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Blue Devils Research Website
Battle Mountain
Monte Battaglia
Battle Mountain stories
collected or contributed for MtMestas.com. |
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Perhaps the most spectacular fighting of that
raw, rainy autumn took place on three craggy mountain
peaks in late September and early October. On 27 September,
elements of the 350th Infantry Regiment linked up with
Italian partisans and occupied Mt. Battaglia without opposition.
However, over the next six days, the “Green Devils”
of the German 1st Parachute Division attacked fiercely
and without surcease in an effort to seize this key terrain.
Their efforts were in vain, however, as the 350th committed
everything it had, including headquarters clerks, and
threw back every assault to retain the critical mountain
top. Casualties were grave—50% of the regiment,
with all but one company commander killed or wounded—and
acts of extraordinary valor had been almost common. For
its part in the brutal fighting on Mt. Battaglia, the
2nd Battalion, 350th Infantry was later awarded the Distinguished
Unit Citation, and for his gallantry and intrepidity—at
the cost of his life - Captain Robert Roeder, CO of Company
G, was awarded the Medal of Honor.
Source: Delaney, John P. The
Blue Devils in Italy. Washington, D.C.: The Infantry Journal
Press, 1947. |
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A view of Monte
Battaglia peak and slopes that were defended by the
2nd Battalion of 350th Regiment. This photo was taken
in 2001 and
shows the castle ruins on the summit and a paved road
at the left.
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"During the seventh German
counterattack---those game GI's actually kept box score---a
lad named Pfc. Cleo Peek of Center,
Colorado, was assistant gunner on a BAR which jammed.
Peek held off the enemy with his M1, killing 4, while
the gunner worked frantically on the BAR. When his M1
jammed, Peek threw grenades. Those ran out. Then he
resorted to the only weapon at hand, rocks. and hurled
them at the enemy with such effect that they were stopped
less than 25 yards from his position. And there was
a solider named Pfc. Jose D. Sandoval
of Santa Fe, NM, who fired his BAR unit it heated
and jammed......"
Its hard to tell the timing of the events. It was probably
all run together: Capt Roeder was killed, hand-to-hand
combat inside the castle, Pfc Mestas's position over-run
and Pfc Peek held out to the last of his ammo.
Source: The Blue Devils in Italy
- Page 140
Contributed by: The
Italian Campaign: Click Here |
Cowboy and Peek dug back into the slope below
a solid jutting rock, chipping away the stone itself
with their picks to form an entrenchment. For camouflage
they tossed on bits of dry grass and weeds. From here,
their automatic weapon was offered a surpurb field of
fire.
Scarcely had the BAR-men completed their entrenchment
when the Wehrmacht made it's first assault. As the Germans
crept slowly up the hill under cover of the dim light,
Mestas stood bolt upright in the position and and fired
from the hip.
Source: The
Story of Cowboy Mestas : Click Here |
In a week-long series of counter attacks
from Sept 27 to Oct 2, 1944, in the fog, gloom and mire
of an advanced position on an Appenine peak in mid-winter,
they had held back the most determined assaults of remnants
of five picked German divisions.
Source: The
Story of Cowboy Mestas : Click Here |
In the attack in which the BAR position was
overrun, three Germans actually reached the remains of
the castle command post. Their bodies remaind there, a
silent tribute to the unyeilding mud sloggers.Other units
of the regiment which arrived that day again pushed the
enemy back. They also held the "Battle Mountain"
during the remainder of a week of determined counter attacks,
as German troops and more German troops were sent to recapture
the prize positition.
Source:
The
Story of Cowboy Mestas : Click Here |
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The castle
ruins on Monte Battaglia after the
stand by Company G. American dead still lies
in the foreground. |
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The morning assault was repelled. But, unknown
to the BAR team, the squad in position on the left flank
had been completely wiped out. Of Company "G",
there were only a handfull of survivors. It's leader Capt.
Roeder had been killed the day before.
Source: The
Story of Cowboy Mestas : Click Here |
The enemy made another assault. Peek said they
could see the Germans sloshing up the hill "like
wild men". Both knew the score. One might have a
chance to reach some safety on the rear slope, covered
by the other's fire.
Source: The
Story of Cowboy Mestas : Click Here |
One unknown hero was seen standing on the crest
of the hill in full view of a group of a charging group
of fanatical Germans and firing his Browning automatic
rifle from the hip in order to get a better field of fire
down the slope. With the heavy rifle he killed 24 of the
advancing Germans and accounted for two more with grenades.
Source: Felix
B. Mestas Congressional Record .Click Here. |
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