"Arma novella di barbarie antica". Le mazze ferrate austro-ungariche nella prospettiva italiana (1915-1918)

During the Great War, the “trench clubs” were used in various armies. These weapons were handcrafted by the soldiers or distributed by the commands, who assigned them mainly to the raiders. On the Italian front, the Regio esercito did not adopt this weapon, unlike the Austro-Hungarian army which gave it to elite units. Therefore, the Italian-Austrian front presented an asymmetrical situation compared to the Western theatre, where the weapon was used by both sides. This had consequences on the ways of perceiving this weapon in Italy. The trench clubs, evoking an archaic and medieval form of combat, were represented by the Italian propaganda and by the public opinion as proof of the barbaric nature of the enemy. The article aims to analyse the representations of the weapon circulating in Italy and how these cultural constructions were transposed by the soldiers, influencing their attitude and behaviours. At the same time, the essay tries to reconstruct the uses of trench clubs in combat, with a focus on the battle of Mount San Michele (29 June 1916), a key moment for understanding the genesis of these propaganda narratives.