Cassino to the Alps - US Army Center Of Military History

380
ion had managed any penetration of
the enemy's positions.
While that fight raged, men of the
133d Infantry assembled for their night
attack. As the battalions moved into
assembly areas late in the afternoon,
fighter-bombers of the XII T AC
dropped hundreds of high explosive
and newly-introduced napalm bombs in
a saturation assault against Monte Belmonte.
The aircraft flew 137 sorties
and dropped 72 tons of high explosive
bombs and 94 napalm fire bombs
against known enemy JX)sitions on and
near the objective. Shortly after the
aerial attack, all guns of the supJX)rting
corps artillery opened fire.
As darkness fell over the shattered
terrain, searchlights of antiaircraft units
illuminated the sky to provide artificial
moonlight. At 2000 the 133d Infantry
attacked in a column of battalions with
the 2d leading. Hardly had the first
men crossed the line of departure when
a heavy mortar and artillery concentration
fell on one company, disorganizing
the platoons and causing several casualties,
among them the company commander.
The battalion commander
shifted that company to become his
reserve. 5
That was to be the enemy's sole
interference that night. By dawn on the
17th Company G had almost reached
the crest of Hill 40 I, the southernmost
spur of the Monte Belmonte ridge,
without physical contact with the enemy.
Then suddenly, out of a thick fog
that had enveloped the objective, the
Germans counterattacked. Overrunning
Company G, the enemy inflicted numerous
casualties and captured four
, 133d Inf Opns Rpt, Oct. 44.
CASSINO TO THE ALPS
officers and over a score of enlisted
men. The counterattack also cut off the
commander of Company E and twenty
of his men, who would have to wait for
nightfall before infiltrating back to the
2d Battalion command post. When
night came all survivors fell back to
reorganize in a small ravine on Monte
Belmonte's southwestern slope. Meanwhile,
to the left rear, the 1st Battalion
had gained a little over a mile to reach
the village of Zena, near which a bridge
crossed the Zena Creek, while the 3d
Battalion came to within supporting
distance on the 2d Battalion's right. Ii
Reports of the 133d Infantry's setback
on Monte Belmonte's fogshrouded
slopes reached General Clark
shortly after he learned of the arrival of
the 29th Panzer Grenadier Division opposite
the II Corps and of the coming
commitment of the 90th Panzer Grenadier
Division. The Fifth Army commander
telephoned General Alexander
that night to complain bitterly that his
army would soon reach the limits of its
endurance unless the Eighth could siphon
off some of the enemy's strength.
The appeal was in vain, for the Eighth
Army already was fully committed.
The combined pressures of the Allied
forces was insufficient to force the
Germans to relax their grip on the
ridges and summits south of Bologna,
as became clear when at dawn on 18
October the 34th Division's 133d Infantry
renewed the assault on Monte Belmonte.
Again the regiment attacked in
a column of battalions, with the 2d still
leading. Because of persistent fog and
rugged terrain, the battalions had about
as much difficulty determining their
" Ibid.