The matter-of-fact manner in which the mountain troopers carried their heavy burdens was amazing. Without appreciable rests they had been on the road or in battle for twenty-eight consecutive hours. Twice within this time they had climbed the Klautana Pass, a total difference in elevation of some six thousand feet. We moved downhill with a free gait. The Gossler detachment, as advance guard, had a considerable head start; we caught up with them at noon in Klaut village and moved on. The Gossler detachment ran into the enemy near Il Porto and attacked. A serious battle did not develop for the enemy withdrew to the north. While the Gossler detachment (5th Company, 3rd Machine-Gun Company) moved toward Il Porto, the Rommel detachment (1st, 2nd, and 3rd Companies, 1st Machine-Gun Company) left St. Gottardo as advance guard for the Wurttemberg Mountain Battalion which had been reinforced by the 1st Battalion of the 26th Imperial and Royal Rifle Regiment and was moving on Cimolais.
The Rommel detachment now deployed in pursuit of the enemy who was retreating along the western edge of the valley leading towards Cimolais. This valley, with sheer rock walls towering to some six thousand feet on either side, narrowed appreciably as we approached the town. Bushy terrain on both sides of the road concealed our movements from the enemy. A few cyclists under Lieutenant Schoffel, and as many of the staff as were mounted, acted as a sort of security line ahead of the deployed companies.
Darkness was falling as we reached the near bank of the Celina River just east of Cimolais. The gravelly stream bed, more than one hundred yards wide, was nearly dry. It seemed that the enemy had moved on in the direction of Longarone, since Cimolais appeared to be unoccupied. With the cyclists disposed on a broad front, I crossed the bed of the river. Not a shot was fired. This being so, Lieutenant Streicher and I rode up into the town. The local magistrate greeted us with extreme politeness, told us that everything had been prepared for the German troops, and attempted to press into my hand the keys of the town hall. How much could we trust all this? Had not, perhaps, the enemy prepared a clever ambush?
I sent the cyclists a short distance down the western road toward Longarone to provide security. Then the dead-tired Rommel detachment marched in and, on the alert, took up quarters in the southern section of the town where it secured the road to Longarone and the way toward Fornace Stadion. The billets were good and food was abundant. After the prodigious efforts of the Rommel detachment—thirty-two hours of uninterrupted battle or marching with very few pauses—a few hours sleep were needed to restore these riflemen to battle fitness. Who could tell what lay ahead of us farther down in the valley of the Piave?
The staff of the Wurttemberg Mountain Battalion, the signal company, the Schiellein detachment (4th, 6th Companies, 2nd Machine-Gun Company), and the 1st Battalion of the 26th Imperial and Royal Rifle Regiment, moved into the northern part of Cimolais. The latter provided security to the north. Night had fallen. The cyclists of the Rommel detachment under Lieutenant Schoffel reported the enemy to be in position digging himself in on the slopes of Mount Lodina (1996) and Mount Cornetto (1793). This report was transmitted to the battalion.
The battalion order arriving toward midnight read in part:
—While the 3rd Company attacks the enemy west of Cimolais in the morning of November 9, from the west edge of Cimolais, the Rommel detachment (1st, 2nd Companies, 1st Machine-Gun Company) encircles the hostile positions west of Cimolais via Mount Lodina (making the ascent before daybreak; similar envelopments by Schiellein's detachment (4th, 6th Companies, 2nd Machine-Gun Company) via Mount Cornetto (1792), Mount Certen (1882), Erto, and by Gossler's detachment (5th Company, 3rd Machine-Gun Company) via Hills 995, 1483 and Erto.” (Sketch 63)
An ascent by night over rugged, impassable rocky mountains, sixty-six hundred feet high (an elevation differential of forty - nine hundred feet) seemed impossible to me in view of the complete exhaustion of my men. Shortly after midnight, I went to Major Sproesser and asked him to change the orders. I suggested attacking the enemy west of Cimolais frontally with my entire detachment. Major Sproesser unwillingly changed the order so that only one company of the Rommel detachment had to execute the encirclement via Mount Lodina, while the other companies were at my disposal for the frontal attack.
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