Giovanni Randaccio

In October 1916 he earned his third silver medal and a promotion to the rank of major at the taking of Veliki Kribach.

On 27 May 1917, during the Tenth Battle of the Isonzo, Major Randaccio launched his battalion in a perilous assault on Quota 28 (‘hill 28’, on the Bratina promontory), on the other side of the Timavo river.

[3][4] Having taken the hill with heavy losses, Randaccio himself fell under a burst of enemy machine gun fire.

However, according to the official account of the military headquarters, the action that resulted in his death began during the night of 28 May and hill 28 was taken on the morning of the following day.

[10] In this account, the Italians had tried for two days to force a crossing of the Timavo river, without success, before receiving orders to suspend operations.

[13] To achieve this, the Italian troops needed to cross the mouth of the Timavo river on temporary catwalks made from 40 cm-wide boards, fixed to empty oil drums, and then take the Austrian batteries on the Bratina promontory.

While his own account may give the impression that they were together on the front line, D’Annunzio never crossed the river himself, remaining on the west bank throughout the fighting.

[11][15] According to some accounts, D’Annunzio was so enraged at the retreat from hill 28 that he ordered the Italian artillery to open fire on its own men as they struggled to get back across the Timavo.

[15] According to Guido Agosti (see bibliography) Randaccio himself never crossed the river either, observing the advance from the west bank, throwing himself onto the catwalk to assist his retreating men and being mortally wounded there.

However it now lies at San Giovanni di Duino alongside the SS14 road, under the monument to the Wolves of Tuscany, where it was moved following the industrialization of the Lisert district.

At least one authority suggests that the move dates to 1932;[17] however the 1949 Duino sheet of the Military Geographic Institute shows the "Cippo Randaccio" still in its original position, on the west bank.