Carinthians in the world war

“The airmen are wreaking havoc here”

The Ansaldo S.V.A. was a family of Italian biplane reconnaissance aircraft during the First World War.

(Bild: aeronautica.difesa.it)

Franz Arneitz from Carinthia experienced all years of the First World War as a soldier in the Imperial and Royal Infantry Regiment No. 7 Count von Khevenhüller. He recorded everything he experienced in his diary. 

We dedicated our last article to the days around the turn of the year 1917/18. Franz Arneitz and his comrades experienced a sad New Year's Eve on the Italian front, shortly before which countless soldiers had fallen during the storming of Monte Asolone. After a break, his unit went to Monte Grappa:

Here under Monte Grappa there were only field guards. Today I was able to see how our artillery shot down three Italian planes. The planes are up to mischief here. They come all the way down and fire directly at us from the planes. But it's terrible to see how high up in the air a plane suddenly starts to burn. We can still see how two men jumped out.

Thaw brought bodies to light
When it started to thaw, the bodies of the soldiers who had fallen in the fall came to light. Every day we were busy transporting them to a meadow at these heights, where we then laid them in a mass grave. The field guard I had to command was in a hole in the ground where we huddled together. Only at night could we make a fire in the middle and warm ourselves a little. Now it started to rain and snow. We got completely soaked in our earth dwelling. It's a miserable existence and you're already numb to all the hardships.

Diary as a publication  
Historian Andreas Kuchler summarized Arneitz' notes in "Meine Erlebnisse in dem furchtbaren Weltkriege 1914-1918". Next time, read how Arneitz experienced the end of the war.