HARD-CHARGING ELITE FORCE RENAMED 10TH MOUNTAIN DIVISION

Camp Swift, Texas • November 6, 1944

Days after a receipt of a construction permit on April 7, 1942, a mas­sive war­fare training faci­lity began to take shape for the U.S. Army’s Moun­tain Training Cen­ter and the 87th Moun­tain Infan­try Bat­tal­ion, the Army’s new moun­tain ski unit acti­vated 5 months earlier. Camp Hale, as the army later named it, became the nation’s first mili­tary can­ton­ment con­structed for basic and spe­cial­ized training for ski and moun­tain troops. Camp Hale recruits trained for year-round moun­tain war­fare, even­tu­ally forming the elite moun­tain unit, the 10th Light Div­ision (Alpine) (July 15, 1943) that was re-des­ig­nated the 10th Moun­tain Division on this date, November 6, 1944.

By way of background 2 events in Europe in the late 1930s/­early 1940s—the Russo-Finnish War and the Greco-Italian War—prompted U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall to autho­rize the for­ma­tion of mount­ain warf­are troops for a new moun­tain bat­tal­ion, fore­runner to the first and only moun­tain infan­try divi­sion in U.S. mili­tary his­tory. The same day the U.S. declared war on Japan, Decem­ber 8, 1941, the army acti­vated the 87th Moun­tain Infan­try Bat­tal­ion. The bat­tal­ion (later expanded to a regi­ment) ini­ti­ally trained in Wash­ing­ton state, then moved south to Camp Hale. At an ele­va­tion of 9,200 feet/­2,800 meters above sea level, the remote, rugged, and moun­tain­ous central Colo­rado site was ideally suited for training specialized winter and mountain warfare troops.

Training the men, most of whom were experienced skiers or rock climbers, ini­tially took place in the higher ele­va­tions above Camp Hale. Equip­ment, alpine climbing gear, provi­sions, clothing, and trans­por­tation suit­able for moun­tain troops were studied and tested in the snow and sub-zero tem­per­a­tures at which the men might be oper­ating. To increase the strength of the new divi­sion by 50 per­cent to the 16,000 planned, the mili­tary trans­ferred troops from other infan­try divi­sions and accepted volunteers from various national guard units.

The 10th Mountain Division was made up of 3 mountain infan­try regi­ments—85th, 86th, and 87th—each made up of 3 bat­tali­ons. Three light field artil­lery bat­tal­ions on mules, an anti-tank infan­try bat­tal­ion, and an anti-tank ba­ttery sup­ported the regi­ments. The com­bat troops were also supported by a medi­cal bat­tal­ion, a vet­er­i­nary company, and a mountain engineer battalion.

After nearly 2 years of training, deployment to Italy began on Decem­ber 11, 1944, when the 86th Moun­tain Infan­try Regi­ment embarked for Naples, arriving there 11 days later. The 85th and 87th infan­try regi­ments and the 3 field artil­lery bat­tal­ions arrived in Italy in Janu­ary. In Italy the 10th was strengthened by addi­tional bat­tal­ions and a British artil­lery regi­ment. Com­bat, support, and medi­cal units took mili­tary trains and trucks to their staging areas near Pisa as part of the U.S. Fifth Army.

Prior to the start of Operation Encore (Febru­ary 18–March 5, 1945), 10th Moun­tain patrols had secretly scouted 5 routes up the steep, icy slopes and ver­ti­cal cliffs of Riva Ridge (Monti della Riva), an obser­va­tion post on the for­mid­able Gothic Line (aka Green Line II, 200 miles/­320 kilo­meters long and 10 miles/­16 kilo­meters deep) that German defenders believed was unassail­able. On the dark, ever more foggy night of Febru­ary 18/19, 1945, 700 men from the 86th Infan­try Regi­ment scaled between 1,700 and 2,200 feet/­518 and 670 meters up the ver­ti­cal cliff to the top of Riva Ridge and com­pletely sur­prised the entrenched 40–50‑man German encamp­ment. For over 36 hours the 86th held off enemy counter­attacks. The night after the daring Riva Ridge assault, 6 bat­tal­ions of the 85th and 87th Infan­try Regi­ments, some 13,000 men, began the 3,000 foot/­914 meter ascent up neigh­boring Mount Bel­ve­dere. For 4 days the warriors fought their way up the moun­tain in the face of withering machine-gun and mortar fire. On Febru­ary 23 10th Mountain took full control of the Mount Belvedere ridgeline.

Enemy defenses in Italy began col­lapsing in the waning days of April 1945. On April 30 the moun­tain men secured the western shore of Lake Gardia, effec­tively ending orga­nized German resis­tance in Italy. During the Ital­ian Campaign (July 9, 1943, to May 2, 1945), 10th Moun­tain—19,789 men strong—suffered between 4,154 and 5,146 casual­ties (sources vary), of which just under 1,000 were com­bat deaths. These were the highest casualty num­bers sus­tained by an Amer­i­can division in Italy in relation to the time spent there.

Camp Hale and the U.S. 10th Mountain Division, 1942–1945

Above: At its height Camp (not Fort) Hale (elevation 9,250 feet/­2,819 meters) sprawled across nearly 1,500 acres/­607 hec­tares and con­tained 1,000 white buildings, including 33 admin­is­tra­tion buildings, 226 bar­racks that could house more than 15,000 men and 240 WACs (Women’s Army Corps), 5 churches and chapels, and an 18,000‑sq.-foot/­1,672‑sq.-meter gym­na­sium used for indoor games, con­certs, and dances, etc. Built by 10,000 workers at a then cost of $30 million in an incred­i­ble 7 months, the camp also included parade grounds, 100 mess halls, a 676‑bed hospi­tal, wea­pons, gun­nery, and artil­lery ranges, 2 ski areas, horse and trans­port mule barns, a school and post office, stock­ade, motor pool, rail yards, and more—essen­tially a small city built high in the breathtaking Rocky Moun­tains. Today the demol­ished camp­site is part of the 53,804‑acre/­21,774‑hectare Camp Hale-Conti­nental Divide National Monu­ment. During its brief 114 days of combat in Northern Italy, the 10th Moun­tain Divi­sion suffered a staggering 4,846 casual­ties—a full quarter of its strength. This average of 1,216 casual­ties per month was the highest in the Italian Campaign.

Above: Rigorous and demanding winter training at Camp Hale: learning ski warfare tech­niques and tactics, rock climbing, weapons and ordi­nance use, and cold weather sur­vi­val skills. Over 32,000 men served with the 10th Moun­tain Divi­sion between 1942 and 1945. Of these, 4,000 men of the 87th Moun­tain Infan­try Regi­ment deployed to Alaska’s Aleu­tian Islands in mid-August 1943 but saw no combat, and 20,000 men in all 3 moun­tain infan­try regi­ments (85th, 86th, and 87th) engaged the Axis enemy in com­bat oper­a­tions in Northern Italy in 1945 without once using their skis.

Left: Members of a mountain troop witness springtime in the Colo­rado Rockies at 13,000 feet/­3,962 meters near the timber­line at Camp Hale, May 8, 1943. The flat, open Pando Valley and the rugged, high-altitude peaks cloaked in per­pet­ual snows that sur­rounded the camp (annual snow­fall 250 inches/­635 centi­meters) forged the elite alpine warriors of the 10th Moun­tain Divi­sion. When the moun­taineers went into combat in Northern Italy in early 1945, they cemented the moun­taineering spirit that inspired their motto “Climb to Glory.”
Right: Difficult as these men are to see in their camou­flage ski parkas and wool trou­sers, this 5‑man ski patrol of the I&R (Intel­li­gence and Recon­nais­sance) pla­toon, 86th Moun­tain Infan­try Regi­ment begin to ascend the slope of a snow- and ice-clad moun­tain as they move deep into enemy terri­tory on a 3‑day patrol, Janu­ary 21, 1945. The ski patrol was the longest ever made in this part of Northern Italy up to that time. All 5 men were cham­pion skiers and held records at one time or another in their respective states.

Above: In these photos likely taken on February 23, 1943, mountaineers of the 85th or 87th Infan­try Regi­ment, 10th Moun­tain Divi­sion walk the ridge­line after ousting the enemy from the summit of Mount Bel­ve­dere, also referred to as Monte Cas­tello. At 3,740 feet/­1,140 meters high, the moun­tain­top had a commanding view over 10 miles/­16 kilo­meters of criti­cal high­way through Italy’s Northern Apen­nine moun­tains. Led by Lt. Gen. Mark Clark, U.S. 5th Army, the goal of Oper­a­tion Encore was to cap­ture vital high ground, break German defenses on the Gothic Line that ran across the top of Italy’s boot, and open the high­way to the Po Valley, where a third of all Italians lived.

Snow, Blood, and Victory: The 10th Mountain Division in World War II in Italy