only the armored turrets of Forte Monte Verena and Forte Campolongo maintained constant interference with their 14.9 cm cannons.
From July 28 to August 8, 1915, the plant was involved in the bombardment of Forte Campolongo. This was also the target of Austro-Hungarian 30.5 cm mortars during the specified period, which ultimately also fought it down.
From July 31, 1915, gabions with gravel were applied to the factory roof as a crushing layer. From August 4 to August 27, 1915, a postern was drilled from the basement of the casemate block to the first serpentine on Werksstrasse. It was about 60 meters long and was used, among other things, to provide fresh air. The corridor was later expanded and accommodations, magazines and a telephone room were installed.
Second bombardment
The second massive bombardment began on August 15, 1915 and resulted in severe damage overall. The Lusern plant shot back and set fire to batteries on Monte Verena and Monte Angaro. On the very first day the armored armor of the tower howitzer IV was badly damaged, the left rotating observation post was jammed by a hit. On August 18, a 28 cm shell struck the protected exit from the battery block on the factory ceiling. This caused two casualties to be mourned. The corridor ceiling on the upper floor of the casemate block was punctured twice on August 23, without any losses, only one man was wounded.
During the night, attempts were made to repair shell holes in the concrete of the factory ceiling. For this purpose, extremely fast-setting concrete was poured into the funnel. This work was mainly done by Landsturm workers' formations, who suffered considerable losses as a result.
On August 24, 1915, a shell penetrated the ceiling of the casemate block, crossed the commanders' room, went through the ceiling of the middle floor and only exploded there in the officers' quarters below the commanders' room. The commander of the traditional battery, Lieutenant Sölder von Prankenstein, was killed. At 10:00 on the same day a grenade detonated in the vicinity of the listening and observation post of the traditional battery. Splinters penetrating through the observation slots killed Ensign Felix Schwefel. The Italian attack on the Basson infantry base (between Verle and Lusern) that took place on the same day could also be repulsed with the help of the howitzers from the Lusern plant.
The bombardment continued; The plant was seriously damaged by the 30.5 cm coastal mortar that had been introduced in the meantime. On August 25th there were three more breakthroughs in the ceiling, until the fire stopped on August 31st. The Italians had not succeeded in destroying the four tower howitzers and the two traditional guns. During this phase of the bombardment, around 3,000 heavy-caliber shells were fired at the plant. During this period, you had a high consumption of ammunition, so that within these two weeks 2000 shells had to be pushed in.
Disarmament and first repairs
After the Italians stopped firing, work began on bringing the precious howitzers to safety. On the same day the restricted group commander , Colonel Ellison , gave the order for the expansion. Between September 8 and October 16, howitzers No. II, No. III and No. IV were removed and positioned in provisional field positions 200 meters south-east of the Malga Cost'Alta in the so-called "Battery Cost'Alta". Armored dome No. III, which had become unusable, was abandoned and the access was sealed with concrete. Only tower No. I and the traditional cannons remained operational over the winter months. The right 6 cm cannon from the trench weir was moved one floor higher from its location on the lower floor, as the lower cannon slot could no longer be used due to the debris that had accumulated in front of it. The second 6 cm cannon was removed from the plant and moved to a field position north of the plant.
Even if the heavy howitzers had stopped firing on the factory, targeted fire at Lusern continued to be maintained with smaller calibers in direct fire.
In the following relatively quiet phase (the plant had probably been classified as defeated by the Italians) extensive efforts were made to restore the combat readiness . From March 1916 work began to re-arm the repaired gun positions. Guns No. II and No. IV were reinstalled between March 7 and April 13, 1916. Constant interference on the Italian positions was intended on the one hand to divert one's own deployment to the planned offensive, on the other hand to induce previously undiscovered Italian batteries to react, which would reveal their location.
Third bombardment
The third bombardment took place from April 9th to May 20th, 1916. Around 860 28 cm grenades and around 100 30.5 cm grenades struck close by.
- Hit position
- April 10, 1916: A shell penetrated the armored armor of the tower howitzer No. I, tore it in two and threw the armored dome with the opening facing up next to the bedding.
- April 11, 1916: The factory ceiling in the casemate block was broken through. Two fallen.
- April 12, 1916: The upper floor of the casemate block could no longer be held and was cleared. The dome of howitzer No. IV was dropped by a close hit. The howitzer No. II, which was reinstalled under fire, had to be removed shortly afterwards, as the dome had jammed after being hit. The left rotating observation stand received a 28 cm hit and also jammed
- April 21, 1916: The fixed observation post was shot free and crashed into the front ditch.
State of damage on June 1, 1916
- Tower howitzer No. I
- Armored armor smashed, armored dome thrown out
- Tower howitzer No. II
- Armor deformed, dome no longer rotatable
- Tower howitzer No. III
- Pre-armored tanks shot out, armored dome overturned
- Tower howitzer No. IV
- Armored armor smashed, armored dome thrown out
- Left rotating observation stand
- Jammed, only usable to a limited extent
- Right rotating observation stand
- without damage
- Fixed observation stand:
- unusable
- Traditor battery
- intact
- Contrast carpen case:
- operational
- Casemate block:
- upper floor unusable after 12 copies and cleared
- Melee facility Oberwiesen:
- intact
- Melee system Viaz:
- intact
Second repair phase
After the Austro-Hungarian spring offensive had pushed the front so far south that the plant was out of the fire range of the Italian howitzers, repair work was started again.
- The ceilings of the casemate and battery block were reinforced by up to 3.5 meters. (In places the corridor on the upper floor was almost completely filled with concrete)
- Repair of tower howitzer No. II
- Reinstallation of armored domes No. I and No. IV. However, the turning mechanism of both was irreparably damaged. Therefore, the howitzers were left out and machine guns were built into the muzzle slots for close-range defense.
- Instead of the destroyed entrance from the battery block to the convertible top, the no longer usable armored turret No. III was redesigned as an entrance and spotlight stand.
In November 1916 the defensive readiness of the plant was partially restored, but it was then preferred to remove all howitzers and install them in field positions near the front line. Only the two cannons of the traditional battery and the 6 cm cannon moved to the upper floor of the moat weir remained on site.
statistics
- Fallen of the factory crew: 23
- Close-up grenade impacts:
- 28 cm: 5463
- 30.5 cm: 725
- 21 cm: not known
- 14.9 cm: nb
- Hit on armor parts: 50
- Hit on tower domes: 20
- Hit on the rotating observation stands: 5
- Penetrations through the concrete ceiling: 16
Own ammunition consumption
- 10 cm shells: 11,308
- 8 cm shells: 5,161
- 6 cm grenades: 148
post war period
Until the end of the war, the Lusern plant was no longer involved in any fighting. It then became the property of the Italian state and was struck off the list of military properties in 1927. Due to the steel embargo imposed on Italy by the League of Nations because of the war against Abyssinia , the steel parts of the factories were removed. On June 3, 1935, the Lusern community acquired the former fortress, and on June 16, 1935, the first blasting began. After the rescue work was completed, the top floor of the casemate block was completely destroyed, as was the battery block. The two close combat systems Viaz and Oberwiesen were also completely demolished.
Current condition
Since 1990, efforts have been made by the municipality of Lusern and the employment office of the Autonomous Province of Trento to uncover the Viaz and Oberwiesen close combat installations and extensive security and clearing work in the plant itself. Today, parts of the plant are accessible again.
literature
- Rolf Hentzschel: Fortress war in the high mountains. Athesia, Bozen 2008, ISBN 978-88-8266-516-6 . (excellent illustration and primary source of this article).
- Rolf Hentzschel: Austrian mountain fortresses in the First World War. The Folgeria and Lavarone plateaus. Athesia, Bozen 1999, ISBN 88-8266-019-2 , ( Athesia workshop. Non-fiction book ).
- Heinz von Lichem : Mountain War 1915–1918, Volume 2: The Dolomite Front from Trient to the Kreuzbergsattel. Athesia, Bolzano. 1997, ISBN 88-7014-236-1 .
- Heinz von Lichem: Der Einsame Krieg Athesia Verlag, Bozen 1981, ISBN 88-7014-174-8
- Heinz von Lichem (Ed.): Per non dimenticare. Luserna e gli altipiani nella prima guerra mondiale. Photo e documenti della collezione Lichem e del Centro documentazione Luserna. = Not to forget. Lusern and the plateau in the First World War. Photos and documents from the Lichem Collection and the Lusern Documentation Center. 3. Edition. Mediadomain, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-932918-01-0 .
- Robert Striffler: From Fort Maso to Porta Manazzo. Book Service South Tyrol Kienesberger, Nuremberg 2004, ISBN 3-923995-24-5 .
- Erwin Anton Grestenberger: Imperial and Royal fortifications in Tyrol and Carinthia 1860–1918. Verlag Österreich ua, Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-8132-0747-1 .
- CH Baer: The struggles for Tyrol and Carinthia - eleventh volume. Hoffmann publishing house, Stuttgart 1917.
- euroedit / KOMPASS Karten GmbH, Carta escursionistica, cicloturistica, Altipiano di Folgaría, Lavarone e Luserna. 1: 25000.
- Walther Schaumann: Scenes of the Mountain War in 5 volumes. Ghedina & Tassotti Editori, Cortina, 1973.
Individual evidence
- ↑ The term “fort” was not used in this context
- ↑ Erwin Anton Grestenberger: The Austro-Hungarian fortifications in Tyrol and Carinthia from 1860 to 1918. P. 92
- ↑ Classification of the war for the spring of 1915 in: "Austria-Hungary's Last War" Volume II, Supplement 14.
- ↑ Breaking up or distributing the necessary structures over a larger area reduced the risk of hits
- ↑ set up for defense
- ^ Rolf Hentzschel: The fortress war in the high mountains. P. 161.
- ↑ Hentzschel, Verle, pp. 251-254; Hentzschel Festungskroeg, p. 88 u. 92
- ↑ Hentzschel, Festungskrieg, p. 95 u. 163-165.
- ↑ EAGrestenberger: kuk fortifications in Tyrol and Carinthia from 1860 to 1918. P. 102.
- ↑ not legally binding as no confirmation was given
- ↑ Dishonorable discharge from military service
- ↑ These could not be dangerous to the fort, so they only entertained interference e.g. B. on the supply routes
Web links
Coordinates: 45 ° 55 ′ 36 ″ N , 11 ° 20 ′ 11 ″ E
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