Cassino to the Alps - US Army Center Of Military History

BREAKTHROUGH ON THE FIFTH ARMY'S FRONT 475
GERMAN PRISONERS CAPTURED BY 10TH MOUNTAIN DIVISION
then with the help of tanks from the
751st Tank Battalion advanced another
four miles to the hamlet of Montepastore.
Meanwhile, the 87th Mountain
Infantry advanced via Tole toward
Monte Croce and Monte Mosca, the
latter five miles northeast of Monte
Pigna and the last high point along the
eastern ridge line. Progress over the
next two days was just as steady, so that
by nightfall on the 18th the troops of
the 10th Mountain Division had almost
reached the edge of the mountains
overlooking Highway 9 and the plain.
Five days of attack had cost 1,283
casualties, and the surviving infantrymen
were close to exhaustion. Of the
first men to enter the village of Montepastore,
an officer of the 86th Mountain
Infantry observed that they were
"incredibly weary . . . . Wherever the
men dropped their packs they fell
asleep. They slept in barns, cowstalls,
bedrooms, any place they could find.
After a rest [they] l(x)ked for food and
found chickens, onions, some captured