The Story of the 34th Infantry Division
Book I • Louisiana to Pisa

Chapter XII • SAN VITTORE - CERVARO
Clearing [pp. 49-54]

   By a stroke of luck the Division had been relieved in time to spend Christmas [1943] in an area where hot food, baths and clean clothes helped to restore the fighting efficiency of the troops. A considerable number of replacements were absorbed, and training was conducted to bring back teamwork and cooperation to units in which casualties had been severe. On Christmas Eve the Division staff was notified that the 34th was to relieve the 36th Infantry Division in the S. Pietro sector within a few days. It seemed that Christmas dinner had scarcely been eaten before the first units of the Division moved to the line once more.

   The situation was that the Germans were defending a chain of hills running approximately north and south across Highway 6, which led to Cassino and the Gustav Line, the main position which the Germans had decided to defend throughout the winter. The hills facing the 34th Division's positions were to be used for delaying action to gain time for the finishing touches to be placed on the Gustav Line. The ground immediately to the front of our front-line was noteworthy for two hill features: M. Porchia on the left and M. Chiaia. At the foot of the latter huddled the village of S. Vittore, to the north of which, in a series of wild and jagged peaks, rose the bulk of Mt. Sammucro. To the rear of the Germans opened the wide plain through which the highway and the railway ran westward, the two diverging to pass on either side of M. Trocchio which commanded a view for miles around. To the north of the highway, rocky terraced hills studded with olive groves gave every indication of being tough country to fight over.

   In the midst of a snow storm and blinding gales the 34th Division completed the relief of the 36th Division and began patrolling along the Division front to obtain all possible information about the enemy. The 133rd Infantry formed, with the 1st [Canadian-American] Special Service Force, a group under separate command eight kilometers north of S. Pietro. Immediately to the south came the 168th Infantry and on their left the 135th Infantry. On the night of 4 January [1944] the 34th Division launched an attack designed to storm and occupy the village of S. Vittore and to capture M. Chiaia. A very heavy artillery preparation preceded the assault and by the morning of 5 January the 135th Infantry had obtained a good footing in S. Vittore, and an intense fight at close quarters was joined from house to house. The troops defending the enemy line were from the 44th Infantry Division, a predominantly Austrian formation of indifferent quality. Many prisoners of war were taken in the rush of our attack. On the right of the 135th Infantry, the 168th Infantry, in a concerted drive was helping its left neighbor to storm M. Chiaia. The Germans had defended this feature with many machine-gun positions on the forward slope while counter-attacking groups assembled on the rear slope in shelters dug out of the side of the mountain. Heavy mortar and artillery fire from positions behind the hill were laid down on our assaulting elements who made slow progress.

   On 6 January, although S. Vittore was now completely occupied, the German troops on M. Chiaia continued stubbornly to resist, for the hill feature was not finally taken until the following day. During this intense battle, the 168th Infantry occupied two other hills to the north of M. Chiaia and opened the way for an attack upon the village of Cervaro, a typical collection of stone-built houses set upon the slope of steep hills. Before an attack could be launched to clear this village, a day was spent in cleaning up isolated pockets of resistance and adjusting our own dispositions preparatory to launching a coordinated assault. In the meantime, the 135th Infantry had moved out across the floor of the valley parallel with Highway 6 and were engaged in cleaning up the low rolling hills east of M. Trocchio. On 10 January the 168th Infantry resumed the attack and cleared a number of hills just west of Cervaro after vicious close-quarter fighting using grenade and bayonet. The enemy was fighting desperately for time. During the night he withdrew his forces into the town itself and moved up many machine guns, mortars, and several self-propelled guns into the ruins of buildings where the fallen masonry gave admirable cover. For two days and nights hand-to-hand fighting of the fiercest kind raged from street to street and from house to house. The enemy launched repeated counter-attacks and, for fear that his ragged units would be pierced by our thrust and the defences of the Gustav Line assaulted before he was ready, he committed the 15th Panzer Grenadier Regiment so that his weary Austrian soldiers could disengage and retire in some order. It was immediately noted that the quality of the enemy fighting improved with the arrival of these tough troops, yet, even they could not withstand the terrific punishment which the 2nd Battalion, 168th Infantry gave them in the ruined shell of Cervaro. The town was in our hands and the high ground to the north cleared of the enemy by noon 12 January. For their action, the 2nd Battalion, 168th Infantry, received a unit citation from the War Department.

   During these few days the 135th Infantry continued its steady advance and assaulted a hill guarding M. Trocchio which the enemy tried unsuccessfully to hold with a battalion from the crack Herman Goering Division. After three days of fighting the hill was finally clear and nothing stood between us and the towering observatory of M. Trocchio. The 133rd Infantry, who on 13 January had once more come under the Division's control, had during the previous few days advanced against the most determined enemy resistance across peak after peak paralleling the advance of the other two Regiments. At dawn on 15 January an attack was launched to take M. Trocchio, an operation which proved simple since the enemy, not wishing to be caught on an isolated height at a great distance from his main line, had withdrawn and our troops promptly set up their own OPs in positions where the Germans had been directing their fire against us only a few hours before.

   The Division had been conducting a steady grinding attack for fifteen days against stubborn German resistance and had finally driven the enemy back to the very ramparts of his main winter positions. Whether the Germans were ready or not they now had to defend their Gustav Line. Little contact with enemy troops was had during the next few days since he had withdrawn behind the river barrier that formed a modern counter-part to the moat which medieval soldiers used to defend their citadels.

Chapter XI MOUNT PANTANO Climbing	Chapter XIII CASSINO Storming
Return to the beginning, The Story of the 34th Infantry Division Introduction, Foreword, Contents

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