On the 20th October, 1915 an Alpine platoon reached the Lagazuoi ledge, the wide rock ledge situated halfway up the mountain , surprisingly neglected by the Austrians.

The Martini Ledge, named after the commander of the battalion who occupied it, became a thorn in the side for the Austrian forces. From here, the Italian troops, with impunity, could fire at the Austrian trenches on the Valparola Pass from above, with machine guns and hand grenades.

However, both contenders had by then realised the futility of traditional combats, utterly ineffective against emplacements protected by barbed wire fencing and machine guns.

Both the armies started digging the rocks inside the mountain to provide shelters for men and weapons, necessary to survive, and made Lagazuoi into the new fortress of the Twentieth century

Following the first excavation works, it was soon realised that the only way to conquer the adversary's fortified emplacements was by digging a tunnel. Once the tunnel was close enough to the enemy, it could be filled with explosives to blow up their positions.

Five "mines" were detonated, four by the Austrian forces against the Martini ledge, and one by the Italians to conquer Lagazuoi. The results of these explosions are still clearly visible on the landscape: the two mine craters on the mountain face and the two large screes at its base, not present on the photographs taken before the war. Also mine explosions proved to be basically ineffective, ensuring only marginal tactic advantages for both armies.

In October, 1917 the Austrian German offensive of Caporetto caused the retreat of the Italian army to the line of Grappa and the Piave; as a consequence the Dolomite front was abandoned, together with the cyclopean works created in the heart of the mountain.