I have this picture taken of a grave. Can anyone read the Italian inscription?
http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k116/ras...ng/47fafe3d.jpg

Thanks.

John

John

Can you enlarge the text? My eyes are not up to it!

I can't read the top line.

On the next line I can pick out "Friends and Enemies" (Amici e Nemici).

The line below that is something about a "modest sepulchre"

The bottom line mentions the ??? company of the 124th Infantry

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k116/ras...anning/hh2f.jpg

This is the best I can do, I hope it is clearer.
Thanks for your translation so far.

Cheers

Sorry John, I can't do it. My eyes can't pick out a lot more, although one of the words on the top line looks as if it could be "Valour".

Maybe someone with younger eyes? Better still would be a native Italian speaker.

My guess is that this is a mass grave, containing both Italian and Austro-Hungarian dead, and buried by the Italian unit in question. Might be wrong on that, but that is the feeling I get.

Thanks very much for your help. It is appreciated.

Hi all,

I think you are right in it being a mass grave of some sort.

I think the word at the top is 'ignoti' which means 'unknown' in the plural.
You've got a burial site of unknown soldiers by the looks of it.

again, it is hard to read.

IJM

Back again,

Before what looks like 'ignoti' there seems to be a number that exceeds a 100 - more than a 100 unknowns?

IJM

I think I read "103 (?) Ignoti valorosi amici e nemici dette modesta sepoltura 312a comp. 124° Fant. MM"

Which is more or less: "to 103 unknown brave friends and foes gave modest sepolture the 312 company of 124th inf. "

I wonder what "M.M." at the end means...

Regards

How about 'Marina Militare' (targa automobilistica)- I went on an Italian website to find this.

'military navy' (automotive plate).

Can anyone elaborate on this?

IJM

Luigi,

I think that you will find that "MM" stands for 'Milizia Mobile'. This was the designation for regiments mobilised in 1915 from reservists. The 124th regiment was one of the paired regiments in the Chieti Brigade.

As far as I know, Italian infantry regiments did not have companies numbered in one overall series so I think that the 312th company was a separate unit. I initially thought it could be an Alpini company but I could not find one with that number in my listings. Therefore it could have been an engineer or machine gun unit.

It would also be interesting to know where the grave is located and when it dates from as this may throw more light on the units concerned.

Hope this is of interest.