As part of the operations for the breakthrough of the "Winter Line" the 1 ° Grouping was included in the deployment of the US 36 ^ division of infantry.
Concentrated in the area of the town of Mignano, the group received orders for the conquest of Monte Lungo.
The plan drawn up by the command of the 36 ^ division "Texas" provided for a simultaneous assault, from left to right to the Maggiore mountains, by the 142 ° American Infantry Regiment, in Monte Lungo, by 1 ° Regroupamento, in S. Pietro and finally to Monte Sammucro by the 143 ° US Infantry Regiment and to 950 Quota, to the right of the Sammucro by a US Ranger battalion.
On the evening of December 7 our soldiers reached the Presenzano junction in a column and from there proceeded on foot to the starting point.
The next morning, on the battlefield weighed a thick fog and supported by a short preparation roll, covered first by the darkness and then by the fog, infantrymen and Bersaglieri overcame their first enemy defenses with determination, resolutely aiming on Monte Lungo's main share.
In the meantime, however, operations for US regiments did not go very well.
The action of the 36 ^ "Texas" infantrymen was strongly opposed on Monte Maggiore, on the right of Monte Lungo and on the left of this, on the accesses to San Pietro Infine, while both Monte Sammucro and the 950 share, after an initial success , had been reoccupied by a German counterattack, making the center salient consisting of ours, any coverage on the hips missing.
This lack of coverage will be paid dearly. When the fog has risen, the bersaglieri of the LI battalion, placed to the left of the attacking device, will be caught by the German fire prepared by the sides of Monte Maggiore towards Monte Lungo.
Joints of impetus at the top of Monte Lungo, along the road of maximum inclination, hit by the fire that hits the flanks, the infantrymen of the 67 ° regiment are able to hit hand grenades to occupy the main share of Monte Lungo.
But before they manage to settle in defense, a German counterattack sends back our own who are forced to fall back. The first Monte Lungo attack, therefore, failed.
In the following days the orders for the recurrence of the attack were issued.
The operation, despite the meticulous organization that provided for the fall of the objectives from right to left, Q. 950, the Sammucro, San Pietro Infine and then the Monte Lungo, went, due to the German resistance, exactly the opposite.
The occupation of Monte Maggiore and Monte Lungo, threatening to cut the routes of connection of the enemy, definitively undermined the German line that resisted, without giving the slightest sign of failure, to the pressure allied in the sector of San Pietro Infine.
At 9,15 16 December Italian infantrymen and Bersaglieri, preceded by 45 minutes of preparation of our artillery, left to attack the mountain, this time with the shoulders covered by the US 142 regiment that had occupied Monte Maggiore. The enemy, threatened in front and side, was forced to retreat: at 12,30 the summit was definitely in Italian hands.
Our flag and the American one waved, for the first time together, on the top of the conquered mountain, at the conclusion of bloody fighting that cost 79 dead and 89 injured.
