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In the waning hours of April 1945, men of the elite 10th Mountain Division grappled with a German armored force for sixteen hours, where a small Italian town on the shores of Lake Garda became the linchpin of the last German defensive line in Italy. The Battle of Torbole was fought after the signing of the armistice that ended World War Two in Italy. The fight was distinctive in a number of ways which further solidify the reputation of the 10th Mountain as one of the truly outstanding divisions of the Second World War. But the battle has been largely ignored in recent historiography. The following series aims to draw the Battle of Torbole more fully into the larger narrative of the 10th Mountain Division’s wartime experience.
Operation Grapeshot, the massive Allied offensive in Italy in the spring of 1945, was the 10th Mountain Division’s last campaign of World War Two. As the spear-tip of the attack, they punched a hole in the German Gothic Line in the Apennine Mountains, and drove straight through to the Po Valley. They forced a crossing of the Po River and continued their advance, capturing Verona and attacking through a series of tunnels on the shore of Lago di Garda. There they encountered the last organized German defensive line in Italy; the Blue Line. A rapid break through the Blue Line might allow the 10th Mountain Division to advance to the Alpine passes to Austria before many of the retreating Germans could get there, effectively cutting them off from their line of retreat. The western flank of the Blue Line was anchored on the shore of Lago di Garda, and so preventing the Allied troops from passing the northern tip of the lake was vital to holding any portion of the entire line.
The northern end of Lago di Garda was defended by a number of 88mm guns, but they were not the only German forces at the head of the lake. The officers of the 94.Infanterie-Division and several other German units that had been shattered by their defeat in the Apennines and retreat across the Po Valley organized a conglomerate force to defend the Blue Line. During the early parts of the battle, the mountain troops encountered some of the 803 faculty and students of the Gebirgskampfschule der Waffen SS in Predazzo who had been pressed into service, and were spread out at various places on either side of the lake.
On the morning of April 29, 1945, the 3rd Battalion of the 10th Mountain Division’s 86th Mountain Infantry Regiment struggled north toward Torbole through some of the most difficult terrain they had encountered. Companies L and M fought their way through a series of tunnels on the eastern shore of Lago di Garda, while Companies I and K made a tortuous hike along a traverse on the slope of the almost sheer mountains directly next to the lake. Company L captured Tunnel Number Five, and found the remains of about forty German soldiers who had been killed when demolition charges meant to collapse the roof of the tunnel detonated prematurely. The gruesome scene led them to call the place “the Tunnel of the Dead.” German 88mm guns at the head of the lake opened a warm fire on the advancing mountain troops. Company M took shelter within Tunnel Number Five, and a meeting of several of the regiment’s officers was being held inside when the German gunners succeeded in firing a shell directly into the tunnel opening, inflicting terrible losses. A detailed three-part series about those events and recent archaeology at the site can be found HERE.
The obstructions to the tunnels and roadway, and the 88mm shell explosion in Tunnel Five had several consequences that would shape the Battle of Torbole. The obstructions to the roadway prevented the advance of any armor, artillery or heavy equipment. The US mountain troops would be forced to fight this battle as an infantry-only force. The shell explosion sent the 3rd Battalion commander, Maj. William Drake, to the rear for surgical repair of a wound. Capt. Everett Bailey of L Company took command of the battalion even as the battle was already beginning.
While the advance along the lakeshore continued, the traversing column, heavily loaded down with weapons and ammunition, had a difficult march through thick brush on the mountainside. At noon, I Company rounded a shoulder of the mountain and reached a point from which they looked directly down on the town of Torbole. There they halted. During the march north, they had lost radio contact with the battalion CP, which by this time had moved into Tunnel Five. Very few knew the scheduled plan of attack on the town, including many of the NCOs, and the column remained immobile. The hesitation of the traversing column left Company L moving against the objective alone.
L Company, now under the command of Lt. Bill McClintock, fought its way to the southern edge of Torbole. Sgt. Bill Morrison described passing a dead German lying next to an 88mm artillery piece by the roadside. There were sporadic firefights along the road. Three German soldiers, who appeared to be no older than fifteen, were killed about halfway to town. 3rd Platoon reached the southern outskirts of Torbole, where they encountered a sharp increase on artillery and small-arms fire. Pfc. Lloyd Fitch recalled that,
While fighting our way into town, we crept alongside a four-foot-high cement wall. We were under heavy enemy fire and jumped over the wall to escape the bullets.
The sergeant and I were lying flat on the ground about ten feet from a large tree. Suddenly a German shell struck the base of the tree and exploded. The force of the blast lifted me up off my right elbow and slammed me back to the ground. I wasn’t injured, but the sergeant was blinded. He jumped up and began staggering around. Martinez grabbed him and pulled him out of the line of fire.
Around 1230, finding themselves completely unsupported and exposed to heavy firing from the town, Company L stopped and dug in just short of Torbole.
Geology ordained that Torbole rank among the most beautiful places on earth. The town nestles between the northeast corner of Lago di Garda, the north end of Monte Baldo on the lake’s eastern shore, and a sheer cliff-faced ridge the runs almost a mile from the north end of Torbole to the southern edge of the village of Nago. West of town, a flat and fertile plain is bisected by the Sarca River. The road to Austria runs through town and across this plain, bridges the Sarca, and slips past the south side of the much larger cliff face of Monte Brione on its way toward Riva.
A modern view of Torbole from the direction of L Company’s advance. Monte Brione is clearly visible.
The region has a rich history. The rugged mountain between Nago and Torbole is crowned by a small, ruined castle. Castel Penede was built in the middle ages on the foundation of an old Roman fort. It was stormed by forces from Verona in 1240, and again during the 1400’s. In 1703, French forces under the Duke of Vendôme captured and destroyed the fortress, along with much of the town. Several buildings in Torbole date from this era, notably the Church of San Andrea, which was rebuilt after the French sack.
Torbole’s quaint antiquity and stunning views down the length of Lago di Garda made it a study for some of the best nineteenth century painters. The beautiful little marina had been the epicenter of a bustling fishing community. In the 1920’s, the economic life of the region shifted from fishing to tourism, and several of the old buildings became hotels. Before World War Two, a large new hotel was built on the west side of town. The Germans used the northern end of the lake as a rest area for the Luftwaffe, and had converted some of the hotels into hospitals.
The townspeople had watched the progress of the American advance over the past days, and were very much aware that their homes were likely to become a battlefield. There was some commotion among them as the afternoon of April twenty-ninth wore on. Some scrambled to pack up valuables and foodstuffs and evacuated to nearby caves or fled to the north. Others went into hiding in their basements or root cellars. A group of civilians were standing in the town square talking when an artillery shell exploded nearby. A piece of shrapnel struck sixty-one year-old Umberto Barbieri in the leg and severed his femoral artery. His friends carried him to the large hotel that had been converted into a German hospital, but the Germans were scrambling to move their medical facilities farther to the rear, and he bled to death.
As the 3rd Battalion of the 86th Mountain Infantry Regiment stalled just outside of Torbole, new impetus was about to initiate the next phase in the American attack on the town.
Men of the 10th Mountain Division advance along the eastern shore of the southern part of Lago di Garda on April 28, 1945.
(sources will be listed in the final part of this series)
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.
