On the peaks of the Dolomites in northeastern Italy, which is currently the domain of high-altitude tourists and skiers, things looked completely different more than a hundred years ago. During the First World War, military operations took place on the mountain slopes, which it is difficult to imagine today

For the first time in history, the mountains became the scene of heavy and bloody battles between special mountain units – on the Austro-Hungarian side they were the imperial hunters called Landesschützen and on the Italian side the unit founded by Captain Perucchetti called the Alpini.

An incredible number of almost 100,000 soldiers took part in the bloody battles between Italian and Austro-Hungarian troops in the local mountains, of which more than a tenth lost their lives. As on all fronts, the fighting here too developed into a positional war, and the battles for every position, every ridge or rock tower were all the more fierce.

The collection of footage from the mountains “Anno Domini “0” is a reminder of those who had completely different concerns here than enjoying the beauty of the local nature, which contrasted here with the destructive influences of humans. Even after almost a hundred years, the mountain landscape bears unmistakable evidence in the form of kilometer-long trenches or numerous labyrinths of tunnels in the rocks.

The atmosphere, which is underlined by rotting crosses, pieces of barbed wire lining the road, the remains of roadblocks or long-ago collapsed trench reinforcements, makes you think about what the soldiers who were exposed to the fire of enemy weapons in a harsh alpine environment had to experience here..

There are lessons to be learned from all wars. If not, then they were fought in vain, and those who died in them died for nothing. Frederick Forsyth