Disaster at the River Rapido 3

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Throughout the day, advantage was taken of lulls in enemy firing to effect reorganization, which was difficult because of the lack of communication. At 16oo hours, January 22nd, the enemy began a series of counterattacks aimed towards annihilation of our forces on the far bank. The only information available on these attacks came from individual survivors, most of them wounded —one of them swimming, the river after one foot had been completely blown off. Units, shattered and. broken by the unbearable intensity of the fire, and greatly outnumbered, began to lose all signs of organization. By 1700 hours, the Commander and second in command of both the 2nd and 3rd Battalions, together with all. the company commanders had either been killed or wounded.

The smoke haze laid down to screen reorganization activities and protect our men obscured observation and aided the enemy. The initial attacks of the Germans seemed to be made by about two companies, and were followed by a complete enemy encirclement of our beleaguered forces. Hard, bitter fighting repulsed these assaults as well as several additional attempts to overrun our positions. The enemy was able, however, to gain a well defined concept of our relatively confined area, and saturated our positions with repeated concentrations of artillery, mortar and automatic weapons fire. At 2240 hours, January 22nd, the Engineers, were finally directed to abandon their fruitless efforts to construct a bridge.

American small arms fire was heard as late as 2300 hours that night. The greater portion of our veteran fighting team had disappeared into the blazing muzzles of death. The supreme effort of 48 hours, hours filled with shot and shell, violence and death, had been costly. Few blood soaked pieces of earth have exacted so high a price in the inflated economy of war. "You will stay there until you die."* They did.

Almost a thousand never came back.

Almost a thousand never came back. Surviving elements of the regiment, supplemented by a few who had been able to return, effected what reorganization they could on the east bank of the river. During the afternoon of January 22, 1944, one of our aid men had returned to the command post with a note purportedly from the enemy commander, asking for a cessation of supporting fires for several hours to enable them to evacuate German and "English" wounded. Our man had been captured the morning of January 21st and had been attending wounded in a room of a farm house within the enemy lines. He stated that large numbers of fresh replacements had arrived to support the enemy during the day. Because of the informal nature of the note, it was interpreted as an attempt to secure relief from our artillery fire and was disregarded.

Efforts to send patrols across the stream on the night of January 22nd were unavailing due to the enemy control of the banks and the approaches to the east. Although patrols were sent out on the nights of the 23rd and 24th, no contact with friendly forces was made.

On the morning of January 25th, our aid men, carrying large Red Cross flags, crossed the Rapido in full view of the enemy. They were met by German officers and enemy aid men who asked for a truce in order to remove the dead. Artillery was instructed not to fire and by 1700 hours three of our wounded and 50 of our dead had been evacuated. Hostile action was then resumed.

The Germans who came out into the area maintained a helpful attitude, although they refused to allow our men to go beyond the barbed wire aprons strung about 500 yards inland. The information our men gathered of the well constructed and strongly manned enemy positions corroborated previous information received from patrols. The Germans didn't seem to understand why our bridgehead had continued to hold out so desperately. "Your men fought with great determination and courage," they told us.

The period January 25th to February 6th was spent in improving the defense position manned on the near bank of the river. By progressive relief of all units of the regiment we patrolled laterally and across the river. On February 6th, all battalions had closed into a new assembly area between San Vittore and Cervarro east of Highway No. 6. Plans made for another crossing of the River Rapido were contingent upon success of the 34th Division in its efforts to take Cassino.

In preparation for the proposed crossing, the command post was moved to La Pasternelle on February 7th. This small village was two and a quarter miles southwest of Cassino.

On February 8, 1944, we were notified that plans for crossing the Rapido had been abandoned.

Ours was the bitterness that characterized the winter fighting in Italy. An attempt to accomplish too much had been attempted with too little. Assistance had not arrived too late — it had not arrived at all. Our men had illuminated with heroic sacrifice the traditional honor of their arms.

* Reported to be one of the last orders transmitted to the troops across the river.