The small hamlet of Vallonara experienced a great deal of unrest in the first years of World War 1. In the spring of 1916, when the Austro-Hungarians unleashed the Stafexpedition on the Pre-Alps of Vicenza,
it was the scenery of the convulsive rush of men and vehicles sent over to oppose the threat brought upon the Veneto flat land, while hundreds of refugees were coming down from the Asiago Plateau. As many other hilly places at the foot of the Vicenza Pre-Alps, this quiet hamlet turned into one of the zones immediately behind the northern front. Vallonara was the station for large units that were climbing up towards the battle fields or coming down to rest after months of harsh fighting. In 1915, at the beginning of the war, the Treviso Brigade stopped over, followed by the Catanzaro and Arno Infantry Brigades in 1916, the Teramo brigade in 1918, and finally the Lecce brigade and the 3rd Bersaglieri regiment. The most prestigious brigade in this territory was undoubtedly the legendary Sassari Brigade, quartered in Vallonara and Marostica (the 151st Regiment) and in San Michele and Bassano del Grappa (the 152nd Regiment) in May 1917. Precious evidence has remained in various works by its officers, such as Leonardo Motzo Gli intrepidi Sardi della Brigata Sassari, Alfredo Graziani, nicknamed “Scopa”, Fanterie Sarde all’ombra del Tricolore and, above all, Emilio Lussu, the most famous of them all, with his Un anno sull’Altopiano.