In 1938, on the Pian dei Morti plateau (an upland marshy area above Resia), Benito Mussolini had a large military fortification built, which formed part of the Alpine Wall, a line of defence at Italy’s border, paradoxically built right on the southern border of the Reich and therefore facing the country’s most important ally.
Although the two countries had sworn allegiance to one another in the Pact of Steel, both had good reason to be diffident towards the other: the South Tyrol question was a matter for controversy within the National Socialist leadership, and Mussolini was unsure of Germany’s stance on the possibility of the South Tyrol remaining part of Italy. The border at the Resia Pass was fortified with a main bunker (with the artillery next to it), as well as other smaller bunkers with machine gun pits and areas for the soldiers. All these defensive measures were operative and garrisoned when the Wehrmacht troops made their entry into Italy.
In the confusion that followed the removal of Mussolini and the Allied landing in Sicily, the defences at the northern border surrendered without a fight to the advancing German troops.
A ditch to keep back tanks had been built at the centre of the Pian dei Morti fortification, in the marsh area, as well as a barricade formed of so-called “dragon’s teeth” (larchwood poles driven into the ground and set into cement foundations: the poles, which emerged some 50-100 cm above the ground, were then coated with cement and strengthened at the tip with an iron cap). The fortification remained operative as a defensive measure designed to repel a potential Soviet invasion until 1962, acting as a military barricade until the Iron Curtain fell in 1990.
IDM Film Fund & Commission — Alto Adige
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