The Regiment by Farley Mowat

Author:Farley Mowat
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dundurn Press
Published: 2016-07-06T00:00:00+00:00

Moro River Crossing

December 5/10 1943

They had not long to wait.

General Vokes, the divisional commander, had already planned his battle. He had decided that his major thrust would not be at the coast, but some three miles inland along the main highway running through the village of San Leonardo. To mask his intentions and to divert the enemy’s attention, Vokes ordered the Regiment to make an immediate feint attack across the river near its mouth.

There was no time for preparations; no time to arrange a covering artillery barrage, and hardly time for even the briefest reconnaissance of the river obstacle. However, a patrol, sent out hurriedly, accomplished a remarkable feat by making its way unobserved to the centre of the valley in daylight, and by finding a ford across the swollen river some three hundred yards above its mouth.

Kennedy chose Able company to attempt the crossing. The men knew the odds as they gathered near the lip of the escarpment and waited for darkness to mask their movements.

At 2100 hours, in the wet night and in a silence that was doubly ominous, the men of the lead platoon descended the slopes and felt their way across the muddy slough that was the valley floor. Luck was with them, and the absence of an artillery barrage played in their favour for the enemy received no warning of the attack. The platoon forded the stream and began moving painfully towards the black shadows of the northern slope while behind it, the remaining two platoons came forward.

Suddenly the tension snapped. A single enemy machine gun rippled into hysterical life and at once a dozen flares, some green, some blinding white, lifted and hung above Able company. The signal was instantly answered by the muted and distant thunder of the enemy guns, and by the violent outcry of twenty or more machine guns emplaced on the high banks. A shimmering curtain of tracer swept the valley and within seconds the enemy artillery and mortar shells began to fall in thundering salvos, their flashes outlining the scene with terrifying clarity.

There was no cover on the valley floor. The pioneer platoon which had been sent down to the coastal road to try to build a diversion around the demolished bridge, was driven back. Able company was forced to seek a non-existent shelter in the deepening mud. The forward platoon, directly engaged with several enemy posts, was helpless to advance.

Back on the southern escarpment Kennedy felt the appalling weight of the enemy’s defence, and understood that to prolong the battle would be to lose Able company. He gave the order to withdraw. Shocked and exhausted, Able straggled back while the rest of the Regiment, watching that vicious concentration of fire, knew that it had not, before this time, seen war in its real magnitude. For the balance of that long night men manned their Brens and kept their minds away from thoughts about the morrow.

Meanwhile, the main assault at San Leonardo had not met with success, for the enemy there had been as strong and as vigilant as he had been at the river mouth.

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