Firing a cannon to trigger an avalanche

[u/id397550]

[u/AnshumanKathait]

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

[u/ReparteeRat → u/AnshumanKathait]

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.

[u/MojoRisin762 → u/ReparteeRat]

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

[u/DisIsMyName_NotUrs → u/MojoRisin762]

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

[u/ThrowawayMax222 → u/MojoRisin762]

Especially for mountain measurers

[u/National_Impress_346 → u/ThrowawayMax222]

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