The discovery was made in the Forcella Serauta area in Marmaladethe highest mountain range Dolomitesin the Trentino-Alto Adige region. The discovery of two soldiers from over a hundred years ago was possible thanks to the intense heat that has been continuing for many weeks in almost all of the Italy and did not spare even the mountainous regions of the country.
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Found in a hard-to-reach place
On August 16, a tourist hiking in the area stumbled upon the partially exposed bodies. A man reported the discovery local carabinieri who, with the help of mountain rescuers, organised an operation to bring the bodies to Canazei.
At the height 2700 meters above sea level There is usually a thick layer of ice in this area, but due to high summer temperatures, it has thinned, partially exposing bodies that have been trapped in it since the early 20th century.
The bodies of the soldiers were found in the trench area, Riccardo Manfredi, head of the mountain rescue team at the Rolle Pass station, told ANSA. It is possible that they had fallen into an enemy trap.
– This is an area that can only be reached with the help of an ice axe and crampons.because it is very difficult to access, Manfredi emphasized.
The soldiers had on them insignia with characteristic five-pointed stars, thanks to which it was possible to establish that they were infantrymen belonging to the Como Brigade, which took part in the battles known as the “White War”. Unfortunately, apart from the insignia, the soldiers did not have identification, so their identity could not be established.
The White War of a Hundred Years Ago
The term “white war” refers to battles fought between armies Italian a Austro-Hungarian during World War I on the snowy peaks of the Alpine front. Heavy fighting in extremely difficult, high-mountain conditions took place in the years 1915-1918. Many battles were fought at altitudes above 2,000 meters above sea level.
Discovered after more than a hundred years, the soldiers will most likely be buried at the Asiago military cemetery in Veneto.
This is not the first time that melting ice in the Italian mountains has revealed secrets from many years ago. In 2014, the bodies of two teenage Austrian soldiers from the White War were discovered near the town of Peio in the Trentino-Alto Adige region.
In turn, on August 21, 2010, in the Marmolada massif, a tourist came across the body of a thirty-something-year-old climber.
It's hot in the mountains too
For many weeks now Italy They are struggling with African heat wave and temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius were recorded not only in the traditionally hottest south, including Sicily and Sardinia, but also in the centre of the country.
According to Italian weather forecasters on the Apennine Peninsula in the second half of the week and at the weekend there will be a return of extreme heatexceeding 35 degrees Celsius.
High temperatures and increasingly longer heat waves in Italy are not without influence on the thickness of the Alpine glaciers, also in Italy.
According to a study published in 2019 by a team of scientists from the universities of Geneva, Treist, Aberystwyth and the ARPAV and CNR-ISMAR institutions, Marmolada Glacier in the massif of this name in the years 2004-2014 it lost about 30 percent of ice.
According to the authors of the work If this rate of ice melting continues, the glacier could disappear by 2050.
Source: ANSA, KPBS.org, Meteo.it, Sciencedirect.com
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