Telpherage

"TELPHERAGE (see 7.63). - The World War saw, in the Italian army, amazing use made of the system of telpher transport for fighting on the Alps. When, after many years, snow, ice and avalanches will have all but cancelled every trace of the epic deeds performed in those regions, tourists who climb to the crests of the Adamello, the Marmolata, the Tofana and a hundred other peaks will hardly believe that thousands of men lived and fought for years in the very spots that they have reached only with difficulty, with the help of ropes and ice-axes, and in favourable weather.

Before the war it was thought impossible to conduct military operations on the high peaks. It was believed that the ordinary troops would be practically tied to the roads, that a company of" Alpini "with a few mountain guns would be the largest unit that could be used in places where only paths for mules existed, and that the rocky peaks, the snows and the ice, would be reached only by small groups belonging to specialist units, sent there to keep an eye on the enemy.

But from the earliest days of the campaign there happened on the Alpine front something very similar to what had occurred in France after the battle of the Marne, when Germans and French, in their common desire to outflank each other in the direction of the sea, finally reached the sea itself, thus forming one uninterrupted line from the Vosges to the Channel. On the Alps, with the object of capturing or turning the Austrian defensive lines, the Italians climbed higher and higher in everincreasing numbers, the Austrians doing likewise, until the very tops of the mountains were reached and it became impossible to go farther. The most elevated points of the frontier having been thus occupied, the Italians put themselves in a position to meet enemy attacks as well as to face the inclemency of the climate: a hard and relentless struggle which had to be started afresh every time war operations involved a change of positions.

The first days of the war saw whole companies clinging hand and foot to the rocky summits; battalions encamped and freezing at a height of 3,000 metres. Field guns, drills, photo-electric stations were taken to pieces and carried up bit by bit to giddy heights, and there put together again. Food, water, ammunition were carried for many hours on mules, and thence transferred to columns of men who carried them for long hours more. At times the wounded and the sick had to be removed by securing them with ropes and letting them slide down gullies, or by allowing them to be jolted on stretchers along impossible paths. Very often they had to be attended to on the spot, behind a rock, because their condition did not allow of so painful a transport.

Numberless were the cases of men who, barefooted, with daggers in their mouths, would climb up the most impracticable summits during dark and stormy nights, and surprise the enemy where the latter felt sure that the ravines and precipices which surrounded him were his surest guards. Many times whole supply columns were crushed and buried by avalanches and rocks. Avalanches claimed thousands of victims among the troops on march, in hutments or in trenches. In certain places and at certain periods the danger was so great that when the men went out they were supplied with a long thin rope coloured in red. The colour came off with the damp and stained the snow, thus facilitating the search for men buried underneath.

The colossal work done at such great heights originated unheard-of conditions of defence and of existence. In places where until then a hurried visit with an experienced guide seemed a bold feat, in regions where there was perhaps one isolated Alpine hut in which it was considered an ordeal to spend one or two nights, there were constructed hutments, telegraph and telephone offices, infirmaries, workshops and stores. In such places, at a height of over 3,000 metres, tens of thousands of men spent several winters. To prepare these encampments both for shelter and for defence, it became necessary to excavate in the rock an enormous quantity of vast caves. In some places an underground city was cut in the rock with inter-communicating caves lined with timber and provided with water-pipes, electric lighting, etc. Galleries were excavated in the ice, between the Italian and Austrian trenches, leading under cover to advanced posts or even well into the enemy's lines. Gigantic operations with mines were also carried out. Cutting the rock was rendered possible thanks to the great perfection of the compressed-air drills. During the war the Italians turned out an admirable type of motor-driven air-compressor, which met with success also in the Allied armies. On the Italian front there were 20 large plants for fixed drills and about 4,000 groups of portable drills of from 5 to 45 horse-power. The remarkable skill of the Italian miners facilitated considerably the carrying out of most important and difficult mining operations, In road-making wonderful results were obtained. Once operations were transferred to the highest and most inaccessible points, where in many cases there was not even the narrowest path, it became an absolute necessity to create means of communication at once. Roads were constructed which allowed heavy artillery and motor lorries to reach points where a few months before only a mountain expert would have trod.

The total length of the roads laid down by the Italian army was in round figures as follows: I,600 km... of roads for mules 1,100". " "carts 3,100". of roads for motor lorries.

But the building of roads could not always meet the requirements of troops operating in Alpine districts. It happened very often that the number of men detailed to a certain point did not justify the building of a road on such difficult ground; or that snow and avalanches in the winter prevented the safe use of means of communication already existing; or that the enemy's fire swept them; or, finally, that the occupation of new positions made it necessary to send supplies out of proportion to the available transport and before there was time to build a road. The difficulty in such cases was skilfully overcome by means of special mechanical transport. Wire railways or "telphers" were provided, thus economizing time, labour and oil, and avoiding congestion of roads. These telphers are a kind of suspension railway. A double metal cable called "bearer" is extended on trestles placed in a straight line at different distances on the sides of the mountain. There are two stations, one at the starting-point and the other at the end of the line. In one of these stations there is a motor which works an endless cable (the "drawer"), to which are fixed two or more small waggons. The cable turns and draws the waggons supported by the "bearer" cable by means of small wheels which run on it.

Different kinds of telpherage plants were used.

i. Telefori.-These were provisional lines moved by man power and used in the most advanced zones to supply isolated posts or trenches. Their average length was 500 metres and each could carry about 50 quintals a day.

2. Dismountable Teleferiche.-These were run by motors and were put up in advanced zones. Their average length was from I ,000 to 2,000 metres, and each could carry from io to 20 quintals an hour. They could be dismounted and were portable, and could be installed even where there were no roads. These lines proved most useful for the transport of supplies in newly occupied positions. When in 1917 the troops of the II. Army crossed the Isonzo and advanced on the Bainsizza (Bainitsa) plateau, they could not communicate with the lines in the rear except by means of the few and bad mule-paths; but after only four days a few telphers were already in working order, and on the tenth day there were no less than 12 doing service. Similar miracles of speed were performed in the new mountain positions between the Brenta and the Piave.

3. Permanent Teleferiche.-These were run by motors and were fixed. They were employed at some distance from the lines, and reached a maximum length of 8,000 metres. They could carry about 150 quintals per hour.

Some permanent teleferiche were already working before the war for the service of mountain fortresses, and some types of portable teleferiche had been studied and estimates prepared. Oil and electric motors were in use.

The telphers covered on an average a rise of 650 metres from the starting-point to that of arrival; but in some cases even 1,500. The trestles were often at very great distances from one another and placed on peaks, while the waggons ran over fearful abysses. In the highest regions the lines often ran at a height of 2,000 to 3,000 metres; a few were installed even at 3,500 metres above sea-level.

On the eve of the retreat from Caporetto, in Oct. 1917, 380 telefori and 530 teleferiche were in working order. The former had a total length of 190 km., the latter of 630. During the retreat about 55 o teleferiche and telefori were lost or dismounted. At the date of the Armistice there were 270 telefori and 460 teleferiche run by motors. The former had a total length of 170 and the latter of 640 kilometres.

The telpherage lines laid on the Italian front transported in all 33,000,000 quintals, the load of 330,000 railway trucks.

The service was under a special central administration with a competent staff drawn from the telpher transport companies (one for each army). There was also a department for the supply and testing of the material and a depot-school with construction and repairing shops. The bulk of the material was built by private concerns, but set up by the military.

The services rendered by the telpherage lines were invaluable. It was only thanks to these lines that it was possible to maintain positions which the troops would otherwise have been compelled to abandon for want of supplies. They allowed detachments to be kept in almost impossible positions even during the winter, as well as assuring an adequate supply of ammunition for guns placed in the most inaccessible positions which men could not have reached if laden with shells. Thousands of lives were saved when their gently sliding waggons were used for the transport of wounded and sick, who were thus spared a lengthy and agonizing journey to hospital. (M. R.)

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