Infantry accompanying load carriers

[Firn]

I don't remember the name of the nearest village (I'm suffering from a bad case of middle age) but I think it was considered part of the Tyrol. It might have been one of those areas that was sometimes Italy and sometimes Austria pre-WWII. I remember hearing people mention Folgoria. That's not where we were but I think Folgoria must have been in the same area.

Anyway, the Airborne Battalion Combat Team went there from Vicenza to conduct winter training every year.

I guess you trained with the Folgore. There are quite some places where you could have been, as IIRC the Folgore trained in quite some areas in Southtyrol. Many of them have been purchased over the years by the province.

This list contains all the village names of the province. If you want you can revive memories. Could be Innichen, Toblach or others.

Anyway you seem truly have enjoyed your stay. Personally I think the Akio is an excellent way to transport stuff in snowy winters even if I sometimes wondered why they could not have made some single parts of the obice smaller. Wikipedia informs us that being a pack howitzer it is designed to be broken down into 12 parts, each of which can be easily transported. Easily transported perhaps by a truck, a MTC or a helicopter, but not by some poor guys with only Akios up the Marmolada.

While the MTC was and is a good idea mules could be faster in quite some areas and go where no wheeled thing could. At least as mountain infantry you need both. It would be of course ideal to pull the vehicles as close up to the units as possible. The MTC(motocarello/motorcart) can extend the reach of the wheeled transport. Especially with an additional cart he can pull quite some weight. Perhaps one could add remote control to something like it.


Firn