While in the valley of Caporetto the Austro-Hungarians, with the help of the Germans, were preparing a great offensive, in Valsugana unfolded one of the most embarrassing pages of the Great War in Italy. Everything started two months earlier when during the night of 13th July 1917 a Bohemian sergeant named Mlejnek, enlisted in a Bosniac regiment, managed to go beyond the first defensive frontline at Carzano and turned up at an Italian camp.
Completely unarmed, he carried with him a sealed envelope containing several pages and asked to be allowed to speak to a superior officer. The Bohemian was blindfolded and led to headquarters of the commander of Pieve Tesino. Major Cesare Pettorelli Lalatta, head of the ITO (Settore Truppe Operanti - Information Office of Operating Troops) met Mlejnek and received the envelope that contained several maps of the Austro-Hungarian frontline in the area with the signature "Pavlin".
This nom-de-plume was hiding the identity of Ljudivik Pivko, professor of law and philosophy at Maribor and captain of the Austro-Hungarian army. Having obtained a meeting with Lalatta, Pivko explained that during the war his people were being used as cannon fodder and so he proposed to collaborate to defeat Austro-Hungary. The plan was simple: the defences in that zone were weak and an attack coming from the east in Valsugana would have allowed the Italians to push forward up to the city of Trento with the support of Slovenian, Czech and Serbian soldiers. In the next few days Pettorelli Lalatta continued to receive very useful information and was convinced that the plan of Pivko was a genuinely good one. He therefore asked to meet Cadorna who was, however, busy with preparations for the Eleventh Battle of the Isonzo and so did not receive him.
After repeated requests, Cadorna met Pettorelli Lalatta but neither he nor General Donato Etna, the leader of the troops in Valsugana, trusted the plan of Pivko. After other repeated requests, on 07th September it was decided that the action would go ahead but without reaching Trento.
In a short while the attack, indecisive and badly organized, turned into a tragedy. Having overcome the Austro-Hungarian line during the night of 18th September, the first bersaglieri soldiers of the 72nd battalion entered Carzano without the support of the infantry which had missed its way. Instead of advancing Brigadier Attilio Zincone, panic striken by the absence of reinforcements, ordered the retreat due to the various setbacks. A first group, however, had already crossed the bridge across the stream Maso and was stopped by enemy fire: 900 men were taken prisoner while 360 were killed while they tried to retreat.
