The Death Company by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 0000000000000
Published: 2023-01-15T06:19:16+00:00

Lieutenant Doctor Vacchetta Sergeant Umberto Banchelli

It was around 10:00 o’clock in the evening and I found myself leading my company, feeling dejected, disoriented, tired, and with frozen feet. I understood well how it must have seemed cruel to those poor devils to command them to hold their positions. It is hard to fight isolated and quite far away from your lines on harsh terrain and in unfavorable circumstances, where you cannot rely on either material or mortal comfort of other troops or leaders. It seemed pitiful to ask my soldiers for obedience under those circumstances, but no one deserted their duties. During the night, there was a constant back and forth of tired and numb soldiers who tried to leave their spotter positions and I had to endure the frustration of keeping them in their place. They silently obeyed and returned to their positions. They knew that although I was unflinching under these circumstances, I was also suffering alongside them. I tried my best to always be the first to give them an example to follow.

The cold grew more rigid. Wind and hunger made it more painful. I passed a few hours walking in circles in a little dip on the side of the trenches. I stomped my feet to keep the blood circulating, waiting for our supplies and the comfort of reinforcements to arrive. At midnight, I received a phonogram in which I was ordered to proceed along the Malga Trenca behind Mount Collo! My Arditi were resting in the valley and the Alpini had to make veritable miracles happen to get any rest in their positions. How could I have ordered a new attack in those circumstances, without being completely insane? I answered back with a phonogram of my own that is best not repeated here. Command did not insist, and they did well not to. My men needed rest.

Around 2:00 o’clock in the morning, the wind calmed, and the enemy artillery slowed down their shelling. I laid on a boulder to rest for a few hours, putting my head on a block of ice that I covered with my cloak, but my legs did not fit inside the cove. I would have surely found them frozen in the morning if my Alpino, Tessari, of the Val Brenta Battalion, had not proceeded to lay on them to warm me up with his body.

Finally, dawn came and with it the reinforcements. This allowed me to send the Alpini back for more well-earned rest. I handed the position over to the relieving platoon. Mount Collo was successfully captured by our forces. We managed to resist and hold that position until June, preventing the great flanking maneuver of the enemy for Mount Cima and Tesino Hill.

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