Hello soldiers!
It’s time for another devblog! The release of our Monte Piana map is getting closer. We can’t share the release date with you all just yet, but don't worry, your wait will be over soon enough.
Before we get into the historical background of the map, we would like you to ask you all once again to fill out our player survey. This is to make sure that we’re putting our development focus in the right areas, and to keep our fingers on the pulse of the WW1 Game Series community.
Many of you have already done so, thank you very much! This is a reminder for the people who might’ve missed it (or forgot it). You can click here to be redirected to the survey.
We’ve heard some of you struggling to fill in the survey due to the Google login requirements. This is a safety precaution. We’ll look into other alternatives for future surveys.
Now, let’s take a look at the Battle of Monte Piana.
Preparations
Before the actual commence of the battle, both sides (the Austro-Hungarians & Italians) made adjustments of their positions. On 8 June 1915, the Austrio-Hungarians began to dig deep trenches, which were accompanied with barbed wire a day later. On the Italian side however, two infantry battalions (Marches brigade) relieved the Alpini and resisted the daily Austrian attacks (Schaumann). A few days prior, the 55th Marche had been alerted to move to Monte Piana.
The two lines faced each other at a short distance, and the Austro-Hungarians adopted a singular strategy to impede the Italian patrolling actions: every evening around 11pm they sent 50 to 60 men to take up positions behind the barracks less than 100 metres from the Italian line who fired shots rifle in order to keep the Italian troops still.
On 9 June, the Italian artillery targeted the northern plateau with the new 149 pieces causing numerous losses: after a few hours the damage was so serious that a partial Austrian retreat from the advanced trenches was necessary. In the night between 9 and 10 June the Austro-Hungarian shock troops were replaced by a company of Landesschützen.
An image of Monte Piana before the war
Towards the end of the month, the Italians expected the medium- and large calibre batteries (infantry) to be available. General Ragni Ottavio issued the order for an operation, which focused on the barriers of Landro and Sesto. Several areas were targeted such as; the North of Cortina, Passo Tre Croci, Val Padola and more.
On July 9th 1915, the Austro-Hungarians almost completely expelled the Italians from the mountain, but didn’t put in the final blow in their attack, resulting in the stay of their enemy. This allowed them to plan a counter attack.
The counter attack
In the early morning of July 15th, the Italians started their counter attack. Their goal was to recapture Monte Piana.
They started firing with artillery fire; about 40 pieces of various calibres including the 280 and 305 of Federavecchia, their targets were the trenches on Monte Piana and the Pyramid Carducci. Around 9am, a rocket launched from Villa Loero gave the signal for the infantry to fire.
“And here we are lying under the last scree*. We look in amazement at the valley of death. An old captain comes out of a boulder. He has a sheet in his hand, he shakes it convulsively. Someone murmurs: 'He's drunk, poor captain'. A bullet hits him and he falls into a flood of dust. He shouts: 'I'm hurt!' He gets up. He staggers. He turns his back to the enemy who riddles him. And the grapeshot continues without interruption. Two generous men from the Red Cross approach on all fours to take him away. One is injured. They flatten themselves behind the boulders. It seems to see the projection of a flickering film. " - Infantryman Brusatin
*A Scree is a collection of broken rock fragments at the base of a cliff.
At the end, the battle turned into two years without any progress on both sides. In the months October & November 1917, the Italians were forced to abandon their post in order to move towards Monte Grappa, where they needed to withstand the Austro-Hungarian’s Caporetto Offensive.
That’s it for now!
We’ll post a more in-depth devblog of the actual map as well, so be sure to keep an eye out for that!
Until next time soldiers o7
