8 December 1943 happened: The Battle of Monte Lungo

08/12/14

of the operations for the breakthrough of the "Winter Line" the 1st Grouping was inserted in the deployment of the 36th US Infantry Division. Concentrated in the area of ​​the inhabited area of ​​Mignano, the group received the 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 7 December our soldiers reached the crossroads of Presenzano by car, and from there, they continued on foot to the bases of departure. The next morning, on the battlefield, a heavy fog weighed and supported by a short shot of preparation, covered first by darkness and then by fog, infantrymen and bersaglieri outdid the first enemy defenses aiming resolutely at the main altitude of Monte Lungo.

In the meantime, however, the operations for the US regiments did not go very well. The action of the infantry of the 36 ^ "Texas" were strongly opposed on the Monte Maggiore, to the right of the Monte Lungo and to the left of this, on the accesses to San Pietro Infine, while both Monte Sammucro and the 950 quota, after an initial success, had been re-occupied by a German counterattack, missing the central salient of ours, each covering on the sides.This lack of coverage will be paid at a high price. When the fog has risen, the bersaglieri of the LI battalion, placed to the left of the attack device, will be caught by a German fire set by the sides of Monte Maggiore towards Monte Lungo. Moments of momentum on top of Monte Lungo the path of maximum inclination, targeted by the fire that hits the flanks, the infantry of the 67 ° regiment succeed in blows hand grenades to occupy the main altitude of Monte Lungo. However, before they succeed in settling in defense, a German counterattack pushes back our who are forced to fall back. Thus the first attack on Monte Lungo failed.

In the following days the orders were issued for the repetition of the attack. The operation, despite the meticulous organization that foresaw the fall of the objectives from right to left, Q. 950, the Sammucro, San Pietro Infine and then the Monte Lungo, he went, because of 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.

Source: Army