Rommel & Caporetto by John Wilks

Author:John Wilks
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Bisac Code 1: HIS027100: HISTORY / Military / World War II
ISBN: eBook ISBN: 9781783036844
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books
Published: 2013-02-18T16:00:00+00:00

6

The Advance to the Tagliamento

6.1The Tagliamento and its Bridges

The Tagliamento presents a substantial barrier to an invading army, as was once stressed by Napoleon.1 For much of its course, from above Tolmezzo to above Latisana (Map 8), the Tagliamento runs in channels in a wide gravelly bed, in places over a mile across and sometimes partially covered with scrub, which forms a most prominent feature of the plain when viewed from the mountains to the north. The width of the bed is greatest at the junction of the Tagliamento with its main tributary, the Fella, about four miles below Tolmezzo, where the beds of the two rivers spread out to produce a triangular-shaped stony waste with sides about two miles in length. In most places the flow of the water is confined to one, two, or several relatively narrow channels, but after heavy rainfall in the mountains the flow may rapidly increase and spill out across the whole bed.

When the river reaches Pinzano it finally emerges from the mountains into the plain, where the wide and stony bed continues until a few miles above Latisana, where the river assumes a more normal form, completely filling its bed, about 100 to 200 yards wide with green fields or woods on either side. Finally in the last five or six miles to the sea, the land on both sides is very low and intersected by drainage channels, which make any military operations very difficult, especially if flooded.

On the whole of its course below Pinzano the bed of the river is bounded by high dykes rising 6m or more above the bed to contain the waters when it floods. The river thus provided a considerable military obstacle. The high dykes gave excellent positions for machine-gun and other posts which could sweep fire across any troops attempting to cross the wide bed of bare sand and pebbles. The water in the main channel or channels is generally deep enough to require serious bridging techniques, particularly as the speed of the river can greatly increase after rainfall and be capable of damaging any temporary structure. Indeed with heavy flows the river becomes a raging torrent totally impassable except at the bridges.

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