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and riots among Italian troops, in the largest part, formed by poor peasants, the favourite "flesh for cannoons" for all European nations of that time.
The Italian general staff and the officers on the front remained blind and rigid in their attack strategy and reacted imposing the terror on their soldiers; many regiments were decimated by summary executions on the spot and soldiers had to fight between two enemies: in front of their trenches, the Austrian machine-guns and barbed wire lines and, behind them, the Italian Carabinieri with the order of shooting on whoever didn't take part to the attacks or withdrawed.

But trenches weren't a nightmare for how war was fought along them; the daily living conditions of Italian soldiers were miserable for the cold during the winter that killed many soldiers and for the absence of hygiene in trenches and underground dormitoires, always full of moisture and crowded, where soldiers had to sleep the night and for the parasites (fleas, ticks, mosquitoes and big rats were the rule).

Food was scarce and often bad; bread frequently developed molds and larvae, but soldiers had to eat it because there was no alternative, besides a cup of beans soup or a little bottle of grappa, for not to feel too much fear, pain and parassites.
In various cases, soldiers were given cocaine, before an attack against enemy lines, to make them win the fear.

Italian uniforms were often not fit to that kind of war in the high mountain, because too light; this was true especially for boots that were produced by dishonest entrepreneurs with compressed cardboard!
This eased feet freezing and urgent amputations were frequent in military hospitals.

Another terrible risk for soldiers in the trenches were avalanches in winter.
In some cases, these were artificially caused on purpose by explosive charges, placed at the bottom of digged galleries inside the mountains and made blast under or above the enemy trenches.
The Alpine Genius troops were specialized in these underground attacks on both sides and thousands were the victims.

The most modern and terrible nightmare for soldiers, just while they stayed into the trenches were toxic gases, like mustard gas, (OH-CH2-CH2-)2S, or fosgene, COCl2; these caused burning on the skin and inside lungs, because they released pure hydrochloric acid (HCl), reacting with the mucosa.
These gases seemed made to kill just inside the trenches because heavier than the air and easy to accumulate in the bottom of trenches, to suffocate soldiers after terrible sufferings, if not equipped or ready to wear anti-gas masks.

The first to use gases in war was German Army along the French front, near Ypres, Belgium (from this, the other common name of YPRITE, for these gases), in 1916; afterward, all the powers involved in the conflict used them regularly.
The Austrians used them especially during their successful (but not definitive) offensive at Caporetto (Kobarid in Slovenian), along Isonzo River (October 1917).

Along the Alpine trenches, nearly 700,000 Italian soldiers died, during the whole war; they come from every region of Italy and were, in the largest part, illiterate peasants who spoke only their dialect.
So, they hardly understood one another and neither understood their officers' orders, shouted in Italian.
This created further problems (some soldiers were condemned for disobeyance because they hadn't understood the orders and had executed them badly).
On the other hand, many people from all the part of the "Planet Italy" had the chance to meet and know reciprocally, despite their different regional origins; this created great solidariety and friendship among soldiers, obliged to live and die altogether in those trenches.

Learn more about this author, Aldo Bonincontro.
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