Day 5 - Hike to the WW1 Forte Tre Sassi Museum

Mike hikes along the frontline of World War I, under the Tofana di Rozes mountain. Mike's grandma Grace Murman said his grandpa was trained for combat in the mountains. He was stationed in Austria on the Austrian/Italian border. They crossed the border into Italy when they overtook an Italian front. (Info from Donna & Jerry Meyer) Could we have walked in the same trenches at Mike's grandpa, Wessel Murman???

Loris Lancedelli, is the organizer, collector & curator of the WWI museum on the mountain where the fighting took place on the Austrian & Italian border. Loris explains how and why he collected artifacts and pleaded with governments for 5 decades to open the museum. Feda interprets for us.

This is a pic I took in the museum. Wessel Murman, Mike's grandfather, suffered the after affects from mustard gas from the war. 

They said the Italians were not used to the cold extremes, but the Austrian army knew how to navigate the cold winters. 

The old fort is full of guns, uniforms, bullets, helmets, pictures, clothing, cans with propaganda, EVERYTHING that was found in the mountains surrounding the area. This was the Austrian fort. Our guide said that at one point a bomb hit the fort and the chef & a soldier died. They abandoned the fort but left the light on. The joke later was that the Austrians spent 2 million building the fort and the Italians spent 8 million bombing it when it was empty!

Mike's dad, Elmer Murman, had a letter opener that Wessel Murman fashioned from copper rifling after blowing up some artillery. I'm thinking it was something to do to pass the time in the trenches??