On the afternoon of February 24, 1945, men of the 10th Mountain Division captured the final objective of the first phase of Operation Encore, an irregular hill cut by draws and woodlots called Monte Della Torraccia. The 3rd Battalion of the 86th Mountain Infantry Regiment had no sooner captured the objective than the Germans began their preparations to take it back. This would be one of the only times that men of the 10th Mountain Division would engage in combat with German mountain troops.
Oberstleutnant (Lt. Col.) Winkelmann, commander of the Grenedier-Regiment 1044, had led the regiment during the fighting over this same ground the previous autumn, and he knew the terrain and its defensive qualities better than anyone. Due to his extensive knowledge of the landscape, Oberstleutnant (Lt. Col.) Winkelmann was put in charge of an ad hoc force for the purpose of recapturing Monte Della Torraccia as a precursor to future attacks that might reclaim the Monte Belvedere chain. It included an assault team comprised of one-hundred forty men of the 6th and 8th Companies of the Grenadier-Regiment 1044 with three MG 34s and one MG 42, as well as elements of the Aufklärungs-Abteilung 114 (114th Reconnaissance Battalion). But the backbone of the assault force was the Hochgebirgsjäger Lehr-Bataillon Mittenwald, known to the Americans as the Mittenwald Mountain Battalion, commanded by the brave and one-armed Major Hans Ruchti.
The Mittenwald Battalion was an elite unit formed from the ranks and faculty of a German mountain warfare school. It had seen service in the Apennines against partisans and American troops, and was involved in reprisals against civilians for partisan attacks. On February 24th, they numbered 507 effectives, in two companies of infantry and two companies of machineguns, mortars and artillery. Each infantry company was comprised of two platoons and four machinegun crews. 1st Company was commanded by Hauptmann (Capt.) Dürfeld, and the 2nd by Leutnant Gastl.
Allied air attacks, artillery fire, and confusion about the intent of the US troops caused some delay in launching the counterattack. As a preliminary move to the main assault, it was deemed necessary to clear the US troops out of Felicari, so as to eliminate that forward position which might give early warning of the assault to the main line.
Felicari was hit hard by mortar fire, and T/Sgt. Dillon Snell’s platoon dug foxholes in front of the farmhouse. Pfc. Rueben Styve, of the Weapons Platoon, was digging a hole on the backside of the building in which to place his mortar when he noticed a group of German soldiers approaching. Pfc. Styve began to crawl around the corner of the house to warn the others, but six German soldiers saw him and moved to block his path. Styve quickly crawled through a basement window as German grenades began to detonate around him. As a firefight developed, T/Sgt. Snell radioed the battalion CP and asked for immediate assistance, but intense German shelling prevented any reinforcement of the outpost. Then the radio itself was shot out. No assistance at all would be able to reach 2nd Platoon until after dark.
The German preliminary attempt was repulsed, but they hit the collection of buildings with mortar fire and attacked again. Sgt. Snell recalled that,
They laid down a heavy and accurate mortar barrage, followed by a small counter-attack, and another barrage and another counter-attack…I worried about this now. We couldn’t hold out forever with our small force against a determined Jerry counter attack…I had visions of staying there all night (with a small force) with thousands of Jerries out front.
This pattern repeated, and there were a total of five barrages and five counterattacks before the Germans gave up on the position. Six German corpses littered the ground in front of Felicari, and several more prisoners were taken. Snell lost six more men wounded defending the village. Pfc. Reuben Styve was among them. Snell recalled that,
We sent two messages back to battalion for more men and weapons, but they never arrived. Finally Sergeant Harland Ragland got through about 1400 hours. About dusk the machinegun section under S/Sgt. George W. Gundel came through with wire-men and a radio. I was never so glad to see anyone as Gundel.
Major Hay knew the enemy would not give up the mountain willingly, and had each of the draws leading up the slope pre-sighted by artillery and machineguns. At 1620 hours, the Germans launched a general attack on Monte Della Torraccia, probing for weak spots in the American line that could be exploited. They found none, and the attack petered out as artillery of both sides began to rain down on the landscape.
By 2115 hours, the German assault force was assembled near Monteforte, readying to make the attack. Oberstleutnant Winkelmann determined on a two-pronged attack plan. One element would attack near the center of the US line to occupy the attention of 3rd Battalion, and capture the mountain summit if possible. Another element was to skirt around the left flank of K Company and encircle the mountain from the west, cutting them off from the rest of the 10th Mountain Division. In preparation for the assault, the Germans launched a prolonged and concentrated artillery and mortar barrage that struck the American positions on Monte Della Torraccia with uncanny accuracy.
The Hochgebirgsjäger Lehr-Bataillon Mittenwald made its way to its attack position, harassed by Allied artillery fire. Maj. Ruchti was unable to make contact with Lt. Col. Winkelmann or any of the other German units in the area. As a result the attack would be disjointed, with the two-pronged attack being launched more or less simultaneously, but without any real cooperation between the attacking elements. Maj. Ruchti determined to launch his attack almost exactly as Winkelmann intended. He was unable to arrange any targeted artillery fire at the corps level, and the attack on K Company’s flank would be made with only the Mittenwald Battalion’s own mortars and artillery to support it.
Capt. Bailey worried that a flanking move might be made in his own front, and ordered Pfc. Bob Krear to take some men over to dig in and defend a draw on L Company’s unsupported right flank. Pfc. Krear left his foxhole to another man and went off in that direction. Krear wrote that,
This was just in case the Germans might decide to come up that valley and hit us from the rear. I am sure our small group would not have lasted long if they had, but at least our fire fight would have been sufficient warning to the others!
We had just barely started to dig down there, and our holes could not have been more than 12 to 18 inches deep and body length, [when] the massive German artillery preparation began. Further digging was impossible as we were partly in the impact area, and shrapnel was skimming the ground surface. We lay as flat as we could, our backs just below ground surface, and by some miracle not one of us was even wounded. However, the incredible screeching, wooshing, and unending powerful explosions and screaming shrapnel from the incoming shells that were just barely clearing our shallow foxholes was the most horrendous experience I was to have in combat in Italy! I do not remember what our thoughts were, but they can be imagined. I am sure there was a bit of praying going on. The explosions jarred us in our trenches; we were showered with dirt; and it did seem like an eternity before the shells stopped falling around us! Actually, as I remember, I seem to have lost all concept of time during all that incoming German artillery fire, and I could not have told anyone how long it had lasted! I certainly did not remember it being as long as I was later told it was, but I could very well have been in partial shell-shock for part of it!
The barrage began around 2200 hours, and continued for between one hour and ninety minutes. Krear and his men somehow survived in their shallow entrenchments, but the man in Krear’s previous hole was severely wounded by a mortar round.
After the barrage, the Germans launched their main counter-attack. Hauptmann Dürfeld led his men silently around Monte Della Torraccia to the draw that leads to the rear face of the mountain. As they rounded the finger of high ground manned by K Company, one of the gebirgsjäger snagged a trip-flare that had been laid in the draw earlier that day. As the whole sky lit up on the western slope of the mountain, the men of K Company heard the draw come alive with the sounds of dozens of Germans frantically shouting orders to their men. Soon, a huge amount of shooting was going on, with lines of tracers tearing through the darkness in both directions, punctuated by the flash of detonating grenades and mortar rounds.
The diversionary attacks were launched against other parts of the line. The assault team of the Grenadier-Regiment 1044 came under fierce fire from the heights before they even spotted the American lines. Flares shot up into the sky to light the landscape, and I and K Companies fired in terrified urgency at shadows and silhouettes. Several prisoners were taken, and sent to Lt. Dave Brower for intelligence. He recalled that,
Their initial effort yielded some prisoners, one of them a lieutenant who forgot to discard the battle order and map he had in his inside parka pocket. I called in a German-American from “I” Company to help me understand what that parka pocket had to say. He didn’t understand the military German. I’d better settle down and figure it out for myself.
What I was supposed to do instead, I knew, was send the prisoner back to higher, brighter authority. But I was Dutch enough to be naturally stubborn, and of course I wouldn’t send anybody back yet. Besides, by the time he got back and they got around to doing anything about him, all I needed to know right now would be of little further use. I had no reason to expect to survive their full counterattack.
So I told my commanding officer, Major Jack Hay, with map in hand, “This is where they are. And we’re next.” He immediately called artillery, gave the coordinates, they responded instantly.
Artillery rounds fired by both sides began to fall all over and beyond the mountain. The left flank of K Company held off a heavy onslaught, but the Germans continued to work their way up the draw that led to the rear of the 3rd Battalion.
Near the top of the draw stood the farmhouse in which the 3rd Battalion aid station had been established. The building was full of wounded men who were treated in dim candlelight by the overworked medics. Capt. Albert Meinke, the Battalion Surgeon, recalled that,
I was able to hear shell fragments whizzing through our dooryard and slamming into the building. As the shelling increased, the route to our rear came under fire of such intensity that it became impossible to evacuate casualties from the aid station to the rear, because it would have been suicidal for anyone to expose himself out there on the trail…the medical situation soon became critical. Bloody bandages were in view all over the room, and I was having problems controlling the bleeding in two of the most critical litter cases. They had been placed on the makeshift operating tables in the center of the room under the glaring light of the overhead gasoline lantern, and with this stark white light shining on their pale, cadaverous faces, I am sure they presented a frightening picture to the rest of the men in the room.
I remember one man in particular, who had been struck in the leg and shoulder by shell fragments. His wounds didn’t appear to be life-threatening, but they were painful, and he was clearly frightened. He kept repeating, “I’m going to die! I’m going to die! It hurts! It hurts!” In a short time the generous dose of morphine he had received began to take effect and he no longer complained of pain, but he continued to repeat over and over again, “I’m going to die! I’m going to die! Oh God, I’m going to die!” As his cries continued and the exploding shells continued to fall around us, I became concerned that this carrying on was having a bad effect upon the others in the room. I told him that I thought he would recover nicely, but he wasn’t listening. The harder I tried, the louder his cries seemed to become.
At this time the chaplain knelt down and began to speak to him in religious terms. Almost immediately this approach appeared to be more quieting than my efforts had been…In the meantime the shelling intensified. More shell fragments than ever were striking the outside walls of our building. Some shells fell close enough so that the explosions shook the foundations of the building and dislodged dust and dirt from the ceiling, and it rained down upon us.
Then, when the tumult all around us seemed to be at its worst, the door burst open and a soldier ran in excitedly yelling, “THE KRAUTS ARE IN THE DRAW RIGHT OUTSIDE! GET READY! THE AID STATION IS GOING TO BE CAPTURED!”
What I feared most was an enemy soldier kicking in the door and throwing grenades inside or bursting into the room and spraying everywhere with a burp gun, so I asked one of the men to look outside and make sure that the large red cross which we had placed on the building near the door was still in place. I also made sure that every one of our medical people was wearing the red cross armband as well as the red cross helmet. There were enough bloody bandages visible, and there was enough medical equipment in use, so that it would be difficult for anyone to mistake us for anything but a medical installation.
Hauptmann Dürfeld led his men to within fifty yards of the 3rd Battalion aid station. At 0230 hours, men from K Company radioed for an artillery barrage on the draw. In a very short time explosions wracked the swale by dozens. The gebirgsjäger had nowhere to hide, and took tremendous casualties. After several minutes the artillery fire slackened, and the men of K Company noticed a marked reduction in the amount of incoming machinegun and small arms fire. Gradually, the shooting stopped.
This map shows the 3rd Battalion defense of Monte Della Torraccia against German counterattacks on the night of February 24th-25th, 1945.
The German attack on the center of the line also came to grief. Many of the grenadiers were hit, and twelve prisoners were taken. The remaining survivors dematerialized into the darkness. There were further probing assaults at different points in the line, with almost constant shelling and sporadic firefights until dawn.
At Felicari, darkness provided opportunity to bring down a machine-gun crew and a replacement radio. The wounded and prisoners were evacuated to the rear.
What was left of Hauptmann Dürfeld’s 1st Company was trapped under the flank of Monte Della Torraccia by topography and incessant artillery fire, and could not disengage. They would remain in the draw until the following night, when they made an attempt to sneak away. Some of the men of K Company perceived movement downhill and opened fire. Staff Sergeant Stewart of K Company recalled that as soon as the firing started,
Everything broke loose. It sounded like a million Germans down over the bank, all giving orders at the same time. The whole platoon concentrated on the gully which ran parallel to our section…We knew what some of those orders must have meant because we were peppered by enemy artillery and mortar fire which lasted the whole length of the twenty-minute fire fight that followed.
Allied artillery fire was called in on the draw, and they hammered the place with intense and well-placed barrages of shells. When the shelling stopped, the cries of German wounded could be heard down the hill. Staff Sergeant Stewart continued,
We started yelling at them in every language imaginable; we knew no German. We tried to get what was left down there to come out. Then we heard a voice answer us in fairly good English. It said he was trying to get his men together and give up in a bunch. He made it clear to us that he had an awful lot of wounded. He was fifteen minutes trying to get his men together, so we threatened him with more artillery. Anything but that, the voice said, and out they came.
Hauptmann Dürfeld surrendered with twenty-four of his remaining men. Upon questioning, Dürfeld said that after the ninety-minute German barrage on the evening of the 24th, he expected to encircle and capture Monte Della Torraccia with relative ease. He was shocked by the resistance he met. The prisoners were led to the rear, though many of their wounded remained in the draw until the following day, by which time most had succumbed to their wounds in the cold night air.
American losses during the capture and defense of Monte Della Torraccia from February 24th through 26th were 23 killed and 121 wounded. One of those wounded was 1st Sgt. Bill Brown of L Company, who received shrapnel wounds to the chest and head, as well as a broken arm. He was evacuated to the hospital for treatment. Despite the advice of the doctors and the nurses’ protestations, 1st Sgt. Brown refused to stay in bed. After a few days he simply left the hospital and rejoined his company.
The Hochgebirgsjäger Lehr-Bataillon Mittenwald had 7 killed, about 50 captured and an unknown number of wounded. Other attached units had also suffered significant loss, and it seems likely that total German casualties roughly equaled those of 3rd Battalion of the 86th Mountain Infantry Regiment. That this was the case despite the American defenders having the advantage of dug in defenses on high ground, supported by artillery and with total air supremacy speaks very highly of the fighting abilities of the German mountaineers.
This blog is part of a larger body of research culminating in the publication of the book ‘Heroes in Good Company: L Company, 86th Regiment, 10th Mountain Division 1943-1945’ which is available in select bookstores and on amazon.
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