In a whirlwind two and a half months the men of SST 11 find themselves having travelled from the islands off of Alaska to Fort Ethan Allan in Vermont and then after some brief but intense training, they take the trains down to Norfolk, Virginia and are soon boarded Transport Ships. They cross The Atlantic and arrive in North Africa, where they stay very briefly while learning all about the operations in what's being called the MTO or Mediterranean Theatre of Operations.....as opposed to the PTO (Pacific Theatre of Operations) and the ETO (European Theatre of Operations...i.e. Western Europe to include England, France and Germany)....
After the U.S. and England had invaded the Western part of North Africa in November of 1942; a campaign had been fought against the Germans that had last thru May of 1943 that had captured or driven back all German troops on the African continent and sent those that fled to Sicily and Italy proper...
Operation Husky; the invasion of Sicily; was launched in July of 1943 and lasted about a month before the whole island was in secure, Allied hands. This was followed in September of 1943 by the invasion of the Italian mainland and despite ALMOST being driven off the beaches at Salerno; the Allied forces had managed to seize the southern part of the Italian 'boot' pennisula; including the vital port of Naples. Italy had also surrendered; though the Germans reinforced the mountainous country and had fallen back and constructed a series of Defensive lines running West to East across the country's central mountains and every inch gained was paid for in blood.
These numerous lines all had names, but were collectively known as 'The Winter Line'. Each line was fought by scaling mountains that blocked the only routes through valleys and the Germans were wisely using Artillery and counter-attacks to bleed the Allies dry and stall them. This was the primary reason the heavily trained FSSF had been sent to this Theatre. By the time they were deployed to the lines in late November of '43; the first two defensive line, the Volturno and the Babara lines had been breached by the Allies with a mostly American and British force on the West and a British/Canadian/New Zealand force on the Eastern side....
Now it was time to breach the Bernhardt line.....and the Forcemen would be added to the U.S.36th Division and they, along with the 45th Division and British 56th and 46th Divisions, were being tapped to help hit the Camino Hill Mass to attempt to finally breach it; after two failed attempts in the past month. This Hill Mass (a series of 4 major peaks being held by the Germans) was the key to access to the Liri Valley; which was itself the 'road to Rome'....
Arriving in Italy, the Forcemen were soon moved to the Front Lines; hearing the shelling at night and noticing the fairly drastic difference in temperature from the pleasant 60s and 70s of Naples on the coast to the occasional light snow and bitter winds in the mountains as they moved inland and UP to join the rest of LT General Mark Clark's 5th Army; which was comprised of all of the earlier mentioned units (i.e. U.S. 36th and 45th Divison, British 56th and 46th Divisions, etc.). The unit got a LOT of funny looks and questions by their fellows when they saw the unfamiliar insignia and uniforms and ESPECIALLY due to the fact that they were made up of BOTH Americans and Canadians....
On a day with light drizzle, 26 November, Colonel Frederick himself stopped near the slightly damaged house that SST 11 had been assigned as a 'Baracks' and asked for the Team to step outside for a moment. Naturally, Captain Hyde-Smythe; who was MARGINALLY more bearable after his injuries and recovery; quickly had all the men out of the house and standing at attention. Frederick waved a hand dismissively quickly and said with a smile; "No need for that; you're the only actual combat vets in my outfit so far; so I wanted you all to come along with me. Let's take a ride, shall we?", and he turns and beckons them to follow him....
Waiting for them are 3 jeeps; each driven by an NCO and each with two with another Officer sitting in them. The NCOs are SSGT Van Ausdale; an American from New Mexico; SGT Fenton; a Canadian from Montreal and a SGT Bernstein; an American from Chicago. The other two officers are both LT Colonels and one is the highest ranking Canadian in the Force; Don Williamson who is the commanding officer of 2nd Regiment and the other is an American named Ed Walker; the commander of 3rd Regiment.
The members of SST 11 split into groups to load up in the 3 jeeps and a somewhat awkward hour-long ride follows with Colonel Frederick making pleasant conversation; stern Williamson coming across as a hard-a$$ professor type and Walker barely saying more than a word or two. The rain stops and a shortly after that, Frederick waves them off to the side of the road. "Okay, we gotta hike it from here", he says; and the next hour and a half goes by with all of them hiking up some steep, wooded hills and then finally, as they get to the edge of the tree-line, he waves them to a stop and they take in the site before them....
"Okay, so from here, we're directly East of the mass and we can see 3 of the four peaks that make up the Camino Hill Complex.....Hill 819 (number is the height in meters) or Monte Camino itself to the left/South.....and Hill 963 or Monastery Hill in the center will be the Brits' responsibility. We've got Hill 960 or Monte la Defensa to take. The last peak; Hill 907 or Monte la Remelanea is the one furthest North and East is almost directly behind Defensa from this perspective, so we can't see it from here. It's about a couple hundred yards back from la Defensa and we'll worry about that one once we're at the top. Okay, aerial photography and reports indicate the Jerries (slang for Germans) have about a Regiment of troops total on those peaks (about 2500 troops) and a battery of 105s."
"They've thrown off two assaults from the South; so now command thinks the best way to hit 'em is from the East....which is why we're here. I'm not convinced it's the best route and as the C.O. of the best damn Mountain Climbers on the Allied side; I figure we oughta take a gander first and see what our options look like from this side....or the North....the West is out of reach and the enemy has already thrown off two assaults from the South; so how about we all go and see for ourselves...."
With that, the Colonel gets down and starts to belly crawl to a position behind some rocks and then starts to look over the peaks with a pair of binoculars. The Officers are caught looking at each other in surprise and shock for the C.O. to be doing that first while the NCOs all just grin at each other and quickly move to join Frederick. Everyone else, belatedly follows and the officers, after seeing Frederick do so; pass the binocs around after taking a long hard look at the peaks....
Frederick starts to stealthily move in a circuitous route to take a look at the Northern slopes of the hill mass; assuming everyone else will follow*.....
OOC: Okay, if anybody wants to make a post about anything they did in the past few months before deploying here, by all means feel free to do so. Family time....meeting a girl.....whatever. In the 'here and now''; basically you can stay where you are; follow Frederick to get the 'lay of the land'; etc.; but clearly he's trying (and succeeding) to be stealthy and the NCOs would definitely let you know that the Germans would have spotters on the peaks and their Arty can DEFINITELY reach you guys.
