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On June 28, 1914, the
Austrian heir to the throne Fredinand and his wife were
assassinated in Sarajevo. This was the cause for the 1st World
War, which was spreading lightning-like. Declarations of war were
being made one after another.
The Slovenian boys who
were serving in the Austrian-Hungarian Army at the time, remained
mobilized along with several other classes. They were sent mostly
to the eastern front, but they were not very eager to fight
against the Russians.
After a year of war,
Italy also declared war against Austria. In May 1915, Italian
soldiers arrived in the Soča Valley. Before that, every man aged
from 15 to 50 was enlisted in the Austrian Army, which also took
almost all horses.
The rest of the
population - women, children and the older - didn't have time to
withdraw to the interior of the country. They were left to the
mercy of Italian soldiers who stormed in at the end of May.
Everyone was terrified because of their ill repute.
The main support to the
inhabitants was the parish priest Jožef Kalin. The Italians had
him for an Austrian spy.
The Austrian Army and the
soldiers of the Territorial Army made a stand against the Italians
on the mountain chain of Mt. Krn. Shortly afterwards began the
cannonading and the Italians had to bring the first corpses down
from the mountains. The front around Drežnica forced the
inhabitants into exile.
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The
devastation under Mt. Krn |
Everyone took as much as
he could carry, everything else was left for the Italians. After
walking for a whole day, most of the people stopped in the
villages of the Breginj corner: Podbela, Breginj, Prosnid, Homec,
Sedlo, Stanovišče, Borjana. Many families were sent forward to
southern Italy, to Avelino near Naples.
Living in exile was a
hard and bitter trial. Being on the Italian side of the front, it
was impossible to get any information about the men and the boys
who were serving in the Austrian Army. The people were also afraid
for their newly built church. They heard that a new road was made
to Drežnica, that the parish is full of soldiers and that huge
barracks and military equipment were placed in their fields. The
exile was becoming more and more unbearable.
The front was still
spreading. The Italians with their elite mountain units managed to
conquer half of Mt. Krn. The front line thus moved to the next
peak - Mt. Botognice, where it remained unchanged for two and a
half years.
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The
winter conditions on top of Mt. Botognice |
The soldiers of both
armies engaged in the war were closest to one another right on Mt.
Botognice - they were less than hundred meters apart. In this
time, the peak itself changed its image completely. Both armies
attacked and tried to drive out the enemy from the plateau-like
summit of great strategic importance, but without success. The
conditions in this part of the front were especially difficult in
the winter - there could be up to 12 meters of snow in one winter!
The armies tried even subterranean warfare by digging shafts into
solid rock towards the enemy and placing explosives into them. The
marks of these fights (the mountain, covered with craters and
pierced with explosions) can still be seen today.
The Italians held also
the upper part of the mountain ridge between Mt. Krn and Vršič.
The adjacent mountains (Vrh nad Peski, Šmohor, Lemež, Lipnik),
however, were in the hands of the Austian Army. This was one of
the places where the Austrians used minefields to stop the
Italians.
Drežnica has been just
under the front line for two and a half years, exposed to daily
artillery fire. Many houses were demolished and the countryside
was devastated; however, the new church remained intact.
The situation was mainly
unchanged until the night of October 23, 1917. That night, the
booming was tremendous. The people thought that judgement day had
come. The Austrians, helped by the Germans, carried out a great
offensive - they broke through the front and the Italians had to
flee.
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The
remembrance of three fallen soldiers |
The locals greeted and
embraced the soldiers who were already chasing the Italians. They
were set free and returned to their homes immediately. At that
time, most of the houses were covered with hay and therefore burnt
to the ground. There were corpses, explosives and other horrors
everywhere. The people hardly recognized their homes. It was great
satisfaction to them to see at least their church still intact.
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The
restored Italian chapel |
People were banished from
their homes for 27 months. Those who were exiled to the south of
Italy did not return until the end of 1918 or 1919. They tried to
arrange some sort of a dwelling as soon as possible. Several
families lost everything they owned and many had to sleep
together, under one roof. They survived out of the remains of the
battered Italian Army.
The ammunition was lying
everywhere and some villagers got killed. Fortunately, the winter
of 1917/18 was without snow and people somehow managed to survive.
Even the first soldiers came to their homes for a short holiday.
But the war still raged at the river Piave and took more and more
men.
In the autumn of 1918,
Austria-Hungary fell to pieces and the front collapsed. 158 men
were mobilized in the Austrian Army, 34 were killed. Most of their
graves are still undiscovered. Villages, fields and families were
devastated and everything had to be rebuilt.
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The
Botognice Museum collection |
Shortly after the end of
the war, the Italians returned and tyrannized the people with
fascism for 25 years. Nevertheless, the people endured and lived
to see the reunion with their true homeland.
A local enthusiast, Mirko
Kurinčič, collected bitter memories of the Isonzo Front for many
years and founded a private museum collection, Botognice, which
everyone can admire and learn from. |
