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The Battle Of The Mountain Warfare

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“There is a nice sound to the phrase ‘mountain warfare.’ It has a ring of daring; it sounds much cleaner than trench warfare and lighter than tank warfare. The only thing that can match it is war in the air, and that has become too deadly to be nice any more. It has also become too familiar, while war in the mountains is still strange enough to sound romantic. Except, of course, to the men who have to fight it.” -Walter Bernstein, Italy, January 1944 (1)

With a thud, the Allied attempt to sweep Hitler’s feet out from underneath him crashed into the fortified Apennine Mountains of Italy. The slow-moving campaign in Italy had lost all its momentum, hitting the brick wall that the Apennines were. Garrisoned peaks swarming with Nazi soldiers deterred any attacks. The Americans were unable to pass these natural fortresses. A foot attack in the light of day would be easily seen and mowed down by machine gun fire, an attack by armored vehicles would be too loud and alert the Germans, and an attack under the shade of night would be impossible and dangerous with foot soldiers or machinery. The Nazi troops would not fall to any conventional troops or weapons. Something revolutionary, new, and different would need to be used to send the Germans running. The United States’ Tenth Mountain Division, brand new and untested, would be the ones called upon to complete this task. The Tenth Mountain soldiers, or more fondly, the ski troops, were sent into Northern Italy. They, using

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