Punta Emma - The 'Piaz Crack', Lee Harvey Oswald and the Kennedy Assassination

'Uhh What!' A choss pile, Lee Harvey and Kennedy - How much tinfoil am I gonna need for this shyte?

Well - read on........ I first posted up this TR a while ago and writing it piqued my curiosity on the topic of World War One and how it was fought in the Dolomites, So I've editied the reort to include some other interesting stuff that I've researched.

Over the years my wife Bronwen and i have visited the Dolomites several times. on two occasions we have climbed Punta Emma, high in the Val de Vajolet, above the Vajolet Refugio. In the early 90s Bronwen. The routes on Punta Emma constitute a 'short day', and we have done two; the Steger/Wiesinger a stout 5+ (where one belay was held together by the rusting pegs and a few nuts).




Another 'short day' was to do the classic Piaz Crack on Punta Emma a seven pitch grade five soloed in 1900 by Tita Piaz, one of the Dolomites great pioneers.

Punta Emma sits close to the Vajolet Towers in the Rosengarten, above the Rifugio Vajolet. Nowadays accessed by bus I recall getting up to the hut on our bike, cabling the helmets to the motorbike before heading off across the slope to the base of the route.



The line of the route was strikingly obvious and followed the right facing corner for a couple of pitches before climbing the easier slabs on the left up to the summit.

Given the route was 'only' a grade five and was soloed in 1900, we decided to spice it up a bit by doing it in our 'big boots' and sacks. I at least had stiff soled alpine boots, but Bron was wearing some very bendy hiking shoes, which with hindsight were far from suitable.

It was a fine midsummers day when we set off, and we were soon at the base of the corner, the substructure being very moderate. It was a bit disconcerting to pass several memorial plaques to deceased climbers on the bottom pitches, the eyes of victims in the ceramically glazed photos seemed to size you up as you passed, but hey it was 'only' a grade five, so they must have all been chumps.

Anyhow, putting thoughts of impending doom (as best we could) behind us we reached the base of the corner. It turned out to be pretty steep, in fact it seemed to overhang somewhat, and had a vibrant stream running down it that fed a number of large green colonies of sphagnum moss like vegetation. But it was only a grade five sooo....



Off I went after 30' or so I got tangled up in the corner, the pro was classic Dolomites, vintage pieces of rust that struggled to take the weight of the krabs I clipped into them, There was little choice but to use the crack, but it was streaming with icey cold water draining from the deep freeze in the Punta's bowels. It was very, very unpleasant. I thrashed my way up it and eventually reached the sanctuary of a belay with my right hand numb and my sleeve a rather soggy green from battling with the moss.

Then it was Bronwen's turn. Bronwen never swears, and to her great credit she didn't, as she fought her way up the corner, slowly loosing the feeling in her right hand and with her feet skidding off the footholds in her bendy boots. She arrived at the belay a bit the worse for wear.

Up till now, this is just another climbing yarn, an adventure with all the usual climbing ingredients; uncertainty, errors of judgement, stout character and winning out. But as I belayed Bronwen up the pitch I noticed behind me a pile of spent cartridge cases on the ledge. Once she was up and had warmed her hands, I squeezed into the back of the chimney. About 20 cases littered a small area deep inside the chimney.

During the First World War the Italian and Austrian armies fought a bitter conflict in the Dolomites, and many famous climbers of the time were killed in the fighting. The position deep in the chimney offered a concealed vantage point that overlooked the path below. Amazing! I stopped up one of the spent cases and put it in my pocket.

Once we had warmed up we continued on our way and warmed up somewhat on the summit before doing the two raps down the back of the Punta to flat ground.



The only practical way for the sniper to have got to the firing point would have bee to have been lowered several hundred feet from the summit, presumably at night. There's no way it would have been approached from below as that would have been in view of whoever you were going to be shooting at later in the day.

Anyhow I kept the case for many years and eventually through the wonders of the internet made an effort to identify it. That would indicate the nationality of the sniper, and his targets.


Whilst it wasn't CSI, It didn't take long to come up with a strong match.....



Which was of course the weapon used by....


While I would defer in my knowledge to the learned gun nuts on here, Piton Ron et al ;-) 'I rest my case M'lud'.

So tinfoil aside, as long as you believe (as I do) that LHO was the shooter, then you see how the title to this piece comes about. An adventure with both history and mystery; Piaz - what a stud soloing that in 1900, hats off to the Italian sniper who volunteered for that job, commiserations to his victims and well done us for getting up it (but it was only a grade five!). Just as well it wasn't a pile of grenades! And a handsome bit of Sherlocking to round it off (forgive the pun)

As I mentioned at the start, this has piqued my curiosity about the First World War in the Dolomites, and the internet makes it increasingly possible to carry out a range of basic research (though there's not much in English).

As a result I'm, pretty confident that my hypothesis is correct and that the summit was held by the Austrians. It seems that at the start of the war the Italians were somewhat slow off the mark, this gave the Austrian's time to mobilise their reserves; the Friewillige Shutzen and Tyrolean Standshutzen. In most instances they were able to occupy much key high ground. The Austrians also came into a significant number of the Manlicher Carcano, many were captured, however they also sequestered a significant number that had been manufactured for, but not delivered to Greece. So it is reasonably plausible that the sniper was an Austrian.

In addition there are a number of contemporary, strategic battle maps that indicate the area was likely under Austrian control. I have yet to find any equivalent s of a Western Front trench map - but they are probably out there....

Anyhow the map below shows the general situation is 1915 - 17 the enlargement shows the approximate FEBA (Forward Edge of the Battle Area) in and around the Cattanaccio. While it's far from conclusive I like to think it supports my view!


Anyhow in addtion to this I stumbled across some other fascinating detail. I was aware that on that there were extensive trenchworks and galleries on and around the Marmolada, the highest peak in the Dolomites, which has it's own glacier. What I was unaware of was that the Italians held most of the 'rock', and constructed their defensive positions on and into the Limestone, while the Austrians tunneled into the glacier, constructing galleries, firing positions and accommodation deep inside the ice.





The final surprising thing that I stumbled across was that when the Italian front collapsed, Britain and France sent several divisions each to support the Italians in the battle of Capporetto. In all 1024 British troops of the XIV Corps were killed in the campaign and over 5000 wounded. Those who were killed are interred at seven military cemeteries in northern Italy; Grennazza, Barenthal, Boscon, Magnaboschi, Dueville Montecechio, Precalcino and Giavvera.

There were also several American casualties, the numbers are so small that they were probably employed as observers, seeing what lessons could be learned about mountain warfare - but who knows...

I'm on a roll now and will continue to update this as and when I discover something of interest.



Steve