Untitled Document
Astride
the Minturno-Santa Maria road, SANTA MARIA INFANTE, ITALY, 12
May 1944:
After the American barrage was lifted from the Left Tit, the 3rd
Platoon, less the 4th Squad, pushed up the southern slope. Nearing
the crest, the 1st and 3rd Squads veered to the right, struck
the road, and moved along it for a few yards until the platoon
leader, Lieutenant Panich, intercepted them. He warned the 1st
and 3rd Squad leaders of mines on the road and steered them back
to the slope west of it. Moving west from the road, the 1st and
3rd Squads, 3rd Platoon moved down the ridge slope beyond the
Left Tit and swung west of house No. 2. Here they turned east
again and moved up along the terraces below Hill 103 at a fast
trot. A mine exploded, killing one man and wounding two more in
the 3rd Squad, but the squads continued to push up the rising
ground near Hill 103 to a point south of house No. 6 and west
of the big house No. 7 on the road. There two explosions rocked
the earth near the two squads and knocked them to the ground.
Picking themselves up, the men started for the road, or for where
they guessed it to be. Climbing up over the next terrace, they
followed it for about 15 yards until they hit a double strand
of concertina wire. Unable to move ahead, Sergeant Pyenta and
Corporal Tyler and the survivors of his squad started off, racing
over the terrace as fast as they could make it. As he passed from
view above the first terrace, Corporal Tyler called back to Sergeant
Pyenta, “The road’s up here!” The words were scarcely
out of his mouth before bursts of machine-gun fire silenced him
and mowed down the rest of his squad. The fire came from two automatic
weapons, one in house No. 7 on the road, the other in a dugout
behind the barbed wire and on the left flank of the 1st Squad.
It was the latter gun, firing at point-blank range, which did
most of the damage. 3rd Squad opened up on the two German machine
guns with everything they had. When the shower of explosives was
over, the machine guns were silent; the enemy had either been
knocked out or had retreated to other positions. But during the
fight the 1st and 3rd Squads were reduced to nine men, including
the 3rd Squad leader, Sergeant Pyenta.
The soldiers of
the American 351st Infantry Regiment, 88th Division were tasked
with cracking the mighty Gustav Line. Their mission was to break
the German stranglehold on the ‘Mount Bracchi Triangle’,
a wedge of hills dominated by enemy spandaus and mortars and open
the road to Rome. The fight would be slow and bloody, with each
German machine-gun nest needing to be eradicated before the next
leap of a few yards forward could be accomplished. The rolling
countryside and even slopes afforded Nazi soldiers superb positions
from which to site their weapons and rain murderous fire on anything
that moved.
THIS IS NOT A
COMPLETE GAME! Ownership of the ASLRB, and any modules providing
the Germans and Americans, plus standard system marker counters
is required to play this historical module.
