Felix Echt von Eleda

Hi tony, the last one with the 30.5 cm Morser could be "Lavarone plateau", may 1916 "Majoffensive"! Best regards leo

The 13 BF komp. fought on the Adamello, on the the highest front of the First World War, do you have more information about him? What was his name? Best Regards Leo

Natural park of Adamello, glacier of the "Lobbia" Some pages of an Austrian book, found while walking trough barracks Trench art ring, made with an 8mm Lebel The remains of a canteen "Guglielminetti", made with wood and iron rings. Pink bottle, still stucked in ice

Hi tony, these sites around 3000 meters are usually pretty far away from cities and Mountain retreat, but it's not impossible to reach them, you have to walk between rocks and ice for a few hours (last summer it took me 11 hours to reach some Italian Baracks around 3100 meters), but you can still find- between rocks, ice, destroyed barracks and Floor boards- socks, equipment, bottles and other military stuff directly from 1918, frozen in time and found in the same place they were left in November 1918. I'll look for some photos about my last trip in September 2022! leo

Bergf. Komp. 13: high mountain company number 13! I'm going to search more information this evening. Best Regards

again, wonderful postcards! Here one of my top favorites photos of my humble collection. above, the barrack under the top of the carè alto (adamello national park) in the winter of 1916/7 (personal collection) Below, the same barrack in 1947 and in 2009 (these last two photos are from a book) The Barrack is still present nowadays! Best Regards.

Hi Farkas, thanks for sharing these wonderful postcards! I love pictures, photographs and postcards too, but I prefer those from South Tyrol, in particular photographs from war scenarios in the high mountains of my region. Best Regards Leo

thank you all for the warm welcome in the forum, in the future I will post more images and transcripts of these touching pages! Leo

21 November 1915: in this short story, Josef tells of the failed attack on an Italian position, just outside Gorizia. He, in command of three platoons, another second lieutenant in command of one platoon, and a lieutenant, in command of an entire company, lead an attack hoping to catch the enemy unprepared. The attack ends in complete failure, leading to the total annihilation of almost all the Austro-Hungarian soldiers. Josef spends the night under Italian barbed wire, and then slowly withdraws together with a dozen survivors. on the way back he meets the lieutenant crying in despair, as he has lost the entire company under his command.

In the first pages of the diary Josef wrote all the name of his men, as well as a number of annotations like " first time on the battle field, good shooter" and so on.

Good morning Gentlemans, thanks for admitting me in this wonderful forum, I'm a "paper loving" collector. Since I entered the world of military collecting, almost 10 years ago, paper had a fatal attraction on me; I started from letters and photographs and now I mainly collect KuK album, paintings and diaries from Italian front, even more specifically from South Tyrol, the place where I live. Today I'd like to show you my last addition of 2022: this is the diary of Josef Sterger, a young Fänhrich from Marburg (Slovenia). Enlisted in September 1915, he probably died on June 28, 1916, in Igls (near Innsbruck), where he had been hospitalized following the injuries sustained on the Asiago plateau. He was first drafted in IR 47, with wich he trained for weeks; suddenly, just before he left for the front, he was assigned to BH2 (quoting his words "with great surprise and delight") one of the most battle-hardened Austro-Hunagrian regiments of the great war. He always fought on the Italian Front: first on the Karst, Gorizia, mount St. Gabriel and Isonzo. In April 1916 he was assigned in South Tyrol, where he trained for the spring offensive. From may to June 1916 he he fought valiantly against the Italians (he wrote a lot about Italian prisoners, captured war material, trenches, assaults and defenses etc.). On 7 June 1916 he was one of the conquerors of Melette (1824 meters above sea level). Emilio Lussu (1890-1975) was there when Bosnian infantrymen attacked his trenches, he later wrote: Suddenly one of our machine guns opened fire. I wash to see, the Austrians were attacking. Those who witnessed the events of that day will, I believe, see them on their deathbed. As our machine gun fired, the bombardment ceased. The enemy had attacked the instant the artillery stopped firing. The Austrians attacked en masse, in closed order, in side by side battalions... they advanced singing a war hymn, of which we could only hear the resonance of the incomprehensible choir. "Hurrah!" and the chorus resumed. ... The line opened fire, of our two machine guns only one fired, the other had been destroyed by a grenade. ... The enemy battalions advanced slowly, hampered by stones and brushwood. Our machine gun fired furiously, without stopping. We used to see entire departments fall mowed down. The comrades moved, so as not to pass over the fallen. The battalions recomposed and the singing resumed. The tide moved in. The Austrians were now only fifty yards away. - To the bayonet! cried the major. –Savoy! yelled the wards, rushing forward. Of what happened in that clash, I have never kept a clear memory. The smell of that cognac had me dizzy. But I distinctly saw that, in front of us, on the left, from the Austrian formations, a group of three men detached themselves with a machine gun and took up positions behind a rock. The tac-tac of the Schwarzlose followed that rapid movement. The beam of fire hissed around us. I got up and resumed running, forward. The clash between ours and the Austrians had already taken place. Confusedly mixed up, both stopped. The Austrian departments withdrew, at a pace, their rifles slung, as they had advanced. Unforeseen resistance had thrown them into disarray. Our men, held back by the officers, flat on the ground, opened fire from behind. I only saw someone fall. The units, side by side, soon disappeared behind the crests. The wind kept blowing and throwing waves of cognac at us... "Un anno sull'altipiano", 1938, Emilio Lussu. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- During the war Josef Sterger was promoted Leutnant and awarded withe the Silver Bravery Medal of first class ("Ranglisten des Kaiserlichen und Königlichen Heeres 1918", page number 884). The diary is written entirely in German, except for a short poetry, written in Bosnian dialect, regarding the defense of Mount San Michele against the Italians. Thank you for reading my report up to this point. Best Regards Leo. V. the poetry written in Dialect.