Three hours before daybreak, the 2nd Company under Lieutenant Payer, guided by a native, moved off via Mount Lodina to encircle the hostile position to the north. By 0500, Lieutenant Schoffel found
Sketch 63
The situation near Cimolais.
The enemy west of Cimolais was completely quiet. He surmised that, as on the previous day, the positions had been vacated.
Thereupon, I prepared for combat and ordered the mounted company commanders to the southern end of Cimolais. I rode off with my cyclist guards to determine whether the enemy actually had retreated and to reconnoitre the attack terrain in front of the hostile positions on both sides of the pass road. It was just first light as we trotted forth from the southern exit of Cimolais. The road rose gently toward the mountain and the cyclists were fifty to a hundred yards ahead of us.
When we reached La Crosett Chapel, 160 yards west of Cimolais, the slopes in front of us began to flash. Machine-gun and rifle
Sketch 64
The surprise machine-gun attack against the staff on reconnaissance. View from
The east.
Fire struck the road and whistled around our ears. In a few seconds, the cyclists were off their bicycles and riders off their horses, which galloped back toward Cimolais. Soon the whole reconnaissance staff gathered in La Crosett Chapel. No one was injured. The walls of the small chapel protected us against the lively fire now concentrated on our shelter. Soon the roof slate began to splinter under Italian machine-gun fire and the fragments cascaded down. The enemy had a better view of his target with each succeeding minute and his nearest position was a bare two hundred yards away. One hostile shell would have been enough to dispatch us into the hereafter. Such a fate was a certainty if we stayed. (Sketch 64)
When the rifle and machine-gun fire died down a little, I determined the sequence in which we would run back individually from cover to cover toward Cimolais. Sergeant Bruckner went first and I followed him. To be sure, the enemy fired heavily on each one of us, but since we ran out in different directions and never left cover at the spot where we had entered, we all succeeded in returning to Cimolais uninjured. Only a few horses were hurt on the reconnaissance trip. All of us would have been killed had the Italians allowed us to continue for an additional hundred yards.
Day had dawned. During the attack the observation squad of the detachment staff under Technical Sergeant Dobelmann had determined the extent of the hostile positions west of Cimolais with the detachment observation telescope (a 40-power glass captured in the Tagliamento incident). The flashes of the discharges in the morning twilight had facilitated their reconnaissance. Dobelmann took me up to the Cimolais church tower and pointed out the enemy who was in about battalion strength and well entrenched on both sides of the Cimolais-Erto road in fortified and well-developed positions abutting on the vertical rock walls of Mount Lodina about half a mile northwest of Cimolais. The enemy line ran along the steep boulder slope until it crossed the main road six hundred yards west of Cimolais. South of the road it ran along a rock ridge dropping abruptly to the east. The developed and connected positions ended 160 yards south of the road. From here, the northeast slope of Mount Cornetto was occupied by a hostile skirmish line of about company strength and a few machine guns. The hostile rifleman farthest left was about six hundred yards above the valley floor. The individual riflemen were skilfully dug in with a front toward Cimolais, but the rocky subsoil prevented the preparation of deep positions. Their positions consisted mainly of rocks and stones piled up round about. The hostile positions on the slope of Mount Lodina and on both sides of the road were protected by wire entanglements. The positions on the slope of Mount Cornetto did not need such protection, because vertical rock walls or roof-steep rocky rills made approach almost impossible. (Sketch 65)
During the night I had obligated myself to Major Sproesser to take these positions with a frontal attack. Could I keep my promise? I had imagined the task to be considerably easier. Now it was necessary to make an effort under these difficult conditions. A frontal attack on a broad front and astride the road could be made only against the wire-protected positions on Mount Lodina. It was exposed to flanking fire from Mount Cornetto. Of course it was possible that this effect might be partly counteracted by installing some machine guns on the commanding heights of a foothill of Mount
Sketch 65
Enemy positions west of Cimolais. View from the east.
Lodina eight hundred yards north of Cimolais, which the enemy had not included in his position, but the possibilities for adequate fire support for the attack against the wired-in positions were none too bright. An advance against the positions on Mount Cornetto appeared hopeless. A stone avalanche by the defenders would be sufficient to halt an attack without resorting to the hostile flanking fire from the Mount Lodina position. Daylight ended the possibility of an envelopment of the hostile positions via Mount Lodina, while a similar undertaking via Mount Cornetto offered no possibility of success. The east slope of the mountain consisted of vertical rock walls which probably no one had ever climbed.
There were no signs of the 2nd Company, which had climbed Mount Lodina during the night, and I guessed it had moved to the north and would not be ready to attack until dark. I also figured that Schiellein's and Gossler's enveloping units would not be able to attack prior to that time.
The only location from which suitable supporting fire could be delivered against the enemy positions west of Cimolais was a small hill eight hundred yards north of the town. This was a foothill of Mount Lodina, three thousand feet high, whose summit was covered with low brush. Having thoroughly surveyed the attack terrain with the glass from the church tower of Cimolais, I made the following decision: To attack the garrison on Mount Cornetto with combined fire of several light machine guns from commanding positions on the hill eight hundred yards north of Cimolais, to pin the garrison down, and then to attack up the valley and astride the road.
During the next few hours, unobserved by the enemy, I moved the 1st Company's light machine guns into position in the bushes on the knoll eight hundred yards north of Cimolais. They were placed under the command of Lieutenant Triebig, to whom I explained my offensive plan and the particular role he was to play. The remaining units of the detachment (the rest of the 1st Company, 3rd Company, 1st Machine-Gun Company) assembled on the concealed slopes just northwest of Cimolais and the individual units were given their missions. For the time being no one was committed. The command post was near the 1st Machine Gun-Company; the communications squad established telephone connections with the fire detachment of light machine guns, as well as with the 1st and 3rd Companies.
During these preparations, four mountain howitzers and several machine guns of the 1st Battalion of the 26th Imperial and Royal Rifle Regiment opened fire on the Italian pass position from the vicinity of Cimolais church without having previously established contact with the Rommel detachment or made any joint plans. Since this independent firing did not fit in with my plans, I went in person to Major Sproesser's command post in Cimolais and had them cease firing.
At 0900, I ordered the fire detachment of the 1st Company to open fire. According to orders, the fire of four light machine guns covered the hostile riflemen farthest left on the slope of Cornetto, while two light machine guns pinned down the remainder of the Cornetto garrison. Of course, the distance was excessive for the light machine guns (over fifteen hundred yards), but the effect was excellent. We observed it from various positions with the glass. To be sure, on the southeast flank the Italian riflemen, exposed to the fire from commanding positions, were not hit, but they were so covered with fire that they quickly abandoned their skirmish trenches and sought refuge in the hitherto un-endangered zone of their neighbours to the left. The light machine-gun fire of the mountain troops followed them, and it soon became too hot for the Italian soldiers even in their new holes. They moved rapidly toward the prepared position south of the pass road hoping to find shelter there against our fire. (Sketch 66)
At first only a few Italians moved, but an entire platoon was soon under way. That was what I had been waiting for. The 1st Machine-Gun Company was ordered to take up the fight from the hill just west of Cimolais. Up to that moment we had been unable to occupy that position because of its exposure to fire from Cornetto. The Cornetto garrison had been driven out. When the first heavy machine guns chimed in, a crowd of Italians (at least a company) on Cornetto, seven hundred yards away, rushed panic-stricken toward the southern end of the prepared positions on the cliff 160 yards south of the pass road. The effectiveness of our weapons increased considerably. One heavy machine gun after the other joined the fight. In addition we had the fire of the six light machine guns from very commanding positions. Across from us men were stampeding toward the narrow trench. It was soon jammed with soldiers and offered little protection against our light machine guns which were providing most effective plunging fire.
The 3rd Company was ordered to attack astride the road. It had nothing to fear from the Cornetto slope, and the machine-gun company was pinning down the remaining Italian positions. The machine guns did their job. While the 3rd Company worked its way forward in deep echelon, covered against the fire of the Italian garrison on the Lodina slope, the automatic weapons from the front and above covered the hostile positions south of the road, which were full of men. They pinned down the enemy north of the road and diverted him. The Italian positions south of the road began to empty. Movement was to the rear. The enemy had difficulty in escaping through the close network of German machine-gun fire delivered at 550 yards range. Most of the fleeing enemy were mowed down in a few minutes. I had the conduct of fire under complete control; for I was with the machine-gun company, and had a telephone line to the light machine-gun fire detachment up-slope to the rear.
The 3rd Company reached the hostile entanglements and smashed its way into the pass positions, splendidly supported by the heavy and light machine guns. We had won!
I ordered the fire detachment to continue firing. With everything else I followed rapidly into the captured pass position, using the same route as the 3rd Company. The hostile garrison on the Lodina
Sketch 66
Attack west of Cimolais. View from the east.
Slope still held out. A report was made to the battalion regarding the successful attack, and at the same time cyclists, mounted runners, and horses were ordered forward. When I arrived in the captured position, the Lodina garrison of two officers and two hundred men also laid down its arms. Particularly pleasing were our few losses; only minor wounds were listed. I had not expected that we could take the hostile position so cheaply.
Units of the hostile garrison fled to the west. My next job was to follow and overtake them and to capture the Piave valley as soon as possible.
Observations: We would have been spared the fire attack of the enemy on the reconnaissance staff had the combat reconnaissance against the enemy west of Cimolais been more thorough during the night of November 8-9.
On the other hand, their fire attack allowed us to determine their precise location. Technical Sergeant Dobelmann, the independent observer of the detachment, was especially skilful in using the fire attack to locate the enemy positions.
From a technical standpoint, the attack at Cimolais was a headache until the precise solution was found. Here the psychological effect of light machine-gun fire even at great distances was taken into account. The first Italian soldiers leaving Mount Cornetto caused panic among their fellows.
The cooperation of the weapons in the attack against the enemy west of Cimolais was masterful. Very strong fire was concentrated at the place of breakthrough just before the 3rd Company attacked. The well-prepared telephone net made tight control of the attack possible.
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