Precisely at 10 AM on Saturday, the valley of Soca was shaken by the sounds of sirens and then submerged back into silence to mark the 90th anniversary of the ceasefire at the Isonzo front. The battles in this mountainous region were among the fiercest in WWI, and have, according to some historians, claimed more than 300,000 lives.
The battles at the Isonzo Front (Soska fronta in Slovenian) on the Slovenian western border began on 27 May 1915, after Italy declared war on the central forces.
The battlefield was of extraordinary proportions even for WWI. This eastern rim of the Alps was considered by Italy as the easiest way to invade the Austro-Hungarian empire and was the stage of 12 battles between Italians and the Austro-Hungarian empire.
It was a war of attrition, with heavy casualties, but only minor changes to the front line until the final 12th offensive, when the Austro-Hungarian forces obliterated the Italian defenses and caused their panic retreat, which ended at the Italian river Piave, 30 kilometres east of Venice.
The exact death toll has never been established. While talk used to be of over a million, historians now say that at least 300,000 soldiers died in the three years of alpine warfare.
The war left behind wrecked homes and a myriad of military graveyards as well as kilometres of military roads, horse trails, stairways and galleries cut in the rocks, countless rolls of barbed wire, helmets, bottles, stoves and guns.
Nowadays, the region is home to a number of exhibitions and open air museums that offer insight into a battlefront where even the delivery of food and equipment to the snow-capped peaks required enormous bravery.
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