It’s 1916. The Austrian troops have occupied what they called Forcella Vu. It’s the most strategic position, right at the top of Marmolada’s glacier with a connection to the nearby bastion of Height 3153. However, the only supply route was being watched by the Italian troops situated in the Serauta bastion. Braving the trip to Forcella Vu would mean you had to not only watch out for the regular avalanches and snow storms, but also the hail of Italian lead. However, that summer Lieutenant Leo Handl had an idea. If you can’t go over, why not go under?
The City of Ice
Thus, construction of a tunnel began. No one actually knew how well this was going to work. They had to test the materials, few explosives and technologies they had on hand. After all, no one had done this before! There was a lot of trial and error involved, but eventually they dug their tunnel.
Source: Marmolada Grande Guerra Museum
However, the tunnel ended up being surprisingly pleasant. You don’t have to worry about avalanches, snow storms can’t reach you and the icy walls insulated the tunnel to a relatively comfortable 0 °C. Functionally, it became a big, subterranean igloo. The protection from avalanches was particularly salient given the disaster of White Friday on December 13, 1916. Heavy snows and unusually warm temperatures (for the mountain top, so still very cold!) led to perfect avalanche conditions. Both sides exacerbated the situation by firing artillery to try and collapse snow onto their foes. Thousands of soldiers would be killed by avalanches that December, but the worst might be the destruction of the Austro-Hungarian barracks atop Gran Poz, which saw 270 soldiers buried alive beneath the snow.
Source: Marmolada Grande Guerra Museum
Additional offshoots were dug out the sides of the initial tunnel. These offshoots became hallways as rooms were created. The rooms got purposes: everything from barracks, toilets and provisions & ammunition storage to a kitchen, field hospital, chapel and various gun emplacements for machineguns and even artillery. Ultimately, the Ice City took 10 months of heavy labor to be created and could house and provide for more than 200 soldiers in its 12 kilometers-worth of tunnels.
Source: Marmolada Grande Guerra Museum
Italian counter-offensive
The Italians already began their counter-mining works, but accelerated their efforts upon being shelled by artillery from the subterranean city. Thanks to drilling machines, they rather quickly dug their way below the city and destroyed several key positions with explosives, including artillery emplacements.
Source: Marmolada Grande Guerra Museum
With the superior supply line of the Italians, the Austro-Hungarians found themselves on the defensive and had to continue digging more and more to counteract the movement of the Italians. The mining and countermining from both sides continued until the Italians surrendered their positions following the Battle of Caporetto in late 1917.
The fate of the city
As the Italians backed off, the Ice City lost its purpose. It was abandoned by the Austro-Hungarians and ended up in disrepair. As the glacier started to melt, the city was destroyed and little evidence of the city’s very existence remains to this day, though sections of the various structures continue to re-emerge.
If you’d like to learn more about the Ice City, as well as Marmolada as a whole, be sure to give the Museum of the Great War in Marmolada a visit. They have many exhibitions about the Ice City, including items they've recovered from the City's remains. This blog is for a large portion based on their documentation. Find out more about the museum through their website.
Source: Marmolada Grande Guerra Museum
You can explore our rendition of the Ice City on Marmolada, the latest map added to Isonzo as part of the free White War expansion. Get lost in the tunnels, fight over the bridges and gain or keep control over the supply line!
Want a more authentic Marmolada experience? Be sure to check out the Glacial Units Pack and dress up for the cold!
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