Monty's Mountain Goats MTO (id:#58187)

Lone Canuck Publishing (The Canadians In Italy 2: The Spaghetti League ID: CDN11)   [next]   [previous]

Motta Montecorvino, Italy 1943-10-01 (1 other)

Overview:

Campobasso, a picturesque city nestled in the eastern foothills of the Apennines, was the Canadian objective. After resting in the vicinity of Potenza, the Canadians were moved northwards to Lucera, where they would operate on the left of a two-prong thrust mounted by the Eighth Army. While the British 78th Division followed the main highway from Foggia along the east coast towards Termoli, the First Canadian Division was sent into the mountains, due west of Foggia. Twelve miles from Lucera, Route 17 climbed rapidly. The first town was Motta Montecorvino. The vanguard of the First Division moved out of Lucera during the morning of 1 October and it soon became apparent that the Germans intended to fight for possession of Motta. The Princess Louise's Dragoon Guards armored cars came under heavy machine-gun and shellfire shortly after 0800 hours and the Canadians deployed for a tank-infantry assault. Two squadrons of Calgary Shermans and two platoons of B Company of the RCR would conduct the assault. The tanks broke into Motta but the infantry were soon pinned down by German artillery and machine-guns...

Defender: German (Elements of the 3rd Fallschirmjäger Regiment)  

Errata (source)