The Midland Journal

Brenner Pass Echoes From
Marching Armies of History

The rumble of German armored divisions pouring through the Brenner pass to stiffen Italy's backbone is familiar martial music in the Alpine gash cutting the international frontier, says the National Geographic society.

Meeting ground of Hitler and Mussolini for momentous conferences. Brenner pass has been making history for more than two thousand years. Less than a mile above sea level, the pass is the lowest corridor piercing the main range of the Alps.

It has been a path of armies and a channel of trade. Through it swept the hordes of northern invaders bound for Mediterranean lands.

Called the "Thermopylae of the Tyrol" the pass became a battlefield when Germanic warriors fought Roman legions.

Italy got a grip on the pass as part of its northern boundary through World war settlements in 1919. At the expense of the old Austro-Hungarian empire, Italian frontiers were pushed northward more than 200 miles. With the new territory Italy took on the problem of the large Teutonic population of the South Tyrol. These Germans were later required to choose between Italian allegiance and moving back under Reich jurisdiction, Italy's "Maginot Line." perched on the shoulders of the Alps, is strongly fortified at the Brenner pass.

A railroad through the pass links lines from Innsbruck. German terminus. and Bolzano. Italian city at its southern end. The 81-mile trip from one city to the other is made in about 4½ hours.