General Orders 1946 - Fort Benning

the squadron snwd 23 lives, wllile the activities of the rescue station on Mindanao
enabled S3 men to be eiacuaterl from enemy terrilmy. The exceptional
courax skill, and selfless dcrotion to duty of the gersamnel of the 2d Emewenw
Roscm S~zmd,or~ contributed directly to the mceess of the Borneo and southern
Piiili~~&s operalions. (General Orders 2042, l3eadqusrter.s Ear East Air
FO~CPS,, 28 September 1943, as approved by the Commanckr in Chief, United
State @my I?orces, Puclfic.)
3d Battalion, 15th Infontl-?, Regiment, is cited for outstanding perform-
*" in combat during the period S Y August 1.943 near San Fratello, Sicily.
ktaling steep mauntnius and slleer rock walls, the Sd Bntlnlios, eommandcd by
Lieutenant Colouei Ashtan H. Manhart, marched for 14 hours across deep gorges
and over mountain trails so precipitous that mules, bearing rations and arnmunition
were uilnhie to uegotinte the ascent and Cell hundreds of feet to the ravine
floor. Skirting two minefields, attacking, storming, and utterly disintegrating
a powerful Italian delaying force in an Bhour battle in the muuntaius,
the troorrs of the 3d Battalion continued their advance under a broiling . sun to
seize Hill 673, a dominating tcrrnin feature gunr+ing the Pnlermo~AIessina Highway.
Thc men of the ad Battalion held this hill position on short rations, with
water virtually unahlainnble, ammunition supplics at a low ebb, and the mule
pack trains subject io dwimation by the powerful enemy force surrounding them.
After weathering a 45-minute TOT-artillery concentration, these valiant soldiers
met and broke three successive counterarln&s delivered by one of the elite
regiments of the Italian Army reinforced with Wehrmacht cicments. -4s tlre
fourth counterattacksnrgedf