Tenna plant

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Plan of the Tenna plant
Kehlseite, in the foreground the corridors to the broken off Traditor

The Tenna plant was a fortress of the Austro-Hungarian armed forces . It was built from 1884/85 as Voglsche's unitary plant.

The twin plant Colle delle benne (it. Forte Col de le Bene) lies northeast at the height of the Colle di San Biagio.

The work was part of the "Tenna lock" in "Subrayon III" of the bar of the Austrian fortifications on the border with Italy and, together with the work "Colle delle benne", had the task of cordoning off the Suganertal (hence also sometimes called the Valsugana barrier ) and to secure the area Calceranica - Caldonazzo. An enemy attack in the rear of the Trento fortress was also to be prevented. It also guarded the road to Monorovere (also known as Monte Rover) the "Strada del Menador" (German Kaiserjägerstrasse ), which leads from the area of Caldonazzo to the fortifications on the plateau of Lavarone and to the Vezzena post . This exposed position was also reflected in the increased armament, which did not meet the norm.

description

The fort is located at an altitude of 608 meters above sea level on a ridge that separates the two lakes Caldonazzo and Levico . Today this area belongs to the municipality of Tenna in the autonomous province of Trento .

The structure itself was built in an open construction (with free-standing walls) and consisted of a single, coherent complex with a casemate block, a battery block (a battery with four guns and a half-battery with two guns) and a Traditor (a half-battery with two guns) ). These guns were housed in armored casemates (the front side consisted of steel armored plates faced with stones) with a scrap opening as a minimal notch; in addition, there were two rotating gun domes with mortars and howitzers on the factory roof of the casemate block. The work is listed in dolomite and limestone and when it was completed it no longer met the requirements of the time with regard to bullet resistance, as it was now only "less bulletproof" - i.e. H. it could only be regarded as resistant to a field gun caliber of 150 mm up to a certain point in time. Also the "dissection", i. H. the separation of the casemate and battery block has not yet occurred, which would have reduced the hit position. The casemates and corridors were built as barrel vaults , the factory roof was not yet reinforced with a layer of concrete (as had been done, for example, at Fort Douaumont , which came from the same period and which was also only built from stones) but with a waterproof layer of clay occupied, on which a thick layer of earth was applied. There were a total of four floors, three above ground and an additional basement. Above were the accommodations and storage rooms on the ground floor, the gun casemates with the ammunition magazines on the upper floor and the battery deck with the two rotating armored gun turrets as the upper floor. The barrel vaults of the casemate block were seven meters high and were divided by inserting a false floor.

It was surrounded all around by a dry ditch and had the overall shape of a ravelin (but without being one) with sides of unequal length. In this case, the obtuse angle formed the front and its point was directed somewhat to the west than to the south. The trench was not bricked on the throat side in the Kontreeskarpe, but only sloped; it could be crossed on a throwable bridge.

  • Side lengths of the outer moat wall
Left flank (to the Suganertal) = 92.85 meters long
Left front (to the plateau) = 40.15 meters long
Right front (towards Caldonazzo) = 45.50 meters long
Right flank (valley side) = 82.94 meters long
Quadruple battery of 12 cm cannons in armored casemates with the firing direction Lavarone (the front armor is missing, the works trench has sunk), in the background the Lago di Caldonazzo

The works trench was a total of 280 meters long, six meters wide and four meters deep. It was secured at the shoulder points of the obtuse angle with a trench weir in each of which there were two machine guns for trench defense on both sides. Access to these trenches was possible via postern from the casemate or the battery block. At the shoulder point of the salient angle of the front lay an axis extending under the sole and transversely to the trench grave Poterne , leading to the advanced observation post outside of the wall. In front of the right flank was a cistern for drinking water supply with a capacity of 84.5 m³. It was connected to the casemate block via a water pipe. The water supply in the cistern was calculated so that the war-like crew could be given 5.5 liters of water per person per day during the maximum period of siege.

Armament

8 minimal charter cannons 12 cm M80 in armored casemates
4 minimal charter cannons 12 cm M80 in armored casemates
2 tank mortars 15 cm M80 in rotating gun turrets (replaced in 1906 by two 10 cm M5 self-propelled howitzers)
4 mitrailleuses caliber 11 mm (later replaced by four Schwarzlose M07 / 12 machine guns ) for trench defense (two each in one of the two trench strokes)

The minimal chart cannons had a lateral directional range of +/- 30 °

  • Weft direction
The direction of fire of the two cannons from the Traditor (half-battery) pointed up the Suganertal via Levico in the direction of Novaledo - Roncegno and at the same time covered the space between the neighboring plant “Colle delle benne”.
The second half-battery (from the battery block) covered the northern area of ​​Lake Caldonazzo with the towns of Caldonazzo and Calceranica al Lago and the uphill road to Mattarello and Trento behind it .
The full battery with four guns was set up in the direction of the plateau of Lavarone / Folgaria and aimed in the extension over the village of Lavarone .

There was a telephone connection with Trento, the neighboring factory "Colle delle benne", the base on Monte Rovere and the barracks of the kuk Silesian military police battalion No. 16 in Levico .

Furthermore, it was possible to establish communication with the “Colle delle benne” plant and the post on Monte Celva via light signals. It was equipped with provisions for a siege of up to a month and was connected to the public power grid via a 5 kV power line from Pergine.

crew

The standardized war crew consisted of:

The standardized peace crew consisted of:

  • 6 officers (commander, 3 sub-senior artillery officers, 1 engineering officer and 1 doctor);
  • 197 crews (72 infantrymen, 109 artillerymen, 6 engineers and 2 telegraphists).

Fighting

Installation of the guns outside the facility according to the plan of the Geniedirektion Trient from January 1915

The plant had not been involved in any fighting. Immediately after the war began, it was disarmed and the cannons set up near the Chapel of San Valentino. After that, it only served as an observation point (a concrete observation dome was built on the top) and accommodation. In this capacity it was subordinate to the Genius Administration of Trento.

particularities

The building material required was brought to the construction site by cable car from the west side of Lake Levico. This was built by the Bleichert company from Leipzig-Gohlis until December 1885. It was 598 meters long and overcame a height difference of 155 meters. For this 10 support pillars were necessary.

Post war history

After the end of the First World War it fell to the Italian state and was removed from the list of military properties after 1931 (RD 10-12-1931, n. 1704). Angelo Castellani from Idro ( BS ) bought it in the 1930s after a tender for 10,000 lire. At an unknown time, it became the property of Aldo Baruchelli from Tenna, who gave it to his home community as a gift. The private owners removed the armor parts to sell to scrap dealers. (The background to this action was the steel embargo imposed on Italy by the League of Nations in the Mussolini era on the occasion of the war against Abyssinia .)

The traditor and parts of the right shoulder of the casemate block were demolished at an unknown time (possibly for the extraction of building material). The moat and the moat wall are also only incomplete.

During the Second World War it was used as a wood store and was most recently used by the volunteer fire brigades in the area as a training facility, especially for abseiling exercises.

Since April 2009, extensive renovation work has been carried out on behalf of the Autonomous Province of Trento (Provincia Autonoma di Trento). Cinzia Broll from Pergine Valsugana was responsible for the architecture , the costs amounted to 816,250.04 euros.

The plant is now located on the southern edge of Tenna and can be reached via Via San Valentino. Another path leads from the Caldonazzo plain from the hamlet of Brenta on the state road 47 (Strada di stato - SS 47) past the chapel of San Valentino uphill to the plant.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ At that time, Lieutenant Field Marshal Vogl was the genius commander of the kuk 8th Infantry Troop Division responsible for this area and played a key role in the construction and planning of the fortresses in South Tyrol.
  2. ↑ a b Description of the plant on Trentino Grande Guerra
  3. ↑ Douaumont, however, had been massively reinforced by the application of a layer of sand as a buffer and a concrete ceiling over it
  4. ↑ Today a suburb of Trento
  5. ↑ a b c d e f Descrizione del forte
  6. ↑ In the kuk military jargon, “standardized” meant “planned”
  7. ↑ Lieutenant or first lieutenant
  8. ↑ In Austria-Hungary there was no career group of NCOs, so they were among the teams
  9. ↑ This information is doubtful, as the plan of the genius management looks different in this regard.
  10. ↑ a b Descrizione forte su Fortificazioni

literature

  • Erwin Anton Grestenberger: Imperial and Royal fortifications in Tyrol and Carinthia 1860–1918. Verlag Österreich ua, Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-8132-0747-1 .
  • Wilhelm Nussstein: Dolomites. Austrian fortresses in Northern Italy. From the seven municipalities to the Flitscher Klause. Mittler, Hamburg et al. 1997, ISBN 3-8132-0496-0 , ( military history travel guide ).
  • Casimira Grandi, Renzo Tommasi: Emigrazione dalla Valsugana. Amici della Storia ed., Pergine 1990. (it)

Web links

Coordinates: 46 ° 0 ′ 35 ″  N , 11 ° 16 ′ 13 ″  E