In the spring of 1945, the Allied armies launched an all-out offensive along the entire Italian front. The objective was to drive the Axis forces out of the Apennine Mountains, across the Po Valley and into the Alps. If the Allied forces could cross the Po River before the German troops could get to it, and capture the vital road junction at Verona, any enemy troops still south of that point would essentially be cut off from the Alpine passes to Austria. The offensive began on April 14, with gains being made at all points. The 10th Mountain Division was able to punch a hole in the German lines and race to the Po River. By April 24, all three regiments of the division were across. But there was a delay caused by the lack of intact bridges across the Po and Mincio Rivers for the armor and trucks necessary for further movement. Engineers worked feverishly to finish the bridges.
The 86th Mountain Infantry would be the backbone of a motorized task force commanded by Col. William Darby of “Darby’s Rangers” fame. Task Force Darby, as it would come to be known, would push north across the Mincio River, then drive with all possible speed along Highway 62 to the city of Verona. The movement was scheduled to begin on April 25.
The troops were ready at dawn, but the engineers had not yet completed the bridge over the Po. It wasn’t finished until midday, and it was after 1500 hours before the armored detachments of Task Force Darby began to filter up from the crossing. During the delay, the 85th Mountain Infantry advanced forty miles to the north, securing the route of advance and capturing the airfield at Villafranca. At 1630 hours, the 86th climbed onto trucks and left the assembly area without their armored support. The convoy followed the 85th’s route toward Villafranca, which they reached just before sunset. Here they waited for the armor to catch up with them. The men stood by the roadside until the armor and support elements arrived and integrated themselves into the column. Task Force Darby did not depart Villafranca until 2100.
There was no opposition at all, and progress was steady. The head of the column moved up to each intersection cautiously, pausing while recon vehicles fanned out along the roads. When the vehicles reported the absence of German troops, the column sped along to the next intersection to repeat the process. They encountered few civilians as they passed through villages at night, but those few locals with whom they spoke gave intelligence that, “Tedeschi tutti via”, the Germans had all departed.
Task Force Darby travelled all night long. During a halt at 0200 hours, a German plane attacked the column to the rear of L Company, but no one was hurt. As the eastern horizon began to glow with the coming day, the skyline of Verona was revealed in front of them. Italians on the outskirts of the city told the soldiers that the Germans had evacuated the place. 3rd Battalion led the way into the city, and L Company went in first to secure the area and take inventory of the bridges. Sgt. Bob Krear remembered that,
As we moved into the outskirts of the city there were tremendous explosions ahead of us, so powerful that the shock waves could be seen as swiftly expanding concentric circles in the high cirrus clouds overhead in the morning sky. We thought the Germans were destroying their ammunition dumps, and this might have accounted for the most powerful explosions. However, some explosions they created with demolitions that destroyed most of the bridges that crossed the Adige River to cover their retreat and to slow us down. On inspection of the river bridges we found one teetering but usable; all the others were down. We also found the railroad yards in the city a scrambled mess of bomb craters, twisted rails, and shattered boxcars. The bombers of our Army Air Corps had done their job well!
The Germans had blown the bridges prematurely, and had accidentally killed and wounded several of their own men. Lt. Dave Brower of the 3rd Battalion HQ Company recalled that,
As we reached the marshalling yard we came upon a macabre sight. At a main intersection a number of kraut trucks were strewn about in disorder. One truck, loaded with ammunition and pyrotechnics, was burning furiously with a beautiful display of signal flares and colored smokes. On the road around the truck were bodies; some were badly dismembered, others were charred and motionless, and a few were still moaning and writhing. One German officer, blinded at least by blood, lay in the rubble with his hands over a sucking wound in his chest. Sullen German aid men – at least they wore the red cross – wouldn’t touch him until ordered to do so by Captain Meinke, the battalion surgeon, when he came upon the scene and launched into an effective German tirade.
Capt. Albert Meinke put it this way;
The German officer had a large, open hole in the right side of his chest, and was very short of breath. I could see lung tissue inside. The lung didn’t appear to be lacerated and there was hardly any blood visible in the chest cavity, so I immediately applied the standard dressing for pneumothorax and made sure that its one way valve action was working properly…Although there was black soot all over his face, hands and uniform, he seemed to have been burned hardly at all, and I felt that he could survive.
Just as I was about to tell the other two German medics how to evacuate their wounded officer, one of the charred bodies lying near the burning truck startled us. It rose to its feet and walked slowly toward me, looking like a blackened ghoul arising from the rubble in a horror movie. I quickly stepped over to meet the man, and spoke to him, but I don’t think he heard me. I gently led him over to a nearby wall, sat him down so he leaned against it, and took a closer look. Most of the flesh was burned away on both hands, and a lot of exposed and charred bone was visible. His head and neck had been burned black; his eyelids had been almost burned away, and the corneas at the front of the eyeballs had been coagulated white by the heat. He couldn’t close his eyes, and this gave his face an eerie, ghoulish expression. When I exposed his torso and arms, wherever it wasn’t charred the skin appeared to be cooked all the way through. The burns were all third degree, and involved practically his whole body surface. I was sure that survival was impossible. I also knew that third degree burns are painless, because the nerve endings which pick up pain sensation in the skin are dead, but I asked loudly and repeatedly if he had any pain. There never was any reply. The man was still breathing shallowly, and although there must have been a pulse, I couldn’t find it. He still moved his limbs occasionally, but never made a sound. Once when I thought I detected a bit of facial grimace, I did wonder if he were having some pain, so I emptied the contents of a morphine styrette as deep as I could into his arm, and left him sitting there.
Capt. Meinke went back to arranging the evacuation of the officer with the chest wound and then, “turned again to the German soldier…and found that in those few minutes he had died.”
L Company fanned out to mop up pockets of German resistance in the rest of Verona. Parts of the city were bomb damaged, but most of the beautiful landmarks remained. It was 0600 hours and the streets were quiet at first, but then rapidly filled with onlookers as word spread that the Americans had arrived. Accomplishing their assigned missions became difficult as the streets began to teem with thrilled Italians who pressed against their vehicles. There was chaos. Italian partisans came out of the woodwork, capturing local fascists and stray German soldiers, some of whom had tried to go into hiding dressed in civilian clothes.
The rest of 3rd Battalion followed L Company into the city just in time for the most welcome reception they were ever to receive. Sgt. Bob Krear recalled that,
I will never forget the Italians in that city as they seemed delirious with joy! Italians, in the streets and squares by the thousands, welcomed us with almost embarrassing enthusiasm. At each momentary stop vehicles would be covered with civilians laughing, crying, and singing. Flowers covered the streets and colorful flags hung from the buildings; balconies almost sagged with people. One elderly lady, weeping with joy, was singing AMERICA to a jeepload of men; she knew no other English. Church bells rang incessantly. Scrawled on the sides of the buildings were the words “Liberate” and “Vive Americani.”
As soon as the city was secured some of the officers took a short tour of the sights, stopping repeatedly to accept flowers and compliments from civilians. As they drove toward the old Roman arena on the Corso Porta Nuova, Wilbur Vaughan snapped a few photos.
Capt. Meinke recalled that,
By noon things had pretty well settled down inside Verona. We received word that we might stay there for a few days, and this made everyone happy, because we had now been on the move for some twelve days and nights during which no one ever got a full night’s sleep. The Italians were generous about offering rooms and beds in their homes, and I think that by mid-afternoon every man in the battalion had made arrangements for a bed in which to sleep that night.
Around 1700 hours, a large crowd gathered below the City Hall balcony to hear the Mayor give a speech. His oration culminated with the statement that the war was over. The packed city center went mad, soldiers included. Weapons were fired into the air and people danced in the streets drinking wine. Before long, the soldiers realized that the mayor was referring only to Verona’s war, and that it wasn’t actually over. Despite the realization, the troops remained in high spirits as the city overflowed with wine, women and song.
What did depress their mood were the orders that arrived at 1800 hours for them to leave Verona and move north to Bussolengo. The 85th Division had arrived, and Task Force Darby would have to leave. The grumbling men of the 86th Regiment collected their equipment and cancelled their lodging arrangements.
At 2100 hours, the men marched out over the partially destroyed bridge as a heavy downpour began to fall. They climbed onto a line of waiting trucks, but there was a long delay before the column moved. The discomfort of the trip was compounded by the thought of the places they had planned to be that night. Everyone was exhausted. The roads were clogged with traffic and mud. The column made frequent stops, and the miserable trip continued past midnight.
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.
SOURCES:
Bailey, Thomas B. personal interview by author. November, 2011.
Brower, David. Remount Blue: The Combat Story of the Third Battalion, 86th Mountain Infantry, 10th Mountain Division. Unpublished Manuscript, c. 1948. Digitized version edited and made available through the Denver Public Library by Barbara Imbrie, 2005.
Carlson, Bob. A History of L Company, 86th Mountain Infantry. Self-published Manuscript, 2000.
Feuer, A.B. Packs On!: Memoirs of the 10th Mountain Division in World War II. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2006.
Krear, H. Robert. The Journal of a US Army Mountain Trooper in World War II. Estes Park, CO: Desktop Publishing by Jan Bishop, 1993.
Meinke, Albert H., Jr., Mountain Troops and Medics: Wartime Stories of a Frontline Surgeon in the US Ski Troops. Kewadin, MI: Rucksack Publishing Company, 1993.
US Department of the Army. G-3 Section, 15th Army Group. A Military Encyclopedia, Based on Operations in the Italian Campaigns 1943-1945. Headquarters, 15th Army Group.
_____. Fifth Army History: Part IX, Race to the Alps. October 21, 1947.
Valente, Luca. Dieci giorni di guerra: 22 aprile – 2 maggio 1945: la ritirata tedesca e l’inseguimento degli Alleati in Veneto e Trentino. Verona, Italy: Cierre edizioni, 2006.
Vaughan, Cameron. e-mail messages to author. September-November, 2017.
Wellborn, Charles. History of the 86th Mountain Infantry Regiment in Italy. Edited by Barbara Imbrie in 2004. Denver, CO: Bradford-Robinson Printing Co.,1945.
Photographs: “I took Verona!”
In the spring of 1945, the Allied armies launched an all-out offensive along the entire Italian front. The objective was to drive the Axis forces out of the Apennine Mountains, across the Po Valley and into the Alps. If the Allied forces could cross the Po River before the German troops could get to it, and capture the vital road junction at Verona, any enemy troops still south of that point would essentially be cut off from the Alpine passes to Austria. The offensive began on April 14, with gains being made at all points. The 10th Mountain Division was able to punch a hole in the German lines and race to the Po River. By April 24, all three regiments of the division were across. But there was a delay caused by the lack of intact bridges across the Po and Mincio Rivers for the armor and trucks necessary for further movement. Engineers worked feverishly to finish the bridges.
The 86th Mountain Infantry would be the backbone of a motorized task force commanded by Col. William Darby of “Darby’s Rangers” fame. Task Force Darby, as it would come to be known, would push north across the Mincio River, then drive with all possible speed along Highway 62 to the city of Verona. The movement was scheduled to begin on April 25.
The troops were ready at dawn, but the engineers had not yet completed the bridge over the Po. It wasn’t finished until midday, and it was after 1500 hours before the armored detachments of Task Force Darby began to filter up from the crossing. During the delay, the 85th Mountain Infantry advanced forty miles to the north, securing the route of advance and capturing the airfield at Villafranca. At 1630 hours, the 86th climbed onto trucks and left the assembly area without their armored support. The convoy followed the 85th’s route toward Villafranca, which they reached just before sunset. Here they waited for the armor to catch up with them. The men stood by the roadside until the armor and support elements arrived and integrated themselves into the column. Task Force Darby did not depart Villafranca until 2100.
There was no opposition at all, and progress was steady. The head of the column moved up to each intersection cautiously, pausing while recon vehicles fanned out along the roads. When the vehicles reported the absence of German troops, the column sped along to the next intersection to repeat the process. They encountered few civilians as they passed through villages at night, but those few locals with whom they spoke gave intelligence that, “Tedeschi tutti via”, the Germans had all departed.
Task Force Darby travelled all night long. During a halt at 0200 hours, a German plane attacked the column to the rear of L Company, but no one was hurt. As the eastern horizon began to glow with the coming day, the skyline of Verona was revealed in front of them. Italians on the outskirts of the city told the soldiers that the Germans had evacuated the place. 3rd Battalion led the way into the city, and L Company went in first to secure the area and take inventory of the bridges. Sgt. Bob Krear remembered that,
As we moved into the outskirts of the city there were tremendous explosions ahead of us, so powerful that the shock waves could be seen as swiftly expanding concentric circles in the high cirrus clouds overhead in the morning sky. We thought the Germans were destroying their ammunition dumps, and this might have accounted for the most powerful explosions. However, some explosions they created with demolitions that destroyed most of the bridges that crossed the Adige River to cover their retreat and to slow us down. On inspection of the river bridges we found one teetering but usable; all the others were down. We also found the railroad yards in the city a scrambled mess of bomb craters, twisted rails, and shattered boxcars. The bombers of our Army Air Corps had done their job well!
The Germans had blown the bridges prematurely, and had accidentally killed and wounded several of their own men. Lt. Dave Brower of the 3rd Battalion HQ Company recalled that,
As we reached the marshalling yard we came upon a macabre sight. At a main intersection a number of kraut trucks were strewn about in disorder. One truck, loaded with ammunition and pyrotechnics, was burning furiously with a beautiful display of signal flares and colored smokes. On the road around the truck were bodies; some were badly dismembered, others were charred and motionless, and a few were still moaning and writhing. One German officer, blinded at least by blood, lay in the rubble with his hands over a sucking wound in his chest. Sullen German aid men – at least they wore the red cross – wouldn’t touch him until ordered to do so by Captain Meinke, the battalion surgeon, when he came upon the scene and launched into an effective German tirade.
Capt. Albert Meinke put it this way;
The German officer had a large, open hole in the right side of his chest, and was very short of breath. I could see lung tissue inside. The lung didn’t appear to be lacerated and there was hardly any blood visible in the chest cavity, so I immediately applied the standard dressing for pneumothorax and made sure that its one way valve action was working properly…Although there was black soot all over his face, hands and uniform, he seemed to have been burned hardly at all, and I felt that he could survive.
Just as I was about to tell the other two German medics how to evacuate their wounded officer, one of the charred bodies lying near the burning truck startled us. It rose to its feet and walked slowly toward me, looking like a blackened ghoul arising from the rubble in a horror movie. I quickly stepped over to meet the man, and spoke to him, but I don’t think he heard me. I gently led him over to a nearby wall, sat him down so he leaned against it, and took a closer look. Most of the flesh was burned away on both hands, and a lot of exposed and charred bone was visible. His head and neck had been burned black; his eyelids had been almost burned away, and the corneas at the front of the eyeballs had been coagulated white by the heat. He couldn’t close his eyes, and this gave his face an eerie, ghoulish expression. When I exposed his torso and arms, wherever it wasn’t charred the skin appeared to be cooked all the way through. The burns were all third degree, and involved practically his whole body surface. I was sure that survival was impossible. I also knew that third degree burns are painless, because the nerve endings which pick up pain sensation in the skin are dead, but I asked loudly and repeatedly if he had any pain. There never was any reply. The man was still breathing shallowly, and although there must have been a pulse, I couldn’t find it. He still moved his limbs occasionally, but never made a sound. Once when I thought I detected a bit of facial grimace, I did wonder if he were having some pain, so I emptied the contents of a morphine styrette as deep as I could into his arm, and left him sitting there.
Capt. Meinke went back to arranging the evacuation of the officer with the chest wound and then, “turned again to the German soldier…and found that in those few minutes he had died.”
L Company fanned out to mop up pockets of German resistance in the rest of Verona. Parts of the city were bomb damaged, but most of the beautiful landmarks remained. It was 0600 hours and the streets were quiet at first, but then rapidly filled with onlookers as word spread that the Americans had arrived. Accomplishing their assigned missions became difficult as the streets began to teem with thrilled Italians who pressed against their vehicles. There was chaos. Italian partisans came out of the woodwork, capturing local fascists and stray German soldiers, some of whom had tried to go into hiding dressed in civilian clothes.
The rest of 3rd Battalion followed L Company into the city just in time for the most welcome reception they were ever to receive. Sgt. Bob Krear recalled that,
I will never forget the Italians in that city as they seemed delirious with joy! Italians, in the streets and squares by the thousands, welcomed us with almost embarrassing enthusiasm. At each momentary stop vehicles would be covered with civilians laughing, crying, and singing. Flowers covered the streets and colorful flags hung from the buildings; balconies almost sagged with people. One elderly lady, weeping with joy, was singing AMERICA to a jeepload of men; she knew no other English. Church bells rang incessantly. Scrawled on the sides of the buildings were the words “Liberate” and “Vive Americani.”
As soon as the city was secured some of the officers took a short tour of the sights, stopping repeatedly to accept flowers and compliments from civilians. As they drove toward the old Roman arena on the Corso Porta Nuova, Wilbur Vaughan snapped a few photos.
Capt. Meinke recalled that,
By noon things had pretty well settled down inside Verona. We received word that we might stay there for a few days, and this made everyone happy, because we had now been on the move for some twelve days and nights during which no one ever got a full night’s sleep. The Italians were generous about offering rooms and beds in their homes, and I think that by mid-afternoon every man in the battalion had made arrangements for a bed in which to sleep that night.
Around 1700 hours, a large crowd gathered below the City Hall balcony to hear the Mayor give a speech. His oration culminated with the statement that the war was over. The packed city center went mad, soldiers included. Weapons were fired into the air and people danced in the streets drinking wine. Before long, the soldiers realized that the mayor was referring only to Verona’s war, and that it wasn’t actually over. Despite the realization, the troops remained in high spirits as the city overflowed with wine, women and song.
What did depress their mood were the orders that arrived at 1800 hours for them to leave Verona and move north to Bussolengo. The 85th Division had arrived, and Task Force Darby would have to leave. The grumbling men of the 86th Regiment collected their equipment and cancelled their lodging arrangements.
At 2100 hours, the men marched out over the partially destroyed bridge as a heavy downpour began to fall. They climbed onto a line of waiting trucks, but there was a long delay before the column moved. The discomfort of the trip was compounded by the thought of the places they had planned to be that night. Everyone was exhausted. The roads were clogged with traffic and mud. The column made frequent stops, and the miserable trip continued past midnight.
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.
SOURCES:
Bailey, Thomas B. personal interview by author. November, 2011.
Brower, David. Remount Blue: The Combat Story of the Third Battalion, 86th Mountain Infantry, 10th Mountain Division. Unpublished Manuscript, c. 1948. Digitized version edited and made available through the Denver Public Library by Barbara Imbrie, 2005.
Carlson, Bob. A History of L Company, 86th Mountain Infantry. Self-published Manuscript, 2000.
Feuer, A.B. Packs On!: Memoirs of the 10th Mountain Division in World War II. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2006.
Krear, H. Robert. The Journal of a US Army Mountain Trooper in World War II. Estes Park, CO: Desktop Publishing by Jan Bishop, 1993.
Meinke, Albert H., Jr., Mountain Troops and Medics: Wartime Stories of a Frontline Surgeon in the US Ski Troops. Kewadin, MI: Rucksack Publishing Company, 1993.
US Department of the Army. G-3 Section, 15th Army Group. A Military Encyclopedia, Based on Operations in the Italian Campaigns 1943-1945. Headquarters, 15th Army Group.
_____. Fifth Army History: Part IX, Race to the Alps. October 21, 1947.
Valente, Luca. Dieci giorni di guerra: 22 aprile – 2 maggio 1945: la ritirata tedesca e l’inseguimento degli Alleati in Veneto e Trentino. Verona, Italy: Cierre edizioni, 2006.
Vaughan, Cameron. e-mail messages to author. September-November, 2017.
Wellborn, Charles. History of the 86th Mountain Infantry Regiment in Italy. Edited by Barbara Imbrie in 2004. Denver, CO: Bradford-Robinson Printing Co.,1945.
Share with friends!