Recent from talks
Cadorna Line
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Cadorna Line
The Cadorna Line, officially the Northern Frontier, (Italian: Frontiera Nord) was the Italian defensive system on the northern border facing Switzerland, designed and built between 1899 and 1918. Its purpose was to protect the Po Valley and its main industrial centres from an attack by France, Germany or Austria-Hungary violating Swiss neutrality.
In 1862, shortly after the birth of the Kingdom of Italy, the Army General Staff first considered the need to fortify its borders with Switzerland to prevent an invasion through the Alpine passes - the Great St Bernard, the Simplon, the Gotthard, the Spluga, the Maloja, the Bernina, the Stelvio and the Tonale. A plan was developed to build a series of forts and batteries linking the Ossola Valley, Lake Maggiore, Ceresio and Lake Como. Because of the costs involved, the plan was not implemented for a number of years.
In 1871 a renewed effort was made to include the plan in Italy's defence budget. However, in 1882 the General Staff Committee declared its opposition to the idea, considering an Austrian violation of Swiss territory unlikely, and a German attack unrealistic. By this time the Triple Alliance had in any case neutralised these threats of invasion. Nonetheless, work on the projects resumed, and carried on haltingly until 1911, when the State Defense Office brought forward a scheme along the Bergamasque Alps and the Ticino salient.
On April 18, 1911, the General Staff entrusted the work to the Milan Military Engineering Works Management, who began work on the Mera - Adda barrier with the construction of Fort Montecchio-Lusardi. Work continued intermittently until the outbreak of the Great War and was completed urgently when hostilities began.
In September 1915, shortly after Italy entered the First World War. General it:Carlo Porro warned Chief of Staff Luigi Cadorna that an invasion of Lombardy by the Central Powers, through neutral Switzerland, could lead to an attack on the area of Milan and thus on the heartland of Italian industrial production. Apart from a few border guards Italy had only eight battalions of the Territorial Militia on this frontier. This prompted the Italian government to restart the full-scale construction of the defensive line. Cadorna therefore decided to revive the 1882 plan, and ordered the building of an imposing fortified line from the Ossola Valley up to the Bergamesque Alps. It included roads, mule tracks, paths, trenches, artillery positions, observatories, field hospitals, command centers and logistics structures, all built at high altitudes from 600 to over 2,000 meters.
The project plan provided for 72 km of trenches, 88 artillery positions (including 11 built in caves), 25,000 square meters of barracks, 296 kilometers of roads and 398 kilometers of mule tracks, at a cost of over 105m lire (about 150m euros today), requiring 40,000 men to build it. This complex of works was never used. The fortifications were garrisoned at the beginning of the war but abandoned after the defeat at Caporetto.
The work was contracted out to several companies, including many from Varese, which worked so well that they also obtained orders for the fortifications in the Veneto region. By the declaration of war on Germany, Italy had completed the work, and created a special Command for them. The Italian-Swiss border was divided into 6 sectors:
Val d’Aosta: The nineteenth-century Fort Bard was integrated with some positions in the Etroubles basin in order to prevent the passage from the Great St Bernard Pass, but the small likelihood of enemy maneuver in the sector limited the work.
Hub AI
Cadorna Line AI simulator
(@Cadorna Line_simulator)
Cadorna Line
The Cadorna Line, officially the Northern Frontier, (Italian: Frontiera Nord) was the Italian defensive system on the northern border facing Switzerland, designed and built between 1899 and 1918. Its purpose was to protect the Po Valley and its main industrial centres from an attack by France, Germany or Austria-Hungary violating Swiss neutrality.
In 1862, shortly after the birth of the Kingdom of Italy, the Army General Staff first considered the need to fortify its borders with Switzerland to prevent an invasion through the Alpine passes - the Great St Bernard, the Simplon, the Gotthard, the Spluga, the Maloja, the Bernina, the Stelvio and the Tonale. A plan was developed to build a series of forts and batteries linking the Ossola Valley, Lake Maggiore, Ceresio and Lake Como. Because of the costs involved, the plan was not implemented for a number of years.
In 1871 a renewed effort was made to include the plan in Italy's defence budget. However, in 1882 the General Staff Committee declared its opposition to the idea, considering an Austrian violation of Swiss territory unlikely, and a German attack unrealistic. By this time the Triple Alliance had in any case neutralised these threats of invasion. Nonetheless, work on the projects resumed, and carried on haltingly until 1911, when the State Defense Office brought forward a scheme along the Bergamasque Alps and the Ticino salient.
On April 18, 1911, the General Staff entrusted the work to the Milan Military Engineering Works Management, who began work on the Mera - Adda barrier with the construction of Fort Montecchio-Lusardi. Work continued intermittently until the outbreak of the Great War and was completed urgently when hostilities began.
In September 1915, shortly after Italy entered the First World War. General it:Carlo Porro warned Chief of Staff Luigi Cadorna that an invasion of Lombardy by the Central Powers, through neutral Switzerland, could lead to an attack on the area of Milan and thus on the heartland of Italian industrial production. Apart from a few border guards Italy had only eight battalions of the Territorial Militia on this frontier. This prompted the Italian government to restart the full-scale construction of the defensive line. Cadorna therefore decided to revive the 1882 plan, and ordered the building of an imposing fortified line from the Ossola Valley up to the Bergamesque Alps. It included roads, mule tracks, paths, trenches, artillery positions, observatories, field hospitals, command centers and logistics structures, all built at high altitudes from 600 to over 2,000 meters.
The project plan provided for 72 km of trenches, 88 artillery positions (including 11 built in caves), 25,000 square meters of barracks, 296 kilometers of roads and 398 kilometers of mule tracks, at a cost of over 105m lire (about 150m euros today), requiring 40,000 men to build it. This complex of works was never used. The fortifications were garrisoned at the beginning of the war but abandoned after the defeat at Caporetto.
The work was contracted out to several companies, including many from Varese, which worked so well that they also obtained orders for the fortifications in the Veneto region. By the declaration of war on Germany, Italy had completed the work, and created a special Command for them. The Italian-Swiss border was divided into 6 sectors:
Val d’Aosta: The nineteenth-century Fort Bard was integrated with some positions in the Etroubles basin in order to prevent the passage from the Great St Bernard Pass, but the small likelihood of enemy maneuver in the sector limited the work.