After relief on the Ronco, Tenth Indian Division rested for a bare fortnight. During this period Fifth Corps had swung into the west. On November 9th, after a fierce battle, Fourth and Forty-Sixth British Divisions stormed Forli. A fresh attack was immediately planned with Faenza, the next important town on the main transverse highway, as the principal objective. Tenth Indian Division was ordered to establish a bridgehead over the Montone through which the assault divisions might deploy on their start lines.
On November 19th 10th Indian Brigade relieved a brigade of Fourth British Division on a front of four miles near the Montone river. The ground was monotonously flat, intersected by a network of drainage rhines, and heavily cultivated. Vineyards, orchards and farmhouses dotted the countryside. All bridges had been blown, the roads cratered and the paths mined. The river proper, a sludgy stream thirty feet in width, was no great obstacle, but inside the flood walls a soft mud bottom flanked the watercourse, extending the gap to two hundred feet. The enemy had breached the banks, and the countryside was flooded for one thousand yards east of the river. The only approaches were along built-up roads covered by machine-guns and artillery.
On November 22nd, 43rd Gurkha Brigade took over a sector on the left of 10th Brigade. Two nights later 20th Brigade came up on the left of 10th Brigade, and Tenth Division was aligned for its attack. 10th Brigade brought forward assault boats and with the Durhams leading prepared to force a crossing. The enemy was alert and laid down a fierce shoot on the line of the river. The advance was held up for several hours until 3/5 Mahrattas, accompanied by tanks of 6th Royal Tank Regiment, could advance laterally from the left flank and engage the enemy. With the aid of this distraction the Durhams rapidly built up a bridgehead force of two companies. By noon both 10th and 20th Brigades were represented in an expanding perimeter to the west of the Montone.
For the next phase First Canadian Corps entered the line on the right of the Indians, and the New Zealand Division relieved Fourth British Division on the opposite flank. The Indian brigades by nibbling tactics began to edge towards Albereto, a village a mile east of the Lamone, the next water obstacle to the west. This village proved to be the core of the enemy defences, and bitter fighting ensued when: twin attacks closed in from opposite sides. A confused close-quarters
free-for-all raged until the enemy slowly and sullenly withdrew. Forty German dead were picked up among the ruins of the village.
At 0545 hours on November 20th, both Indian brigades attacked outwards from Migliara, the individual thrusts diverging like the spokes of a wheel from the hub. On the right 2/4 Gurkhas and North Irish Horse worked into the north-east. Their next-door neighbours, the Durhams, smashed through to their objective after sharp fighting at San Giorgio. Further west, 1/2 Punjabis broke into new territory and seized three hamlets. In the centre 3/5 Mahrattas with two companies of Nabha Akals, crashed through obstinate resistance. On the extreme left 2/3 Gurkhas captured Pianetto and La Gessa, taking 56 prisoners. By midday all Indian battalions were well established in the main German positions. An enemy wireless intercept declared “Defence plan completely broken”. With such encouragement the attack was pushed home, and with the New Zealanders making equal headway on the left all territory east of the Lamone was mopped up.
This local scrimmaging cleared the battlefield for the stroke to follow. Four corps struck at the wavering salient which incessant assaults had gouged in the German defences. The Canadians attacked to the north-east towards Ravenna. Second Polish Corps mounted an all-out drive on the last high ground held by the enemy in the Apennine foothills, along the dwindling ridges between the Lamone and the Senio valleys. Thirteenth Corps moved at right angles to the Poles, with the objective of pinching out enemy formations east of the Senio. Fifth Corps drove on Faenza. Leading the attack, Forty-sixth British Division on December 3rd battled its way after wild fighting across the Lamone five miles south-west of Forli.
At the outset of this great assault Tenth Indian Division’s role was restricted to “noises off” – deception shoots and bridge-building clamour behind smoke screens. Beyond the Lamone Forty-Sixth Division became involved in some of the stiffest fighting of the war. For a week this hard-hitting British formation exchanged hammer blows with a veteran and ever-dangerous opponent – Nineteenth Panzer Grenadier Division. It then became necessary for someone else to take over the slogging match. On December 11th Tenth Indian Division moved up and relieved Forty-Sixth Division. The bridgehead over the Lamone was slightly less than two miles in depth, and the danger point lay around Pideura, in the centre of the position. Here 25th Brigade came into the line. 3/1 Punjabis and King’s Own immediately became involved in bickerings which flared up from time to time into heavy fighting. No less than five enemy counter-attacks were thrown back in the first twenty-four hours of the tour. These quick venomous jabs were designed to dislocate the timing of the main assault of Fifth Corps, which was near at hand. Such tactics failed: when zero hour struck at 2300 hours on December 23rd, five Indian
battalions advanced against the enemy to give the New Zealanders a firm flank for their drive to the Senio.
At point of junction with the Kiwis, the Durhams of 10th Brigade smashed at Pergola. The North Countrymen encountered one misfortune after another. Defensive fire caught them on their start line. The leading troops walked on to an uncharted schu-minefield when approaching their preliminary objective. A frontal assault failed to shake the enemy, and when the Durhams swung to flank, they found themselves in the midst of another minefield. These tough globetrotters were loath to admit failure, and fought on throughout the day; but Pergola was beyond their grasp.
On the left of the Durhams, 3/1 Punjabis managed to establish a company on a low sharp-crested ridge. Once again haystacks played the villain’s part. Fired by enemy tracer they silhouetted the gallant Indians as they charged. Even then the Punjabis might have held on had it not been for a serious deterioration on their left, where, 4/11 Sikhs, after gallantly gaining their ground, were thrown back by a weighty infantry attack supported by self-propelled guns.
Beyond the Sikhs the King’s Own fought along a hilltop to the north of Pideura. Farm houses which sheltered nests of machine-gunners took a heavy toll. A self-propelled gun knocked out the escorting Sherman tanks, and was in turn destroyed. All through the day the King’s Own surged again and again to the assault; as evening fell they broke into Camillo, taking twenty-four prisoners. “C” Company, after having been in the thick of continuous fighting for upwards of twenty-four hours, had only one officer and twenty-six men standing.
On the extreme left 3/18 Garhwalis to some extent redeemed the grim picture on the remainder of the Divisional front. One company swung away on a march of three miles along a muddy track which brought it on to the rear of the enemy positions at Casa Zula and Monte Coralli. Concurrent assaults were launched from opposite sides. In bitter hand-to-hand fighting the enemy garrison was destroyed. The victors sweated over their spades, and when the counter-attack came they were well dug in. A wild hurly-burly followed. A white house surmounting a cypress-clad hillside changed hands several times. Spandau teams were detected in weapon pits sited under haystacks. This short-sightedness led to a series of incinerations as tracer fire ignited the hay. There were grim games of hide and seek; on one occasion an irate Garhwali rifleman, mounting a stack with his bayonet to winkle out a sniper, was surprised by his quarry, who emerged from beneath the hay, pulled the ladder away, and raced to fresh cover before he could be brought down. When the enemy finally abandoned attempts to oust the Garhwalis, sixty German dead and twelve prisoners remained in Indian hands.
In this assault Tenth Indian Division had failed for the first time to
make its principal objectives. The gruelling fighting, however, was not without reward, for the Indian assault had pinned down the enemy’s reserves, and had given the New Zealanders a clear run to the Senio. With the Kiwis well ahead, on the night of December 14/15th, 4/10 Baluchis passed through the New Zealand front and turned south on the flank and rear of the Pergola positions. The enemy had foreseen this move and had pulled out. The line was open and that evening Indian patrols without resistance reached the tortuous meanders of the Senio between Renazzi and Tobano. The enemy was still reeling from the buffets dealt him, and without undue opposition Baluchis and Garhwalis crossed the river and established posts on the west bank. 2/4 Gurkhas moved up to stiffen the tiny bridgehead, and were told the astonishing but true story of the German tank which had attempted to approach the Baluchi positions with a Red Cross flag flying from its turret.
The Gurkhas immediately began to elbow their way forward, with the line of the railway running into Castel Bolognesi as their objective. The enemy recovered his breath, and the leading company of the hillmen became involved in a fracas sufficiently serious to require reinforcement. The bridgehead lay in one of the many loops of the river, and as resistance stiffened the Gurkhas found themselves with enemies on three sides. After increasing displays of truculence had indicated the arrival of enemy reserves, the Indian force was gradually withdrawn to the east bank of the river.
On December 15th, 43rd Gurkha Lorried Brigade passed under command of Second New Zealand Division, and under the description of Faenza Task Force, began to clear the Germans from that important centre. For the first time the Gurkhas were schooled in the peculiar technique of street fighting. The area was mine-infested and the Luftwaffe active. 2/10 Gurkhas entered the town from the east and encountered comparatively little opposition until the railway along Route 9 was reached. Thereafter resistance, stiffened. 2/8 Gurkhas came forward to reinforce the attack. A German counter-attack with panzers in the van forced the hillmen back to the canal which parallels the Lamone. Here the adversaries glared at each other for twenty-four hours, while the sappers devised a crossing which would bear tanks. At 2100 hours Faenza Task Force moved to the assault with the Gurkha Brigade on the left of the Kiwis. Once again in the face of a set-piece attack the enemy had compounded with necessity and had cleared out. Little resistance was encountered except from road blocks and minefields. Faenza was liberated. The Germans fell back to prepared positions on the line of the Senio.
On Tenth Division’s front wintry gales had slowed down operations to a standstill. Christmas and the New Year passed quietly, but early in January patrol clashes increased and raids became a nightly feature.
The loops of the Senio which thrust adjacent salients into the front exercised an inevitable fascination for patrols on the prowl. On January 12th the ill-fated members of Parliament who disappeared a few days later in a lost plane, visited the Division. The Germans chose this day to pester the Indians. A Garhwali sentry heard the sound of chopping and shrewdly deduced that trees were being felled for footbridges. The raiding party met a warm reception. Next morning the Garhwalis were interested spectators as the Germans buried their dead in full view on the opposite bank under the protection of a Red Cross flag.
On the following night an enemy detachment crossed the Senio and established itself in Chiarona. The Garhwalis accepted the challenge with alacrity and for variety’s sake staged the ejection by daylight. Behind a smoke screen two platoons charged with tanks in the van. The Shermans pumped a hundred shells into the enemy’s hideouts as the Garhwalis raced in from front and rear. The rear platoon literally caught the panzer grenadiers with their backs turned; twenty-five were killed and ten taken prisoner. That night a follow-up fighting patrol endeavoured to learn the fate of the Chiarona garrison. The Garhwalis were alert and few escaped.
Early in February 4/11 Sikhs had a bit of luck. Their raiders were closing on an enemy position when a false alarm distracted the German sentries. The schmeissers and spandaus commenced to hose bullets to empty flank, while the Sikhs crept nearer. Undetected the Indians sprang upon the engrossed garrison, and destroyed it. In a series of similar bickerings, which imposed a strain upon weakening adversaries, Tenth Division’s tour on the river lines wore away. On February 9th Third Carpathian Division relieved the Indians along the Senio. Then followed a last look at the high mountains. The enemy still clung tenaciously to his strongholds in the upper Sillaro valley, including Monte Grande, which remained a key position covering the eastern approaches to Bologna. First German Parachute Division, in its customary uncompromising mood, continued to garrison this area, and Seventy-Eighth British Division after an extensive spell of duty was feeling the strain. On February 8th, 20th Brigade embussed at Faenza. By sky line Monte Grande was only sixteen miles away, but the road journey covered ninety miles and took two days! 10th Brigade arrived on February 12th to complete the occupation of the new Divisional sector.
The country was deerstalker’s landscape, with high lookouts and deep scours. Everyone had an embarrassingly good view of everybody else. To cover supply movements in the Sillaro valley an American detachment maintained a continuous smoke screen near the San Clemente ford. The Divisional anti-aircraft gunners took over management of the canisters throughout the tour of duty. On the right of the Indians, Sixth British Armoured Division linked up with the Polish
Corps; on the left Eighty-Fifth U.S. Division carried the line to the west. From the beginning the paratroopers were bent on making nuisances of themselves. A smash and grab party, seeking to identify the newcomers, gave the forward company of Durhams a busy half hour, but the North countrymen mixed it so earnestly that the intruders finally fled, leaving a number of dead behind. Two nights later a keen-eyed Baluchi nobbled a paratroop observation officer, who was lying up close to the forward positions. Next morning four paratroopers dressed as stretcher bearers approached 2/4 Gurkhas. Despite protests they were arrested and packed off to the rear. The German commander thereupon despatched a note offering to exchange four Sikh stretcher bearers for his lost men. When the offer drew no response, the Sikhs were returned, revealing the ruse.
The Indians then got down to work. A patrol from 1/2 Punjabis crawled into the Germans’ positions and mopped up three posts. When intercepted on the way home, their prisoners, anticipating rescue, threw themselves on the ground and refused to move. Having summarily dealt with the recalcitrants (first removing their jackets as identifications), the Punjabis charged with the steel and broke through, killing five at close quarters for the loss of one man killed and one wounded.
The same mettlesome and aggressive battalion despatched a roving patrol in the next night. A havildar and his section silently closed on a slit trench which covered a large house. Two Germans put up their hands; at the same time one kicked a signal wire. Flares and a red Verey light shot up; a machine-gun opened, and thirty Germans poured from the house. First putting paid to the prisoners, the havildar and his squad leapt into the slit trench, and raked their assailants with tommy guns. A dozen paratroopers fell. Three Indians were wounded, but all returned to safety.
A Mahratta patrol penetrated the enemy positions and lay in ambush in a copse beside a path which connected two German posts. An emergency flare signal had been arranged to call for covering mortar fire if required. When attacked the Germans by a remarkable coincidence fired the same signal. Down came the mortar shoot on the copse. With every licence to withdraw the Mahrattas stuck it for two hours. The shoot ended and patience paid a dividend. Fifteen Germans came trudging along the path. Eleven paratroopers were killed against three Indians wounded.
Finding the Indians more than their match in this grim hunting, the paratroopers tended to avoid front line clashes; instead, they specialized in deep penetration patrols. Detachments of two or three men would filter through, and would work back among the rear echelons. They dressed like civilians, retaining only sufficient vestiges of uniform to escape execution if captured. Each carried a few schu-mines,
which they buried in well-trodden spots. They also carried miniature wireless sets; when concentrations of vehicles or personnel were encountered, fire would be directed upon them. If accosted they boldly tried to pass themselves off as Italians. Fortunately the sepoys’ Italian was in many instances better than that of the Germans, And rigid security measures trapped so many of these audacious detachments that in self-defence they were obliged to increase the size of the patrols – thereby facilitating their detection.
On March 11th, 25th Brigade took over Monte Grande from U.S. Eighty-Fifth Division. For this task the Brigade was strengthened by an extra infantry battalion (2nd Highland Light Infantry), a squadron of Lovat Scouts, and “F” Reconnaissance Squadron, a volunteer Italian parachute. formation of proven worth. The spring thaw had set in, and as the snow disappeared the bitterness of the fighting on this sinister summit was revealed. Many bodies of British, American and German soldiers were uncovered. One hundred and fifty dead mules were collected for burning or burial.
Throughout March all brigades continued to harass the enemy. Mahrattas, Nabha Akals and Punjabis found particularly good hunting; a strong patrol from the latter battalion, on one occasion spent forty-eight hours in the rear of the German positions and emerged without casualty. 13 Anti-Tank Regiment, with no tanks to shoot at, themselves turned tank men, re-conditioned some derelict Shermans, and scouted enthusiastically.
As April began, and the great assault on the river lines grew imminent, the paratroopers apparently received orders to pin down the troops opposite them. When 2nd Loyals arrived to join 20th Brigade, the new hands were raided as soon as they entered the line. A forward platoon was overrun, but the remainder stood firm and blew back the attack. 4/11 Sikhs endured two attacks in one morning. As the Germans closed the grim bearded men leapt to meet them, and slew many on the lips of the slit trenches.
The master plan for the spring offensive called for Tenth Indian Division to participate in Eighth Army’s drive by an advance down the Sillaro valley. General Reid was now six battalions over establishment; this permitted the wearers of the red and blue diagonals to be in two places at once. Lovat Scouts, Loyals, Highland Light Infantry, 4/11 Sikhs, Nabha Akals and Jodhpurs took charge of Monte Grande, while the remainder of the Division moved back across the mountains on the long up end down trek to the Adriatic. On April 9th the air was filled with thunder as Eighth Army smashed at the river lines in the climactic offensive of the war. A week later Tenth Indian Division was concentrated on the battlefield, waiting for the word to take up the running.
This collection transcribed by Chris Gage