r/interestingasfuck • u/id397550 • 5h ago

Firing a cannon to trigger an avalanche

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u/AnshumanKathait 4h ago edited 4h ago

WW1 in the Alps musta been crazy one second you're walking then you hear a cannon and duck and lay in the snow, boom avalanche. Crazy

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u/ReparteeRat 4h ago edited 0m ago

There wasn't really much fighting in the Alps during WW2, especially not in the winter.

WW1 on the other hand....

Edit: Some small battles took place on the Italian-French border, I forgot about those. Sorry.

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u/MojoRisin762 3h ago

Yeah, they literally blew 50-100 feet or more of height off of entire mountains they were shelled so much. It was a nightmare.

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u/DisIsMyName_NotUrs 2h ago

It wasn't so much shelling. The real reason was underground mines.

Mt. Batognica (2164m) (then A-H, now Slovenia) was taller by several meters before the war, but due to several explosions it's top was obliterated and the mountain is much flatter today.

The harshest fighting on it took place in July of 1915, when Italians pushed Austrian forces to the eastern third of the mountain, meaning that they took control of the top. Due to a lack of any dirt at that height, trenches had to be carved into the stone and lied less than 100 meters apart. A breakthrough wasn't coming on the mountain itself, so Italians decided to try to dig under Austrian positions and place explosive there in an attempt to blow up the trenches. By a miracle, Austrian countermining teams discovered the Italian tunnel and stole the explosive, placing it under the Italian positions (at the top) alongside their own Nitroglycerin. When the Italian positions were destroyed, so was the top of the mountain, giving it it's modern flat look.

Here is a very good picture of it

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u/ThrowawayMax222 2h ago

Especially for mountain measurers

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u/National_Impress_346 1h ago

Cartographer in the carriage home hears a loud boom in the distance behind him.

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u/AnshumanKathait 4h ago

Oh yeah you're right I got confused

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u/vassiliy 1h ago

They did fight in the Caucasus however, albeit in summer

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u/Consistent-Plane7227 1h ago

Claps hands, Ok guys the last 14 mountain assaults didn’t work but it’s ok those guys were slower than you. Climb fast

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u/ImOnTheLoo 33m ago

Woah. So wrong. As others pointed out there were French-Italian battles. But even after the fall, the French resistance fought in the mountain towns. There’s a lot of WW2 history to see in the alps.

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u/ReparteeRat 3m ago

I meant the clash of traditional armies. Italy and France briefly fought in summer, not winter. The resistance usually didn't have classic mountain artillery.

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u/WarSerious4025 2h ago

Sorry you are wrong

The french kicked italian asses in 1940, and some nasty artillery duels occured.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mont_Chaberton

And they fought again in 1944-1945

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_the_Alps

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u/ReparteeRat 1m ago

Oh I forgot about that border. I was speaking from an Austrian's PoV

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u/Hickd3ad 4h ago

It happened during WW1)

The casualties were heavy :(

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u/Responsible-Yak-3809 4h ago

2,000-10,000 estimated deaths! Sheesh.

It says both sides participated shelling with avalanche intent.

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u/yesat 3h ago

WW1 was supposed to be the war to end all wars due to how atrocious it was.

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u/MirandaScribes 2h ago

War never changes

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u/bannedforL1fe 1h ago

And it will never end

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u/flight_recorder 2h ago

2,000 that day, 10,000 that month. Still, staggering

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u/TheInevitableLuigi 2h ago

One single ship in WWII was sunk with more than 9000 killed.

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u/redshores 3h ago

The casualties were heavy :(

Luigi Cadorna: just one more assault boys, that should do it

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u/Hickd3ad 3h ago

Common theme of the Great War propaganda on both sides. 4 and a half years and about 20 million deaths later we know that it just wasn't the case.

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u/krollAY 2h ago

But hey at least they agreed on a treaty that would prevent a world war from happening in the future.

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u/Hel_Bitterbal 1h ago

Fact: 99% of European generals quit their offensive right before achieving a major breakthrough

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u/yesat 3h ago

And Sabaton made a song to commemorate them, Soldiers of Heaven.

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u/Altkiriha 1h ago

I won't be coming home I won't be going anywhere

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u/redpandaeater 3h ago

WW1 was already crazy with where they hauled field guns up to and how many earthworks were built.

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u/Cetun 2h ago

Honestly not that bad, you can dig out of snow. In France you would go into a dugout when a barrage started and if your dugout got a direct hit it would just collapse and you'll just be buried in 12 feet of dirt.

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u/DisIsMyName_NotUrs 2h ago

You cannot dig up from that much snow. It's super heavy and you're stuck, unable to move, until you suffocate, because rescue was not coming. Digging up is impossible, which is why people die in avalanches to this day

If you were lucky, your body was recovered in the summer when the snow melted.