His name was Blasius Plank and more than a hundred years ago, during the Great War, he fought on Col di Lana among the ranks of the Austro-Hungarian army. They recognized him from the dog tag, found among the few remains recently emerged on what was also known as Col di sangue, due to the thousands of victims of the bloody fighting that continued for the entire duration of the conflict. Plank was the only soldier to have a name among the seven Fallen, four Italians and three Austro-Hungarians, all recently found on the battlefields, who were buried last September 24 along the Via Eroica of the Cima Grappa Military Shrine.
Even though more than a century has passed, the sites of the First World War continue to yield the remains of the Fallen soldiers who are laid to rest together in the Shrines, beacon monuments of memory and a reminder of the horrors of war.
The seven urns, wrapped in their respective flags, received the honors of a picket of the 7th Alpine Regiment and were blessed by the Alpine military chaplain Don Giuseppe Ganciu during the mass celebrated for the occasion in the open air.
Among the authorities present at the ceremony, the representatives of theOffice for the Protection of the Culture of Memory of Defense and those of Austrian Black Cross (Osterreichisches Schwarzes Kreuz OSK), the equivalent of our Honored Cadets.
The event was attended by the commander of the Northern Operational Forces of the Army, Lieutenant General Maurizio Riccò, the commander of the Territorial Area of COMFOP Nord, Major General Ugo Cillo, many mayors and civil and military authorities of the provinces of Belluno, Treviso and Vicenza together with the Combatant and Armed Forces Associations.
The event was arranged by the Office for the Protection of the Culture of Memory of the Defense and organized by the Northern Operational Forces Command of the Army, and is part of the activities aimed at preserving and enhancing the memory of the Fallen in war.
The Cima Grappa Military Shrine is the symbolic place and custodian of the Memory of the Great War, located at 1.775 meters above sea level on the border between the provinces of Treviso and Vicenza.
In the southern part it houses the remains of more than 12.600 Italian fallen soldiers, of whom 2.283 have been identified, and in the northern part more than 10.200 Austro-Hungarian soldiers, of whom 295 have been identified.
The two ossuaries are joined by the Via Eroica, which along its 300 metres is lined with 14 large stone markers bearing the names of the peaks that were the theatre of war.
