Melting ice reveals first world war relics in Italian Alps

Accelerating retreat of glaciers in Lombardy and Trentino Alto-Aldige reveals preserved history of 'White War'The soldiers dug the wooden barracks into a cave on the top of Mount Scorluzzo, a 3,095-metre (10154ft) peak overlooking the Stelvio pass. For the next three-and-a-half years, the cramped, humid space was home to about 20 men from the Austro-Hungarian army as they fought against Italian troops in what became known as the White War, a battle waged across treacherous and bitterly cold Alpine terrain during the first world war.Fought mainly in the Alps of the Lombardy region of Italy and the Dolomites in Trentino Alto-Adige, the White War was a period of history frozen in time until the 1990s, when global warming started to reveal an assortment of perfectly preserved relics - weapons, sledges, letters, diaries and, as the retreat of glaciers hastened, the bodies of soldiers. Continue reading...