Ski Soldier by Louise Borden

Author:Louise Borden
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Astra Publishing House
Published: 2017-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

It was all scary.

—PETE SEIBERT

In a whisper,

Captain Rideout made contact

with Company A,

now atop the next peak, Mancinello.

Pete spotted an enemy snow cave

yards away …

a good place for Germans to camouflage their guns.

He listened for the bark of a guard dog

or a German voice,

but all was quiet.

Pete’s platoon silently dug shallow holes

into the snowy ledges.

Then,

curled against the cold,

the men waited for dawn.

Pete went over the details of the attack.

Forty men were counting on him.

The minutes passed,

and in the early morning

thick fog drifted across the crest of Le Piagge …

a perfect screen to hide Company F.

At 7:30 a.m.,

the attack began on each peak.

With catlike steps,

Pete Seibert and his men crossed the frozen ground,

bayonets and grenades at the ready.

As the rising sun burned off the mist,

Company F rushed the scattered huts,

waking German soldiers.

Pete unclipped the grenade in his hand

and hurled it toward a cabin.

Hitler’s soldiers scrambled to man their guns

and resist the attack.

The rattle of machine guns

and steady bullets from M-1 rifles

tore through the morning fog.

Pete and the others in Company F

flattened into firing positions,

their white jackets

hiding them against the snow.

Across the six peaks,

the enemy was outnumbered.

Some lost their lives.

Others were taken prisoner.

All were stunned

that so many Americans

had climbed the impossible east side

of Riva Ridge.

General Hays had feared

that hundreds would be killed or wounded.

Not one of his soldiers died

in the climb to the top.

On Pizzo di Campiano,

the Germans fought back for four days

but then surrendered.

With the capture of Riva Ridge,

the Americans had broken one strong link

of the Nazi chain that held Italy.

Pete Seibert,

his platoon,

his company,

his captain,

and hundreds in the 86th Regiment

were part of it.

At 11:30 p.m. the next night,

the surprise attack on Mount Belvedere began.

This time,

other ski troopers did the climbing.

When they reached the peak,

there were fierce firefights.

Belvedere had more Germans on top

and many guns.

That afternoon,

hundreds of Italians lined their fields

to watch the battle rage on the mountain.

Troopers who had climbed Riva Ridge

stayed to protect the peaks,

and American engineers

built an aerial tram

in record time

to carry up supplies.

Company F was relieved on Le Piagge

by units on Mount Mancinello,

and Pete Seibert and his men

threaded their way

down the steep rocks

and back across the Dardagna.

The platoon hadn’t slept in two days,

and they were hungry.

This time,

they passed by their hiding places

in Madonna Dell’ Acero

and returned to Vidiciatico.

Company F soon had a front-row seat:

American planes crossed the sky,

helping the 85th and 87th capture Mount Belvedere.

To celebrate the climb of Riva Ridge,

Pete Seibert,

still in his combat boots,

borrowed skis from the supply post

in Vidiciatico

and found a slope of soft snow.

There, with his army pals,

he marked a slalom course with sticks.

Even in a war zone

with the combat on Belvedere

just two miles away,

Pete still loved mountains.

With the tower of Vidiciatico

tall against a pewter sky,

Pete flew through the course of sticks.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.