Life behind the battlefields

The Great War involved the whole Italian population. There were those who saw their family circle get smaller as the men were called to the front; others suffered financial losses; and there were others who, somewhat grudgingly, accepted refugees from Veneto and Friuli who fled after the advance by Austro-German forces towards the Piave.

However, most probably the ones to suffer most were inhabitants in areas behind the battlefields, in other words zones that were not directly involved in combat operations but served as bases to support operations along the frontline. As from the spring of 1915 field hospitals for wounded soldiers, warehouses, camps for the handling of prisoners, lodgings, recreational centres and entertainment centres for soldiers and for civilian employees who were engaged in the construction of military facilities started to appear in towns and villages in the Veneto plains, in Bellunese, in the Carnic and Julian Prealps and in the Friuli plains.

Unlike built-up areas on the front, towns and villages in zones behind the frontlines were not evacuated. In these cases, therefore, civilians were obliged to live alongside the presence of four millions soldiers for a period of two and a half years, adapting their habits to the customs of military personnel.
In other cases, besides logistical considerations there were also problems of a social and political nature. In territories that led from Austria-Hungary to Italy, inhabitants showed a certain aloofness, and in some cases even open hostility, towards the new arrivals. "Even in areas that had a reputation for nationalism such as Cervignano, (the Italian soldiers) found deserted streets and windows with shutters that were boarded up and barred." (Mark Thompson, La Guerra Bianca, Il Saggiatore, Milan, 2010, page 157). This was an attitude that greatly surprised the men who were under Cadorna's direction who had been filled with patriotic propaganda. "I believe that Italian soldiers were deceived. Because they were told 'we are going to liberate our brothers.' But when they spoke to us, nobody understood them." (interview with Andrej Mašera, in Mark Thompson, La Guerra Bianca, Saggiatore, Milan, 2010, page 161).

All these issues were swept away by the defeat of Caporetto. The frontline and the areas behind the battlefields were heavily affected by the rapid descent of Austro-German forces and the civilian population in Friuli and in Eastern Veneto had to adapt to a new occupation that was in some respects even harsher in view of the desperate situation of the Habsburg army.