War Is Dangerous

War is dangerous. It is a fact of which we are all too well aware. There are enemies and their weapons everywhere, and one wrong move can end the career of a soldier in seconds. Knowing that, doesn’t keep soldiers from doing their duty, but sometimes, things can go wrong in a very different way, as was the case on this day, December 13, 1916, when a massive avalanche struck a barracks near Italy’s Mount Marmolada, killing hundreds of Austrian soldiers. Over the next several days, avalanches in the Italian Alps claimed the lives of an estimated 10,000 Austrian and Italian troops during World War I. While some witnesses suggested these avalanches might have been deliberately triggered as weapons, there’s little evidence to support that in this case, though it is possible that avalanches were used this way at other points in the war. I guess there are many ways to create mass destruction. Avalanches certainly do the job thoroughly.

In late April 1915, Italy joined World War I on the side of Britain, France, and Russia against Germany and Austria-Hungary. For the next three years, the Italian army warred with Austrian forces in brutal battles along the Isonzo River in the rugged mountains near the Italian-Austrian border. Life in the mountains was often harsher than the fighting itself, prompting one Austrian officer to remark, “The mountains in winter are more dangerous than the Italians.” If it wasn’t the freezing temperatures, it was trudging through the deep snow. The danger became devastatingly clear in mid-December 1916, when heavy snowfall in the Alps set the stage for deadly avalanches. It was a recipe for disaster, and disaster came with it.

Hundreds of Austrian soldiers were stationed at a barracks near the Gran Poz summit of Mount Marmolada and had no choice but to face serious danger from the elements. While the camp was strategically positioned to guard against an Italian attack, it sat directly beneath a mountain of unstable snow. On December 13, roughly 200,000 tons of snow, rock, and ice came crashing down onto the barracks. Around 200 soldiers were rescued, but 300 lost their lives, and only a few bodies were ever recovered.

That December was filled with severe weather. Over the week following the initial tragedy, relentless snow and fierce winds made tragedies like the one at Marmolada alarmingly common. Whole regiments vanished in moments, and some victims’ bodies didn’t surface until spring. By the end of December 1916, avalanches had claimed an estimated 9,000 to 10,000 soldiers’ lives.