Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
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A reading suggestion: A Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin.
I can't name a better book about the Austrian-Italian front, or perhaps a better book period! Here's a NY Times review.
Bob
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On the lighter side, John Biggins' book "The Two Headed Eagle" follows Austrian sailor Otto Proschaska's adventures during WWI as an aviator on the Italian Front. For light fiction, it is incredibly well researched.
John Gooch's history 'The Italian Army and the First World War' is a pretty good overview, although if he was a member of a jaeger regiment, it would certainly deal with the wrong side
I spent some time in 2008 with my uncle on a number of the Tyrolean battlefields. The horror of the mountain fighting matches or surpasses almost anything on the Western Front.
-Darryl
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Hi Darryl, i finally made it to my Moms birthplace in the summer of 2001.She was born in Stenico,Trento in 1916 which was virtually the front lines. There was a World War 1 museum there showing soldiers standing next to morter shells taller than they were they would fire from mountain side to mountains side. My mothers family were proud to be Austrian citizens even though they were ethnic Italian.After the war they did not do well under the Italians and many took their Austrian passports and came to the USA. Unlike the Southern Italians who immigrated to the larger cities the Tyroleans tended to go where there were mines, Western Pennsylvania,Colorado, Arizona and so on. I loved my Grandfather.
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Hey Bob. I remember the last time you suggested that book. David gave a second on the endorsement. I read the book and would recommend it highly. It's a long book but the the writing style is descriptive, breezy and engaging. Well written.
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Phil:
My immediate family hails from about 150km east of Stenico - San Vendemiano, although originally we came from further north in the Alto Adige. My great-grandfather was born a subject of Franz Josef, but when the Veneto was ceded to Italy, he went with it. Of course, he was only a wee lad at the time.
My dad's cousin Elio used to own a baracca (shack) up in the mountains around Valsugana, which is much closer to Stenico. I remember one visit - we drove the 1+ hours into the mountains, only for Elio to forget the keys. Spent several hours overlooking the valley listening to cowbells - very Heidi-esque. Most of the rest of my memories of the area involve the owner of a local osteria shovelling mounds of spezzatin and pasta onto my plate because I was 16 and a growing boy. 
Bob:
I read the review of Helprin's book. Sounded absolutely intriguing. I've now got a hold on the e-reader version through the local library.
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Through my Mothers ancestry i receive a quarterly magazine for Tyrolean-Americans. Quite a bit of the articles has to do with the Great War on the Austrian-Italian front. They have a website that i want to contact about my Grandfather..i have most of the information i need. They were all mountain people but i think he may have been in the Kaiserjaeger regiment.
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re: from stamps to geneology
A reading suggestion: A Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin.
I can't name a better book about the Austrian-Italian front, or perhaps a better book period! Here's a NY Times review.
Bob
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re: from stamps to geneology
On the lighter side, John Biggins' book "The Two Headed Eagle" follows Austrian sailor Otto Proschaska's adventures during WWI as an aviator on the Italian Front. For light fiction, it is incredibly well researched.
John Gooch's history 'The Italian Army and the First World War' is a pretty good overview, although if he was a member of a jaeger regiment, it would certainly deal with the wrong side
I spent some time in 2008 with my uncle on a number of the Tyrolean battlefields. The horror of the mountain fighting matches or surpasses almost anything on the Western Front.
-Darryl
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this post
Auctions
re: from stamps to geneology
Hi Darryl, i finally made it to my Moms birthplace in the summer of 2001.She was born in Stenico,Trento in 1916 which was virtually the front lines. There was a World War 1 museum there showing soldiers standing next to morter shells taller than they were they would fire from mountain side to mountains side. My mothers family were proud to be Austrian citizens even though they were ethnic Italian.After the war they did not do well under the Italians and many took their Austrian passports and came to the USA. Unlike the Southern Italians who immigrated to the larger cities the Tyroleans tended to go where there were mines, Western Pennsylvania,Colorado, Arizona and so on. I loved my Grandfather.
Login to Like
this post
re: from stamps to geneology
Hey Bob. I remember the last time you suggested that book. David gave a second on the endorsement. I read the book and would recommend it highly. It's a long book but the the writing style is descriptive, breezy and engaging. Well written.
Login to Like
this post
re: from stamps to geneology
Phil:
My immediate family hails from about 150km east of Stenico - San Vendemiano, although originally we came from further north in the Alto Adige. My great-grandfather was born a subject of Franz Josef, but when the Veneto was ceded to Italy, he went with it. Of course, he was only a wee lad at the time.
My dad's cousin Elio used to own a baracca (shack) up in the mountains around Valsugana, which is much closer to Stenico. I remember one visit - we drove the 1+ hours into the mountains, only for Elio to forget the keys. Spent several hours overlooking the valley listening to cowbells - very Heidi-esque. Most of the rest of my memories of the area involve the owner of a local osteria shovelling mounds of spezzatin and pasta onto my plate because I was 16 and a growing boy.
Bob:
I read the review of Helprin's book. Sounded absolutely intriguing. I've now got a hold on the e-reader version through the local library.
Login to Like
this post