To thwart enemy attacks as darkness fell, armies were equipped with powerful searchlights and beacons. The war in the high mountains required that these instruments be placed at strategic points at high altitudes, to enable them to illuminate large sections of the front, and that they be connected by telephone to the command posts.
On the Austrian side, the searchlights and their area of operation were assigned code names in telephone communications between artillery observation posts, for fear of enemy eavesdropping. The searchlight “Ida” was placed under the command of the Tre Cime Group in July 1917 and a whole program was drawn up so that lighting exercises could take place along the front line by specially trained military and operators, in order to illuminate and monitor the Italian positions as comprehensively as possible.
In the area of the Tre Cime, there were numerous searchlights both on the Austrian and on the Italian side, as evidenced in the maps of the time, such as the one identified in the Archivio dello Stato Maggiore Italiano.1Archivio dell’Ufficio Storico dello Stato Maggiore dell’Esercito, Roma, Monografie del I Corpo d’Armata – Genio – Sistemazione difensiva, AUSSME_B1_110D_23A. Several sources, including department diaries and personal diaries, testify that it was common to try to hinder the opposing searchlights by directing beams of light produced by more powerful equipment against them, so as to weaken them. An example is the following official diary entry:
“On the night of 11 [February], the enemy searchlight having bothered our work in progress, the Paterno’s searchlight was operated, superior in power to the enemy’s”.2Diario Comando III sottosettore, AUSSME_B1_130s_87e, febbraio 1917.
Or again, from the personal diary of Paolo Barzan, a soldier of the VII Alpini engaged on the Three Peaks in the summer of 1915: “Our searchlight, being of greater strength, confused the German one”.3Diario dell’alpino Paolo Barzan, 19 agosto 1915. Sometimes searchlights became actual targets: the artillery tried to damage them, as we read in this sector diary: “during the night the enemy searchlight was hit on the Torre dei Scarperi [Schwabenalpenkopf] forcing it to go out”; in this case the searchlights were turned off and possibly sheltered in special compartments, like those made on the top of the Paterno/Paternkofel or at the Kawrza stronghold, under the Torre dei Scarperi/ Schwabenalpenkopf.4Diario Comando Lavaredo Oberbacher, AUSSME_B1_130s_88e, 14 agosto 1916.
Searchlights were a good defensive system to protect against night infantry attacks, as evidenced by the diary of the 59th Infantry Regiment “Erzherzog Rainer” about an Italian attack on December 10, 1915: “After midnight, an enemy patrol descending from the Frankfurter Wurstl [Salsiccia di Francaforte] towards the Rienztal [Valle di Rienza] with snowshoes tried to approach our position in Kampfgruppe B, but he was at a remove from the spotlight and fire of the infantry.”5Kriegsarchiv Wien, Kriegtagebuch des Infanterieregiments 59, Eintrag vom 10.12.1915, p. 115. For such an attack to be successful, the lighthouse would have to be knocked out: “The Italian battery of Paternsatte [Forcella di Lavaredo] l then fired a few shots at the lighthouse without causing any damage.” Searchlights were particularly efficient in defensive operations, but, if used by the enemy, they could be a disadvantage in actions that had to take place in secret. In particular, the Paterno/Paternkofel searchlight illuminated the positions at the Torre di Toblino/Toblinger Knoten almost continuously to observe any movements and preparations for attack. In doing so, however, the enemies anticipated their own intentions, as described for example by Richard Heuberger in a letter to his wife in August 1916, during the night guard shift: “The Italians, on the other hand, always keep the searchlights running and launch tracer rockets, a sign that they too foresee an attack”.6Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Nachlass Richard Heuberger, Feldpostbrief vom 25. August 1916.
(GF, SK)
Kübler, Peter and Hugo Reider. (1997). Battle for the Three Peaks. Bolzano/Bozen: Athesia.
Holzer, Anton (1996). Die Bewaffnung des Auges: Die Drei Zinnen oder Einen kleine Geschichte vom Blick auf das Gebirge, pp. 77-88. Wien: Verlag Turia + Kant.
Diario Comando III subsector, AUSSME_B1_130s_87e, Archivio dell’Ufficio storico dello Stato Maggiore dell’Esercito, Rome.
Diario Comando Lavaredo Oberbacher, AUSSME_B1_130s_88e, Archivio dell’Ufficio storico dello Stato Maggiore dell’Esercito, Rome.
Diary of the Alpine Paolo Barzan, ADN_MG/T3, National Diaristic Archive, Pieve Santo Stefano.
Monographs of the I Army Corps – Engineers – Defensive Arrangement, AUSSME_B1_110D_23A_monografie, Archive of the Historical Office of the Army General Staff, Rome.
Kriegsarchiv Wien, Neue Feldakten, Artilleriekommando der 21. Gebirgsbrigade, 3321, Feldpost Nr. 526, 8 July 1917.
Kriegsarchiv Wien, Kriegtagebuch des Infanterieregiments 59, Eintrag vom 10.12.1915, S. 115.
Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Nachlass Richard Heuberger, Feldpostbrief vom 25. August 1916.
The searchlight on the Cima Grande
In July 1915 the Italian army decided to install a searchlight on the Cima Grande di Lavaredo/Große Zinne. The searchlight, in pieces, was transported by the alpine soldiers of Val Piave and Pieve di Cadore, as well as soldiers of the Engineers. The transport alone took three weeks. The alpino Augusto Carducci, in a passage of his diary, writes: “Between July and August 1915 I had the honor of being part of the Lavaredo Group with my 2nd photoelectric section stationed in Calalzo di Cadore, which was formed to install one of our 90 cm photoelectric stations on the Cima Grande to contribute to the war action for the occupation of the Sasso di Sesto [Sextenstein] that faced us. This summit no longer has the altitude of 3003 since, in order to give free rein to our beam of light, it was necessary to blow up a piece of the ridge. So it’s a few meters lower. With the valuable help of a company of Alpini and by force of arms and ropes, a complete dynamo engine group and the projector weighing about 6 quintals in pieces was transported to an altitude of 2800 on the top where it was reassembled and put into operation. I had the honour of making it work for the three days that the action for the Austrian position lasted. The enemy was disoriented by that beam of light that came from the sky, and only on the second and third day cannonade us with a 105 piece from under a ridge, but not being able to detect us, they fired 18 shots that were too short and 11 that were too long.7Fronte Dolomitico, Il Faro ed il Cannone sulla Grande di Lavaredo, https://www.frontedolomitico.it/Luoghi/lavaredo/05_faro.html.
In his memoirs, medical officer Paolo Berti adds that a power line was laid between the 24 HP Fiat engine with its dynamo and the searchlight. He also specifies the duration of the work: “For three weeks, up those 500 meters of rock, alpini and soldiers of the Military Engineers climb and descend without interruption: they hoist ladders and stairs, crates and crates, tables and logs. It’s a wonderful anthill! In the various gullies, with occasional means, lifting systems are established by means of beams placed transversely with pulleys and ropes. The materials are lifted and placed temporarily on various ledges, then gradually bringing them higher, up to the place of installation”.8Berti, Guerra in Ampezzo e Cadore, pp. 164-166
(GF)
Berti, Antonio. (2005). Guerra in Ampezzo e Cadore, 1915-1917. Milan: Mursia.
Fronte Dolomitico, Il Faro ed il Cannone sulla Grande di Lavaredo, https://www.frontedolomitico.it/Luoghi/lavaredo/05_faro.html
A searchlight named “Ida”
One curious artifact in the militarized landscape of the Tre Cime was a searchlight named “Ida.” Searchlights were a key feature for the frontlines for both armies. These instruments were installed in high perches and caves to illuminate large sections of the enemy front and were used to thwart nighttime attacks and disrupt activities. Telephone lines linked the searchlight posts to the command stations.
Because of the threat of eavesdropping on the telephone lines, code names were used. A military letter (FeldPost No. 526) of the Austrian army dated July 8, 1917 refers to the installation of a searchlight (Scheinwerfer) with the code name “Ida” that was to illuminate and monitor the Italian position on the side of Monte Piano/Settelberg.9K.u.K. Art. Abschn. Kmdo. Kreuzberg. Res.Nr. 348 zu. An Art. Gruppe I. Kriegsarchiv Wien, Neue Feldakten, Artilleriekommando der 21. Gebirgsbrigade, 3321, Feldpost Nr. 526, 8. Juli 1917. The searchlight had a 120cm diameter and was in the “royal class” of lighting devices. According to the military letter, a telephone line was under construction that would connect S.W. Ida (Scheinwerfer Ida) to the command post at Monte Piano. The searchlight was assigned to the Art. Gruppe 1 Zinnen and was placed at the foot of the Schwalbenalpenkopf/Torre dei Scarperi in the Kawrza position (2519mt) as indicated on a military map.10AUSSME (Archivio Ufficio Storico dello Stato Maggiore dell'Esercito), E1_B271, linee difensive Monte Piano.
The searchlight was moved around using tracks. During the day, the searchlight was kept inside and then moved to an external position at night. On a sketched diagram, there are the two windows of the gallery, with the L1 position looking westward towards Monte Piano, the other L2 position looking eastward towards Sasso di Sesto/Sextenstein. Inside the gallery there is a room (Tagestellung) where Ida was sheltered during the day. During the archaeological surveys conducted as part of the Written in the Landscape project, the tunnel was explored; the archaeologists found the window of the L1 position looking towards Monte Piano where Ida was installed at night as well as remnants of the tracks. The window at the L2 position is partially destroyed and the traces of the position for the searchlight are no longer visible.
That the searchlight had the female name “Ida” can be interpreted in a couple of ways. The tradition of naming weapons in war can be considered evocative of a “heroic culture, part of a process of collective memory and understanding”.11Mugglestone, The Bombshells of WW1. The use of a female name follows other instances of military equipment and weaponry during World War I named after women (the Dicke Berthe is a prominent example).12See Schmitz-Gropengiesser, Die Dicke Bertha. Soldiers might have understood the naming of a searchlight “Ida” through notions of femininity and/or masculinity. The searchlight becomes a maternal figure with a powerful beam that protected them from attack; further, it is the feminized object over which they have control or a complex object in need of special care and maintenance. These interpretations demonstrate how militarized landscapes contribute to constructions of womanhood and soldierly masculinity, which were manifested during World War I in influential and enduring ways.13Hämmerle et al, Gender and the First World War.
(ACB)
Linee difensive Monte Piano, E1_B271, AUSSME, Archivio Ufficio Storico dello Stato Maggiore dell’Esercito.
Scheinwerfer „Ida“: K.u.K. Art. Abschn. Kmdo. Kreuzberg. Res.Nr. 348 zu. An Art. Gruppe I. Kriegsarchiv Wien, Neue Feldakten, Artilleriekommando der 21. Gebirgsbrigade, 3321, Feldpost Nr. 526, 8. Juli 1917.
Grayzel, Susan R. (2020). Total Warfare, Gender, and the “Home Front” in Europe during the First and Second World Wars. In Karen Hagemann, Stefan Dudink, und Sonya O. Rose (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Gender, War, and the Western World since 1600. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hämmerle, Christa, Oswald Überegger and Birgitta Bader-Zaar (2014). Gender and the First World War. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK.
Kübler, Peter and Hugo Reider (1997). Kampf um die Drei Zinnen. Das Herzstück der Sextener Dolomiten 1915-1917 und heute. Bozen: Athesia.
Mugglestone, Lynda (2015). The Bombshells of WW1: Women, Words, and Weapons. English Words in War-Time https://wordsinwartime.wordpress.com/2015/07/05/the-bombshells-of-ww1-women-words-and-weapons/.
Schmitz-Gropengiesser, Frauke (2016). Die Dicke Bertha: Gender und Kriegshumor in Liedern und Bilddarstellungen des Ersten Weltkrieges. In Aibe-Marlene Gerdes und Michael Fischer (eds.), Der Krieg Und Die Frauen – Geschlecht Und Populäre Literatur Im Ersten Weltkrieg. Münster: Waxmann Verlag.
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