THE COL MAÒR REMEMBERS
A rope ladder on the Tofana, a letter of correction and the 1966 reunion of the «Belluno» battalion’s survivors
On the first Tofana, a little north-east of the Castelletto, there is a steep, narrow rock chimney. In 1915 and 1916 the Alpini of the «Belluno» battalion climbed it to reach an observation post above the Austrian lines. They called it the Camino dei Cappelli, the «Chimney of the Hats». Fifty years later, in the pages of the Col Maòr, an old officer of that battalion set out to explain why.
A name wrongly explained
In December 1965 the Group’s newsletter printed the second part of a war memoir, «The Fifth Machine-Gun Section and the Castelletto mine», given to the editors by a «vecio» – an old Alpino – born in 1894. The account mentioned the Camino dei Cappelli and, in a footnote, explained the name: Austrian snipers were so accurate that the Alpini’s hats went flying. The editors later admitted that the same explanation came from the «History of the Seventh» regiment.
The memoir also recalls the ladder leading up: 360 rope rungs, fixed a year earlier by Masini, then a lieutenant.
«The snipers had nothing to do with it»
In the April 1966 issue Mario Dell’Eva, known as «dem», published a correction. «Our dear old Piacentini (a lieutenant at the time)», he wrote, had sent the Col Maòr a clarification, also confirmed by Piero Pieri in his book La nostra guerra fra le Tofane. The letter was printed in full.
Piacentini came straight to the point: the explanation was wrong, the snipers had nothing to do with it. For a long time, he explained, the Austrians did not even notice the Italian presence in that spot, which overlooked them at close range; and everything was done to keep it that way, because it was an excellent post for watching and listening, but hard to defend.
The chimney was made up of four steps of rock, each about seventy metres high. The rope ladder was stretched from one edge to the next and sagged in the middle over the drop. Lifting a foot a few rungs before the centre was enough to shift the balance, and the ladder spun round by a hundred and eighty degrees. The Alpino kept climbing like that, upside down, for eight or ten rungs; then a twist of the hips set him upright again, until the next turn.
It was that spin, almost head-down, that cost men their hats. They rolled, Piacentini wrote, all the way down to the Rio Costeana, 600 metres below. At first the passage was simply called the Chimney; then someone added «of the Hats», in memory of those lost into the void. It only happened the first few times: afterwards everyone learned to jam his hat on so firmly that it stayed put even upside down.
«Dem» apologised for the mistake and, on the following page, tried to draw the climb. «We do not have the hand of Giotto or Leonardo da Vinci», he warned.
Who was «old Piacentini»?
The 1966 letter does not give a first name. The same pages of the Col Maòr, however, offer a trail. In that April issue a Piacentini appears among the «Belluno» veterans proposing a reunion of the survivors for the fiftieth anniversary of the Castelletto mine. And in the list of survivors present at the July reunion there is only one Piacentini: «Piacentini Egidio (Malcesine Garda)».
It is therefore very likely that the author of the correction was Egidio Piacentini, the Veronese friend of the «Belluno» battalion, an officer of the battalion in the Great War and a friend of the Salce Group to the very end. What is still missing is a document explicitly linking his name to the letter. For now it remains a strong hypothesis; anyone who holds the original letter or other papers of Piacentini could help us settle the question.
2 and 3 July 1966: the «veci» return to Forcella Bois
The correction appeared while something bigger was being prepared. A group of «Belluno» survivors had proposed meeting among the rocks of the Tofane for the fiftieth anniversary of the Castelletto mine, blown on 11 July 1916. The organising committee was made up of Arrigoni, Dell’Eva, Forcellini, Polin and Sartorelli; the Belluno Section of the ANA and the 7th Alpini Regiment joined the initiative.
The August 1966 Col Maòr devoted a whole issue to the reunion. On Saturday 2 July the «veci» laid a wreath at the 7th Alpini monument and unveiled a plaque to Lieutenant Luigi Forcellini; then they were received by the mayor, Annibale De Mas. That evening, at the Albergo Italia in Cortina, «dem» listed them all, «naked as at the call-up medical», with only their home town. Among them: Silvio Dell’Eva and Primo De Min from Belluno, Piero Pieri from Turin, Celso Trevisan from Vicenza, Egidio Piacentini from Malcesine.
On Sunday 3 July, at Forcella Bois, beneath the spires of the Castelletto, the chaplain of the 7th celebrated Mass in the open. At the Sanctus the band played «Il Piave mormorava», then came the Alpino’s Prayer and the Last Post, echoing «from ledge to ledge, from chimney to chimney». General Roberto Olmi, who had once commanded a company of the «Belluno», shook hands with the former enemies attending the ceremony.
Then the old Alpini scattered among the rocks, looking for a low wall, a trace, anything that reminded them where they had slept and feared. Mosè Bianchet, who had lost his sight beneath the Sass Misterioso, stood apart and «saw» everything as it had been. Piero Pieri, who had climbed up to the mine gallery, came over to «dem»: he had expected to find them all dead, he said, but the air of the Tofane must truly work wonders.
The «Wolf of the Tofane» and the bus strike
The account contains a detail close to Salce. At Saturday’s reception with the mayor, around the three old company commanders, only «el diaol delle Tofane» – the devil of the Tofane – was missing: Angelo Schiocchet, a member of the Group, «kept at home by the bus strike».
On Sunday, though, Schiocchet was up there. «Dem» saw him standing apart at Forcella Bois with Piero Pieri and Celso Trevisan, leafing through an album of old, yellowed photographs. Read together, the two pages of the account tell us this: the strike cost him the day in Belluno, not the day on the Tofane.
What these pages tell us today
A rope ladder, a hat rolling six hundred metres, an old officer writing fifty years later to correct a mistake. In the Col Maòr of 1965 and 1966 the memory of the war passes through details, and through the friendships «dem» kept alive between Salce, Belluno and the «Belluno» survivors scattered across Italy.
If you hold letters, photographs or family memories linked to the 1966 reunion or to Egidio Piacentini, please write to the Gruppo Alpini Salce: every piece of information is checked before it becomes part of the story.
📚 From the papers of memory
- «La Quinta “Mitragliatrici” e la mina del Castelletto» (part 2), signed «Jocéro», Col Maòr no. 6, December 1965 (in Italian), pp. 2-4.
- «Il Camino dei Cappelli», letter by Piacentini with a note by «dem», and «Nonni del “Belluno” – Adunata!!!», Col Maòr no. 2, April 1966 (in Italian), pp. 2-5.
- «Adunata superstiti del Battaglione Alpini “Belluno”», circular and programme, Col Maòr no. 3, June 1966 (in Italian), pp. 1-2.
- «3 luglio 1966 – Adunata al Castelletto dei superstiti del Batt. “Belluno”», signed «Dem», Col Maòr no. 4, August 1966 (in Italian), pp. 1-6.
- Piero Pieri, La nostra guerra fra le Tofane, cited by the Col Maòr as confirming the letter.
