The zone of Cadore and of the eastern Dolomites was included in the sector that was allocated to the Fourth Army. Despite the vertical rock faces and the considerable heights, the Supreme Command considered it as an offensive sector and ordered an immediate advance towards the inner sections of the valleys.
In the same way as had happened around Isonzo, even here the Austro-Hungarian army was moved back from the boundary line and preferred to control the situation from the neighbouring mountains; the bottom of the valley of Cortina d'Ampezzo (which right at the start of the 20th century had started to become a famous tourist zone) was abandoned together with the important road junction that linked Belluno to Dobbiaco and Carnia to Bolzano.
The advance could therefore have been rapid and could have reached all the way up to Val Pusteria inside Austria-Hungary. However, the movements of the troops were instead very slow and it was only on 28th May that the Tre Croci Pass was overcome and that Cortina was occupied. Following the road towards Pordoi Pass, the Italian soldiers pushed further up to Falzarego Pass (that crosses Val Parola) but the Sass de Stria, a typical summit in the Dolomites in the shape of a needle, turned out to be insurmountable. The Reggio Emilia Battalion was decimated during the first assault (15th June) and later the peak was won and lost on many occasions with the sacrifice of many human lives.
At the same time the move towards Col di Lana was blocked several times and this mountain became one of the heights that were most heavily contested during the first months of the war. At the end of October one of the divisions of the Italian army succeeded in partly capturing it although the peak remained in the hands of Austro-Hungarian troops.
