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Battle of Mount Belvedere
Date 18-25 February 1945 (8 days) Location Northern Italy
Belligerents
United States Brazil	Germany
Commanders and leaders
Major General George Price Hays	General Eccard Freiherr von Gablenz
Units involved
10th Mountain Division Brazilian Expeditionary Force	232nd Infantry Division 114th Jäger Division
Casualties and losses
US: 900 casualties, 203 killed Brazilian: 22 dead, 137 wounded	over 200 killed, 400+ taken prisoner

The Battle of Mount Belvedere also known as the Battle of Riva Ridge (18-25 February 1945) was a battle of the Second World War between American and Brazilian units and the German Wehrmacht. The first part of Operation Encore, this battle was a limited offensive, with the goal of capturing a string of summits of the Northern Apennines that controlled Strada statale 64 Porrettana, the all-weather link between Pistoia and Bologna. Once held, possession of these summits would provide the Allies an advantageous position from which the western portion of the Allied spring offensive could start.

The primary height along Highway 64 was Mount Belvedere, which had been the goal of several earlier Allied attacks November 1944 by the Brazilian Expeditionary Force (BEF). However, heavy German artillery barrages prevented the BEF from holding Belvedere; these barrages had been aided by spotters on Riva Ridge, the name the Americans gave to the Pizzo di Campiano-Monte Mancinello range of mountains to the west of Belvedere. So to hold Mount Belvedere, Riva Ridge would also need to be captured. To accomplish this, however, the attackers would need to climb up a series of steep slopes, at times cliffs, that lacked any cover; one tactical study estimated that over 70% of any attackers would become casualties if an advance up these slopes were attempted in daylight. Therefore General George Pierce Hays chose it would be at night when the First battalion, 86th Infantry Regiment of the 10th Mountain Division would ascend those slopes. Once Riva Ridge was in friendly hands, the other two regiments of the 10th Mountain -- the 85th and 87th -- would begin their frontal assault on Mount Belvedere.

German counterattacks attempted to push the American regiments holding Mount Belvedere and Mount Gorgolesco off the summit, but lack of spotters on Riva Ridge hampered their success. Once these counterattacks were overcome, the Division proceeded along the mountain crests to Mount della Torraccia. The BEF seized Mount Castello in support of this advance. The Germans were fierce in their defense of Mount della Torraccia; the Second battalion of the 85th Regiment suffered heavy casualties which amounted to half of those the Division experienced in this battle. The Third battalion of the 86th regiment, which did not participate in the capture of Riva Ridge, replaced them in the line and succeeded in capturing the mountain 24 February. German counterattacks ceased after that.

Background

Following the capture of Rome 4 June 1944, the Allied forces proceeded north in two groups: the British Eighth Army (Lieutenant-General Oliver Leese) advancing along the coastal plain of the Adriatic, and the U.S. Fifth Army (Lieutenant General Mark Clark) to the west through the central Apennine Mountains. Before them stood the carefully prepared German defenses of the Gothic Line. General Clark's plan had initially been to drive through the Apennines at two points: the main body of II Corps would advance north along the Strada statale 65 della Futa, the highway that connects Florence to Bologna by way of the Futa Pass. When these troops encountered the expected enemy resistance, the 34th Division would launch a strong diversionary attack west of the Futa Pass, while the rest of II Corps would bypass the Futa Pass to the east and attack the lightly defended Il Giogo Pass on Route 6524 near the boundary of the German Fourteenth and Tenth Armies. This attack began 10 September 1944.

However, the Apennines were a formidable terrain and the Germans proved to be stubborn foes in well-prepared defensive positions. Although the American divisions managed to advance past both the Futa and Il Giogo passes, it was at a high cost. Between 10 September and 26 October, II Corps' four divisions had suffered over 15,000 casualties. On 27 October General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, the Supreme Allied Commander in the Mediterranean, ordered a halt to these offensives.

The Allies made one last attempt to break through the Apennines, using the recently arrived Brazilian Expeditionary Force, which was about a division in size. To the west of Futa Pass Highway 64 passed Mount Belvedere on its route to Bologna; the BEF was tasked with capturing this prominence, which would allow a breakthrough into the Po Valley. From 24 November through 12 December the Brazilians made three unsuccessful assaults to capture the mountain, but despite their bravery each time they secured the peak of the mountain, German artillery drove them off the heights. It was at this point the US 10th Mountain Division, the only American mountain infantry unit, which had been stateside impatiently waiting to participate in the fighting, arrived in Italy.

Because of specialized mountain training and comparatively light organic artillery -- there were only three battalions of 75-mm. pack howitzers as contrasted with the three battalions of 105-mm. howitzers and one of 155-mm. howitzers in the standard infantry division -- commanders in other theaters had declined the division's services, but the specialized training enhanced the division's attractiveness to an army engaged in mountain warfare.

The 10th arrived at Naples piecemeal starting 22 December 1944, with the last units reaching Naples 13 January 1945. From Naples they made their way by ship or by rail in forty-and-eights to Livorno, then by trucks to Pisa.

The first members of the 10th arrived in Italy when the 86th Regiment landed at Naples late December 1944. On Christmas Day the men of the first battalion of the 86th were transported by rail in forty-and-eights to Livorno while the rest of the regiment arrived in the freighter Sestriere; from Livorno they rode in trucks to Pisa. The 85th and 86th Regiments landed in Naples 13 January 1945. Second and Third battalions of the 87th immediately boarded forty-and-eights for Livorno, while the First battalion and Headquarters and Service companies waited three days for the Sestriere to transport them to that port. The 85th Regiment, except for Service and M Companies -- which sailed on the Sestriere -- proceeded to Livorno on 15 LCIs, leaving Naples 14 January and arrived there the following day.

It was at Pisa that the men of the division discovered their specialized mountaineering equipment had not followed them to Italy; their skis, mountain boots, parkas and the rest of their equipment got no closer to them than a warehouse in Boston. Once in the mountains, the men would most miss their sleeping bags that had kept them warm through the winter nights in the Rocky Mountains; in response to their complaints, the standard issue of two blankets was supplemented with another two. The officers would miss the mountain boots the division spent years developing. (Link to note about appropriating German mountain boots) One wrote, "We have spent three years developing this clothing and equipment. We may now be denied the use of it at a time when we really need it." The men improvised, borrowing skis from local Italian alpine clubs for their patrols in the snow; they could not obtain crampons from the local clubs, so they fixed knotted ropes to the soles of their leather and rubber shoepacs to improve their footing on icy slopes.

From Pisa the 86th Mountain Infantry proceeded to the front, arriving at Vidiciantico 8 January. Once there, the men immediately began patrolling, seeking information about the German positions.

By 20 January, the rest of the division joined them on the front lines in the Apennines.

---

Task Force 45, originally at milhist.net

Disposition of forces

On the Allied side:

• US 10th Mountain Division

Attached to the division:

• US 175th Field Artillery Battalion (Had been part of Task Force 45)
• US 1125th Armored Field Artillery
• US 84th Chemical Mortar Battalion (Had been part of Task Force 45)
• US 751st Tank Destroyer Battalion (Had been part of Task Force 45)
• US 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion (Had been part of Task Force 45)
• 27th Quartermaster War Dog Platoon (Earle, pp. 17f)

• Brazilian Expeditionary Force (BEF)

On the German side:

• 232nd Infantry Division
  • 1043rd Infantry Regiment
  • 1044th Infantry Regiment
  • 1045th Infantry Regiment
  • 232nd Fusilier Battalion
  • 232nd Artillery Regiment
  • Panzerjäger Battalion

[Note: At the time US intelligence sources believed this division also included the 4th Mountain Battalion; however other sources do not include a mountain battalion in their list of German units. (Hampton memorandum)]

• 114th Jäger Division (sent as reinforcements, Fisher pp. 430f)
• 29th Panzer Grenadier Division (Fisher, p. 433)
  • 15th Panzer Grenadier Regiment

Terrain

Isserman, p. 137: "Lieutenant Colonel Hampton likened the 1st Battalion's position in and around Vidiciatico to sitting 'in the bottom of a bowl with the enemy sitting on two-thirds of the rim looking down upon you. There was about as much concealment as a goldfish would have in a bowl.'"

To the west of the town of Vidiciatico and running generally southwest was a very precipitous and rugged escarpment called the Mancinello-C[a]mpiano Ridge. This chain of summits rose from the very steep canyon of the Dardagna River to various heights. Rising abruptly from the fortified town of Rocca Corneta, it extended to M. Spigolino, a distance of about seven miles. The summits from north to south were Pizzo di C[a]mpiano (3175 ft.), M. Cappel Buso (3800 ft.), M. Serrasiccia (4600 ft.), M. Riva (4672 ft.), Le Piagge (4900 ft.), Serra [d]ei Barchetti (4350 ft.), Cingular Sermidiano (5400 ft.), and M. Spigolino (6030 ft.). The elevation of the Dardagna canyon varied from 1600 feet at the north end to some 2500 feet at the south end.

There were no sharp breaks of passes. On the east side it is generally very steep, broken, with cliffs, steep ravines and shoulders. The west side is by comparison very mild, ranging from broken and steep through rolling to nearly a plateau west of M. Riva. The watershed on the east side is abrupt, characterized by fast flowing waterfalls. They empty into a stream which flows parallel to the base of the ridge, whose banks range from steep to a gorge, One of the important factors to be considered was the gradient of the east side of the escarpment which would have to be scaled to take this ridge held by the enemy. At the shortest place, the average gradient to M. Cappel Buso is about 40 degrees. (The average gradient of the Hornlike ridge of Hira Herborn is 45 degrees). The average gradient to M. Serrasiccia was 30 degrees. [Dusenberry believes that the gradients to Cappel Buso & Serrasiccia are reversed.] -- Lt. Col. Henry Hampton, cited in Dusenberry p. 179

Whether out defence now took the form of a delaying action or of a retreat it was at least secured by prepared sectors and positions manned against surprise. This forbade the acceptance of a decisive battle south of the Po. -- Albert Kesselring, A Soldier's Record, 1953 (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1970) p. 266

Prelude

Initial encounters revealed the naïveté of the American troops. (Isserman, pp. 141f)

• 86th reg. replaced 900th AA Battalion night of 8/9 January (Lt. Col. Hampton's report)
• Men of the 86th regiment were the only ones to conduct patrols with skis. (Isserman, pp. 142-144; Shelton, p. 125; Jenkins, p. 150)
• Skirmish with German infiltrators at Querciola with company L (Isserman, pp. 141f)
• Importance of Riva Ridge to holding Mt. Belvedere "This ridgeline offered German artillery observers a clear line of sight on anyone approaching the treeless flanks of Belvedere, and since the face of Riva Ridge was so steep, there was nothing the Fifth Army could do to knock the observers off." (Jenkins, p. 136)
  • Gen. Hays ordered commander of 86th regiment Col. Tommy Tomlinson, to have his men scout out possible routes up the face of Riva Ridge. Tomlinson, a regular army soldier w/o rock climbing experience, said it couldn't be done. Hays: "This is a mountain division. Surely they can find how to climb up that ridge. It will be a lot cheaper to capture the ridge in the first place than to suffer the casualties from hostile fire directed from there." (Isserman, p. 148f; Jenkins, p. 152 (full quotation); Shelton, p. 127 (slightly different quotation))
  • Over the following weeks, patrols went out. "Early patrols noticed, at first, very little activity along the ridge." "Early on, American patrols were restricted to nighttime. But with the Germans on top of the ridge apparently oblivious to -- or unconcerned about -- the increasing activity, patrols were slowly allowed to pick up, like water slowly beginning to boil around lobsters in a pot." (Jenkins, p. 154)
  • Discarded plans: attack north from Mt Spigolino, due to supply problems; one ascent from the middle, too unwieldy & too attractive to an artillery barrage (Jenkins, pp. 153f)
• Five routes -- called trails -- were identified up the face of Riva Ridge. (cite Lt. Col. Henry Hampton's report)
• End of January, most of the 86th withdrawn from the line to Bagni di Lucca. There they underwent rigorous training in rock climbing at a local marble quarry. Nearly a third of the men had joined the division after its departure from Camp Hale, & lacked the specialized training. (Isserman, p. 149)

• By 12 February the snow had mostly melted away or packed down by patrols. Skis were no longer needed. (Jenkins, p. 161)
• General Hays' "always forward" speech to the troops, 16 February (Shelton, p. 129; Jenkins, pp. 164f -- has the most extensive quotation) After discussing the plans for the upcoming battle, Hays concluded:

Continue to move forward. Never stop. Always forward. Always forward. Always forward. If your buddy is wounded, don't stop to help him. Continue to move forward. Always forward. Don't get pinned down. Never stop. When the assault comes, you must get into the enemy's position as quickly as possible. You must move fast. Don't give the enemy time to recover. Shoot him. You must take his position.

In the days to come, those of you who survive must learn to relax and enjoy yourself. You will be given time out of the line when you can rest and see the sights. You should go to all the historical places that you can in Italy, because remember you may not get back this way again. To the victors go the spoils. Take trophies, souvenirs, cameras, guns, pistols, and watches, ship them home. Someday you can show them to your grandchildren.

Good luck.

The attack

The plan: 1st bn 86th would climb & secure Riva ridge; 3rd bn 85th reg wd assault the summit of Mt Belvedere; 1st bn 85th reg Mount Gorgolesco east of Belvedere on right; 3rd bn 87th reg move along the lower slopes in support of the 85th reg; 1st bn 87th reg capture Valpiana Ridge to NW on left; 2nd bn the area between Corona & Florio. (Jenkins, p. 165) The B.E.F. wd capture Mt Castello

• Enemy strength had been estimated at 40-50 men on Riva Ridge, with several hundred in close reserve on the gentler reverse slope, supported by artillery & mortars. (Isserman, p. 150) These were from 4th (Edelweiss) Mountain battalion & a battalion of the 232d Infantry division (Shelton, p. 126; Isserman, p. 151)
• Enemy strength on Mt Belvedere 1045 reg, 232d Division (Isserman, p. 165); 114th Jaeger Division, & 4th Mountain bn (Jenkins, p. 180)
  • At the time men of the 1044th Grenadier Regiment on Riva Ridge were being relieved by the 232nd Fusilier Battalion (Isserman, p. 154) (Lt. Col. Hampton report)
• German Gen. Fridolin von Senger und Etterlin was concerned about the complacency of his own troops. (Jenkins, pp. 154f)

Riva Ridge

• Started climb 7:30p 18 February
  • Men heavily loaded (Jenkins p. 163 for details)
• Although 5 "trails" had been identified, only 4 were used
  • B Co. assigned Mt Cappel Buso
  • Co. C Trail 3 Mt Serrasiccia
  • Co. F Mt Cingio del Bure
  • Co. A (less 1 platoon) Mt Mancinello (these 4, Jenkins, p. 162)
  • platoon from Co. A under Lt. James Loose, performed a technical climb up Pizzo di Campano (Jenkins, pp. 162f)
  • Italian mules under Italian Alpini brought the heavy weapons up Trail 2. "One mule carried a howitzer tube to the top and immediately dropped dead from exhaustion." (Jenkins, p. 168; Hampton's report said the animal died a few hours later)
• Command expected if the Germans knew of the climb, casualties were expected to be as high as 90% (Isserman, p. 152; Jenkins, p. 161)
• Lt Loose's platoon found excellent prepared position, which they appropriated for their use. (Lt. Col. Hampton report)
• Lt. Col. Hampton reports groups reached targets at these times:
  • B co. 0117 19 February
  • A co. 0258
  • C co. 0305
  • F co made contact with HQ 0407
• The Germans had neglected to place lateral communications along the ridge (Jenkins, p. 167)
• In the event, Germans were surprised, & except for a few individual encounters no resistance was encountered. The 5 companies reached their intended goals & "dug in"
  • Co. B encountered German machine gun fire as they summitted; they held their fire; probably thinking they encountered a lone patrol, the Germans withdrew (Isserman, p. 154)
  • Men of Co. A also encountered Germans; they exchanged gunfire; the Germans again probably thought they encountered a "wayward" patrol, withdrew. Same group found more Germans asleep in their foxholes, killed or drove them off (Isserman, p. 155)
• When the Germans became aware of the American presence morning 19 February, their responses varied:
  • A company, led by Sgt. Torger Tokle, seized a bunker, killed 4 captured 8
  • While determining why the phone wire between Pizzo di Campiano & B co. was down, a group under Lt. Boudoures was attacked by a group of Germans who had infiltrated. (Hampton's report)
  • While securing Ridge X (a knife-edge running W of Mt Cappel Buso & perpendicular to the ridgeline), Co. C encountered a group of Germans pretending to surrender (Jenkins, p. 175)
  • Platoon of A co. were assigned to hold Pizzo di Campiano under 2nd Lt. James Loose. Came under attack by 2 German companies for a day & ahalf. Ran out of food & water, & came close to running out of ammunition. "Do you realize that you are asking for fire exactly on your position?" -- "I do, but if we don't get artillery support, you'll have nothing to support." Reinforcements led by Lt. Col. Hampton arrived 4pm 20 February. Lt. Col. Hampton, Lt. Loose, Pvts. Frank Gorham, & Frank Fairweather were awarded Silver Stars for their heroism. (Jenkins, pp. 176f)
• 126th Mountain Engineer bn. constructed an aerial tramway up the slopes of Mt. Cappel Buso (Isserman, p. 161; Jenkins, pp. 177f)
• The attacking unit was identified as the 232nd Fusilier bn, 232nd Division. (Edwin P. Hoyt, Backwater War (Westport: Praeger, 2002), p. 192)
• 7th Co. 1044th Reg., 232d "lost heavily"; 4th Mt Bn was believed having "ceased to exist as a fighting organization" (Hampton's report)
• Casualties: (US) 17 killed, 38 wounded, 3 missing; (DE) 66 killed (Hampton's report)
• Battalion on Riva Ridge was relieved by 10th Mt. AT Battalion 23 February (Lt. Col. Hampton's report)

Mount Belvedere

• The 37th Quartermaster War Dog Platoon under 1st Lt. Archer D. Akers was attached to 87th Mountain Reg., used with night patrols & carrying messages from battalion HQ to forward companies. (Earle, pp. 17f)
• Opposing the 87th Reg. were elements of the German 1044th Reg., 232nd Division From east to west the companies were 6th, 8th, 5th, & 7th, reinforced by elements of 10th Anti-tank Co., also of the 232nd (Earle, p. 23)
• Started 11:00p 19 February (Isserman, p. 165)
• Fixed bayonets, rifles unloaded (Shelton, p. 144, Jenkins, p. 181)
  • Add speculation why
  • "Man alive. We are to make an assault with five battalions against the strongest German positions in Italy and not a goddam loaded gun in the entire outfit. That's a large order, Sarge. I hope the general knows what he's doing." (Dan Kennerly, cited Jenkins p. 181)
• Amongst those advancing 2nd Lt. George J. Hays (B Co. 87th Reg.), son of the commanding general (Isserman, p. 165; Earle, p. 19)
• 1st bn 87th Mountain Reg. would pass thru Corona, then turned right to seize the summit of Mt. Belvedere (Earle, p. 18)
• 2nd bn 87th Mountain Reg. would secure the towns of Polla & Florio, then prepared to seize Rocca Corneta on Division orders (Earle, p. 18)
• Within 5 minutes Co. B, 87th Reg. came under enemy fire (Earle, p. 20)
• Fields of landmines on the slopes of Belvedere & Gorgolesco (Shelton, p. 148)
• Weight of the 81-mm mortars (Isserman, p. 165)
• 3rd bn 85th reg met resistance below summit of Belvedere 1:00a; 1st bn 85th reg engaged the Germans on Mt Gorgolesco 3:00a (Isserman, p. 169)
• Co. C, 1st bn 87th Reg. reached Corona at 3:00 am; this village was bypassed & Cos. B & C advanced up the slope of Mt. Belvedere
• Summit of Belvedere was taken between 3:30 & 5:30 am 20 February (Isserman, p. 169) Earle puts the time the summit was captured at 4:30 am (p. 21)
• Of C Co. 3rd bn, 85th Reg., Sgt. Hugh Evan's charge to the top of Mt. Gorgolesco (Shelton, p. 152; Isserman, pp. 170f; Jenkins, pp. 186f) Evan's account Awarded the Silver Star for his heroism (Isserman, p. 172)
• Once Cos. B & C (87th Reg.) had reached Belvedere, Co. C "given the task of mopping-up Corona" Reached Corona at 6:15 am (Earle, p. 21)
• Pvt 1st Class Lee H. Chew (A Co. 87th), one of the few Chinese-American members of the 10th, killed when charging a machine-gun nest outside Corona. Awarded Silver Star posthumously. (Isserman, p. 168; Earle, p. 21)
• On left, 2nd bn advanced thru minefields (Earle, pp. 21f)
• German resistance prevented Co. G (87th Reg.) from occupying Polla. 4 Italian partisans assisting Co. G killed. Did not secure Polla until after daybreak. (Earle, p. 21f)
• Co. F (87th Reg.) also had hard going. Pinned down by enemy fire at 0220 in front of Florio (Earle, p. 22)
• Daylight hours of 20 February P-47 fighter-bombers & British Spitfires (both RAF & South A.) strafed German positions in support (Isserman, p. 173; Jenkins, p. 191)
  • These planes were known as "Rover Joe" to the troops (Earle, p. 20)
• Soldiers of the 85th Mountain reg. found the remains of almost 70 civilians in the village of Ronchidoso, killed by SS the previous September in retaliation for local partisan activity (Isserman, p. 176)
• At completion of this assault (morning of 20 February), over 100 enemy dead lay before 87th Reg.; they had taken 115 prisoners (Earle, p. 23)
• Third bn, 87th Reg. advanced from Vidiciatico (where they'd been in reserve) to occupy Valpiano, N of Corona. (Earle, p. 25) Needed the roadway cleared by the engineers, who used bangalore torpedos, to bring in armor support (Earle, p. 26)
• Germans counter-attacked, per their rulebook.
  • 1st bn, 87th Reg. attacked on top of Belvedere 21 February at 0610 Despite support with mortars & 88s, the attack failed with 6 German dead, 2 US wounded. (Earle, p. 26)
  • Co. C attacked by 70-80 Germans. Bitter after the ruse pulled the morning before, they waited until the enemy was within 100 yards to open fire. 25 killed, none taken prisoner (Earle, pp. 26f)
  • 2nd bn, 87th Reg. put artillery on Germans advancing from Polla towards Cos. G & F, which broke up the advances (Earle, p. 27)
  • 3rd bn, 87th Reg. suffered considerable shelling before daybreak, some of it friendly. Lack of communications (Earle, p. 27)
  • Co. K drove off a 12-man patrol, killing 4, wounding 1, taking 1 POW (Earle, p. 27)
  • Co. I at Valpiano engaged the Germans, taking 31 POWs who were from the 741st Mountain Infantry. (Earle, pp. 27f)
  • In the fighting, regimental commander Col. David M. Fowler was wounded by a shell fragment, but not seriously. Until his return, Lt. Col. John F. Schmelzer was in command. (Earle, pp. 28f)
• 22 February Rocca Corneta occupied by a party of 27 Italian partisans & Pfc. Ed Paley, an intelligence scout. (Earle, p. 30)

February 20, 1945 Yesterday we fired some shells into Poretta. This must have made the enemy feel very uncomfortable, as shortly thereafter he began a mighty show of fireworks on Pietra Colora.

On the right, the Americans are again reported to have penetrated our positions. Since seven o'clock this morning, their fighter bombers are continually humming in the sky above us, and their machine guns are hammering without letup.

The other side knows as well as we just how much the wheat fields of the Po Valley mean to us. Gertrude writes that Prisdorf has suffered heavily. She would rather wait a little longer before getting married. Woman are funny. One will not wait for your because it takes too long, and another wants to wait longer. Well, I won't talk about that anymore.

Diary of a German Officer

B.E.F.

• Assigned to capture Mt. Castello (Isserman, p. 151)
• Attack launched 5:30a 21 February (de Moraes, p. 114)
  • 1st battalion attacked from NE just beyond Mazzancana (Brooks, in Baumgardner p. 31)
  • 3rd battalion struck north (Brooks, in Baumgardner p. 31)
  • East of Mt Castello 11th Infantry captured Abetaia (Brooks, in Baumgardner p. 31)
• Mt Castello captured 21 February (Isserman, p. 176)
• Significance of the capture of Mt. Castello (de Moraes, p. 116)
  • Capture of Mt. Castello "represented a symbol and a landmark in the lives of our troops in a land across the sea."
  • "A sewer that served as a trap for hundreds of our fellow countrymen, its capture by our forces constituted a duty of conscience and an imperative of military dignity."

Mount della Torraccia

• 85th Regiment, 2nd bn under Lt. Colonel John Stone to cross the saddle linking Monte della Torraccia & capture that height (Shelton, p. 153)
  • Germans reinforced by men from 741st Infantry Regiment, attacking night 21-22 February (Isserman, p. 177) <-- Is this the Jäger Regiment 741, part of the 114th Jäger Division?
  • 2nd bn unable to advance due to artillery fire from the enemy 88s (Shelton, p. 153)
  • By evening of 22 February, 2nd bn was down to 400 men (Isserman, p. 178)
  • 2nd battalion suffered heavy casualties & was unable to capture the objective. Lt Colonel Stone was relieved (Isserman, p. 178; Shelton, p. 153) Suffered half the total casualties the division had in this battle (Isserman, p. 180)
  • Despite their failure to advance, five men of the battalion were awarded Silver Stars, one posthumously (Isserman, p. 178)
• 3rd bn 86th Regiment replaced them night 23-24 February, under the command of Major John Hay Jr. Attack started 6:50am 24 February, seized the summit shortly before 9:00am (Isserman, p. 179)
  • For neutralizing a machine gun nest that was blocking the advance of the battalion, Bob Foster was awarded the Silver Star (John W. Dewey, reprinted in Feuer, p. 38)
• German counterattacks by Mittenwald Mountain Battalion late afternoon & into the night (Isserman, p. 179)
• Morning of 25 February the 40 surviving men of one German company surrendered (Isserman p. 179)

February 23, 1945 It's 8 P.M. The entire area is alive with explosions. The bunker is shaking. Carbide lamps are blown out, and pressure is exerted on our ears. I hope nothing has happened to our food truck.

Last night, I was out scouting until five in the morning. I now have more details on the enemy's penetration. Mount Belvedere, Mount della Torraccia, and Mount Castello are now in American hands. One of our regiments is almost completely destroyed. Two companies have gone over to the enemy

Diary of a German Officer

Aftermath

Reaction to the victory

• News of the battle initially did not mention the 10th Mountain because its presence in Italy was still a secret. (Isserman, p. 180) But when their presence could be revealed, their credit was given wide circulation. "This kind of news was seldom heard from the 'forgotten front' in Italy, where there had been no significant Allied progress over the past four months." (Isserman, p. 181)
• "The fall of Monte Belvedere -- indeed the capture of all the hills from Riva on the left to della Torraccia on the right -- had surprised not only the Germans but the Allied command as well. The untested 10th had exceeded even General Hays's expectations, and a critical salient, or wedge, had been driven into the Nazi defenses." (Shelton, p. 158)
• "Original plans for the offensive, perhaps influenced by grim memories of the prolonged campaign to capture Cassino, had envisioned it could take as long as two weeks to drive the Germans off Belvedere and adjoining peaks; instead it took the 10th five days." (Isserman, p. 180; cf. Jenkins, p. 196)
• "Neither the 10th's espirit de corps nor its ability to attract favorable publicity exactly endeared the division to other American soldiers in Italy who had been fighting there far longer." (Isserman, p. 182) Incident in the army theater (Shelton, pp. 171f)

Operation Encore

• Operation Encore had a second part.
• Five days of relative peace followed the capture of Mt della Torraccia (Isserman, p. 185)
• Action to kick off from Mts della Torraccia & della Casellina started 3 March (Isserman, p. 185)
• High ground NE of these summits for 5 miles to Castel d'Aiano. "those heights, overlooking another important road junction at Vergato on the far side, would cut the German line of supply and communication to the Po Valley and provide an ideal jump-off for a breakout from the North Apennines." (Isserman, p. 185)
• Kesselring sent in his reserve, 29th Panzer Grenadier Division to aid in the defense. (Isserman, p. 191) Over the March fighting Kesselring admitted that (quote from his memoir) the division has "suffered such serious losses that they lost their value as a strategic reserve." (Isserman, p. 194)

Notes (not references)

• Isserman admits that "German casualties are unknown" (p. 180) Estimate of number of German KIAs based on compilation of incidental mentions of Germans killed in the various sources, for example by the morning of 21 February following the assault of the 87th Reg. on the west slopes of Mt. Belvedere, "over one hundred enemy dead lay among our positions." (Earle, p. 23)
• Lt Col. Hampton's report was completed 15 June 1945, after hostilities in Italy had concluded. Harris Dusenbery, company clerk for Co C 1st battalion included it as an appendix in his The North Apennines and Beyond (Portland, 1998)
• A number of soldiers reported they replaced their issued combat boots with mountain boots taken from the Germans. (Bob Frauson from a dead German -- Jenkins, p. 169) (Bob Parker from a POW -- Shelton p. 157)
• Diary of a German Officer. First printed in the 18 March 1945 issue of Stars and Stripes; this translation has been reprinted several times. According to John Dewey who recovered the diary, "This German officer was captured during our recent attack northeast of Mount della Torraccia. Filled with bitterness and despair, the diary is typical of the mood that prevailed at this time among German soldiers fighting on the Italian front." (Feuer, Packs On!, p. 141) On the other hand, Wilbur Vaughan states the diary was found "on the corpse of a German officer following a push by the 10th Mountain Division north of Mt. Della Torracia on 4 March 1945" (Baumgardner, p. 68)

See also

• Spring 1945 offensive in Italy
• Battle of Monte Castello
• Battle of Monte Cassino

References

• Mountaineers (Denver: Artcraft Press, n.d.)
• Baumgardner, Randy W. (1998), 10th Mountain Division, Nashville, Tennessee: Turner Publishing Company, ISBN 978-1-56311-430-4
• David Brower, Remount Blue:The Combat Story of the 3d battalion, 86th Mountain Infantry Privately printed, 1948.
• Hal Burton, The Ski Troops (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1971)
• Dusenbery, Harris (1998), The North Apennines and Beyond with the 10th Mountain Division, Portland: Binford & Mort, ISBN 0-8323-0522-7
• Dusenbery, Harris (1991), Ski the High Trail: World War II Ski Troopers in the High Colorado Rockies, Portland: Binford & Mort, ISBN 0-8323-0485-9
• Cpn. George F. Earle, History of the 87th Mountain Infantry Regiment, Italy, 1945 Denver: Bradford-Robinson, 1945
• Hampton, Henry J. (12 June 1945), The Riva Ridge Operation (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 13 June 2013, retrieved 30 January 2014
• Isserman, Maurice (2019), The Winter Army: The World War II Odyssey of the 10th Mountain Division, America's Elite Alpine Warriors, New York: HarperCollins, ISBN 978-0-358-41424-7
• McKay Jenkins, The Last Ridge (New York: Random House, 2003) ISBN 0-375-50771-X
• Shelton, Peter (2003), Climb to Conquer: The Untold Story of WWII's 10th Mountain Division Ski Troops, New York City, New York: Scribner, ISBN 978-0-7432-2606-6

Further reading

• Feuer, A.B. (2006), Packs On!: Memoirs of the 10th Mountain Division in World War II, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books, ISBN 978-0-8117-3289-5
• Frank Harper, Night Climb (New York: Longmans, Green, & Co, 1946)
• John Imbrie & Hugh Evans, Good Times and Bad Times, A History of C Company 85th Mountain Infantry Regiment Infantry Regiment 10th Mountian Division (Quechee: Vermont Heritage Press, 1995)
• Albert Kesselring, A Soldier's Record (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1970) ISBN 978-0-8371-2975-4
• João Baptista Mascarenhas de Morais, The Brazilian Expeditionary Force (Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1966)
• Douglas Orgill, The Gothic Line (New York: Zebra Books, 1986)
• L.K. Truscott, Jr., Combat Missions: A Personal Story (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1954)
• Flint Whitlock, Soldiers on Skis: A Pictorial Memoir of the 10th Mountain Division (Bolder: Paladin Press, 1992) ISBN 978-0-8736-4676-5

• Beth Gage & George Gage (producers & directors), Fire on the Mountain: The Story of the 10th Mountain Division (New York: First Run Features, 1995) 72 minutes

External links

• "L'assalto ai Monti della Riva. L'Operazione Encore della 10ª Divisione da Montagna americana". Sistema museale di Iola di Montese.
• "L'assalto ai Monti della Riva visto dalla 232ª Divisione di fanteria tedesca". Sistema museale di Iola di Montese.
• Maurice Isserman, The 10th Mountain Division’s Deadly Uphill Battle in Italy, HistoryNet
• Wilson Ware, "The Riva Ridge", American Alpine Journal, 1946
• Flint Whitlock (November 2002). "Storming Riva Ridge". Warfare History Network.

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