Battle Between Ski Troops: Part One – Attack of the 10th Mountain Division

The 10^th Mountain Division’s first major offensive operation was code-named Operation Encore, launched in late February, 1945. The main objective of the attack was the rocky and wooded 3,700-foot Monte Belvedere, which dominated a route that led north toward the Po River Valley. The mountain had been captured by Allied units several times during the autumn of 1944. Every time, German counterattacks recaptured the heights and inflicted heavy casualties. There were two primary factors in the failure of these previous attempts. The first was that Riva Ridge, a nearly impregnable cliff-faced line of peaks to the southwest, provided the Germans with excellent observation, and positions from which they raked the American troops with artillery fire from the flank and rear. The second factor was that Monte Belvedere was connected to a string of mountains which ran four miles to the northeast, and these had provided cover and staging areas for German counterattacks against Belvedere itself. For these reasons, Riva Ridge and the entire chain of mountains attached to Monte Belvedere were added to the list of objectives.

Riva Ridge was captured on February 19 by coordinated and daring attacks which scaled the cliff face at night. The mountaineers surprised and overran the German defenders, and then held the ridge against a series of fierce counterattacks. On February 20, the rest of the division succeeded in taking Monte Belvedere, Hill 1088, and Hill 1053. The fighting was intense and both sides sustained high casualties. The final objective, Monte Della Torraccia, had been tasked to the 85^th Mountain Infantry Regiment. There were several unsuccessful attempts to take the mountain, one nearly succeeding before the attackers ran out of ammunition and came under intense friendly artillery fire. The objective was reassigned to the 3^rd Battalion of the 86^th Mountain Infantry Regiment, and the attack was renewed at dawn on February 24.

The assault was preceded by an intense artillery barrage, and by a comical moment at the 3^rd Battalion Aid Station. Surgeon Albert Meinke later recalled that,

After twenty minutes the barrage ended abruptly, and there followed several seconds of stunned silence. I looked out of the door of the aid station, and saw that daylight had arrived. Nothing moved or stirred. It seemed as if time and sound had ceased to exist. Then an authoritative voice came booming up the hill in front of us.

“Clap or no clap, you’re going on this attack! You can see the Doc later!” This was overheard by a lot of people, and it subsequently became the subject of some humor among the troops for a while, but it didn’t strike me as funny.

I anticipated one of the men coming through the aid station with gonorrhea, but none appeared; and it was several weeks before I saw anyone with symptoms even remotely suggesting this disease.”

Companies I and K Company maneuvered up the slope through artillery and mortar fire and engaged the enemy in a series of firefights. Sgt. Robert Soares of K Company later wrote that,

As we moved forward we sprayed the areas from which we thought the hostile fire was coming. This tended to silence them temporarily and gave a chance for us to continue forward. We were advancing too rapidly and too close to their own positions for them to use their mortars and artillery effectively.

As I climbed a small knob I almost fell into a machine-gun nest containing three Krauts. I believe that they were as much surprised as I was. I yelled and a couple of the other fellows came up and I motioned for the Krauts to come out, but they wouldn’t budge. Getting impatient, I motioned again and this time one of them reached for something in the bottom of the hole. I gave them about a ten shot burst from the hip with my BAR and then we moved forward again. We found more Krauts in their holes, but these were less reluctant to leave them.

In the middle of the morning, the lifeless body of a medic was carried from the front on a stretcher. A bullet-hole was punched directly through the front of his helmet, clearly marked with a red cross inside a white circle. Surgeon Albert Meinke recalled the lack of an exit wound,

The men were outraged by this apparent atrocity. If it had been deliberately fired at the Red Cross, it would have had to have been fired from a close enough range for…the bullet…to pass completely through the head. We were all so busy at the time that I couldn’t explain this to the men, and after things had quieted down, our medics at least didn’t want to talk about it anymore.

At 1215 hours, I and K Companies captured the peak of Monte Della Torraccia after brutal fighting. Casualties were high, and K Company lost twelve percent of its force. As they secured the heights and organized for defense, the commander of the 10^th Mountain Division went up to the crest to help direct operations. Lt. David Brower, the intelligence officer for 3^rd Battalion, was at the CP when he was suddenly confronted by Gen. George Hays, who paused at the CP on his way up the mountain. Brower recalled,

I hadn’t talked to him before, and wouldn’t again, but to make passing conversation I said, “Things are rough up there”. I was not ready for his severe response: “I don’t ever want to hear you talk like that again” as he moved up the tortured slopes of Monte Della Torraccia.

3^rd Battalion began to consolidate on the crest of the mountain, and on the fingers of high ground that protruded from the crest, which created a series of ridges and draws. T/Sgt. Cross of K Company remembered that,

The third platoon with what was left of the second dug-in in an L formation, covering the valley on our right, while a platoon from Company L occupied the farmhouse to the front. M Company machine gunners came up to reinforce us. Shells kept coming in regular barrages of 10 or 12 rounds until late afternoon.

Orders arrived at the L Company CP from Maj. Hay, 3^rd Battalion Commander. He wanted Captain Bailey to lead his company onto the mountain, relieve I Company on the right of the line, and send a platoon to clear out a German forward observation point. In front of the Allied lines was a two-hundred-year old farmhouse with a cluster of small outbuildings named Felicari, perched atop a bump on the northern slope of the mountainside. The Germans made use of Felicari as a forward strong point, and from there directed accurate artillery fire. This made taking the farmhouse a priority. The slope around the town was a patchwork of wooded lots and open fields divided by lines of trees.

Captain Bailey called for T/Sgt. Dillon Snell to meet with him on a little knoll just forward of the American lines. When Snell reported, Bailey pointed to the buildings four hundred yards down the slope and said, “I want you to go down and take that farmhouse down there, and you’ll get fire support from I and K Company.” Snell recalled that, “we were rather decimated, one platoon leader (Lt. Johnson) and fifteen men were casualties in the Belvedere assault. After looking at the map and taking note of the twenty-one men left, Sgt. Ben Duke and I were a little pessimistic about our chances.” Bailey reassured him that the order came from Maj. Hay, whose judgment had the complete confidence of both men, and said he would arrange for mortar and machinegun sections of the Weapons Platoon to go with them for support in case of trouble.

Sgt. Guilford Hunt’s squad led the platoon as they slowly maneuvered their way down toward the farmhouse under mortar and artillery fire. Snell’s troops faced a vicious defense from the German defenders of Felicari. It took them thirty minutes to favorably position themselves, and then they took the farmhouse in one quick rush. Three men of 2^nd Platoon were wounded, including both remaining BAR men. Sgt. Snell’s eighteen remaining effectives set about securing the buildings and the six German prisoners they had captured. At that moment a German wire-layer came up the hill, obviously unaware of the American occupation of the buildings. He became their seventh prisoner.

While 2^nd Platoon took the advanced position of Felicari, the rest of L Company moved to relieve the right of I Company and establish a defensive line. The rocky mountaintop was strewn with dead Germans and men of the 85^th and 86^th Mountain Infantry Regiments slain during the fighting of the previous few days. Sporadic artillery and small arms fire targeted the mountain. Pfc. William Long of K Company recalled that,

What was left of two platoons of K Company dug in on the reverse side of a small protruding ridge. Our foxholes were numerous, on a small knob, and shells landing among them would spray the area with fragments. The Germans could, and did, lob shells at us that would follow the contour of our knob at an elevation of a scant few feet; those that came lower caused great consternation. They came without warning and had gone over by the time you heard them. There was an unexpected shoosh followed immediately by an explosion and flying steel. All the shells that were high enough to miss our position contin- ued on across a small draw and exploded on the opposite ridge in L Companies position. So regardless of where they hit they caused somebody to duck. Two shells in quick succession hit the lip of the foxhole next to mine, but luckily both were duds.

By 1400 hours, the entire battalion was in position, waiting for darkness to come so they could be relieved by other units. It was not to be. Immediately after 3^rd Battalion captured Monte Della Torraccia, the Germans began making preparations to take it back. The spearhead of their counterattack would be a battalion of German ski troops, the Hochgebirgsjäger Lehr-Bataillon Mittenwald.

Continue to Part Two here: https://www.skylerbaileyauthor.com/battle-between-ski-troops-part-two-counterattack-of-the-mittenwald-mountain-battalion/

This blog is part of a larger body of research culminating in the publication of the book ‘Heroes in Good Company: L Company, 86^th Regiment, 10^th Mountain Division 1943-1945’ which is available in select bookstores and on amazon.

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