 It was on a dark winter night in central Italy, but a group of expert GI rock climbers fixed ropes to the side of this mountain. Scaled this ridge in absolute silence and dealt defeat to the Germans who'd been waiting on top. The 10th Mountain Division, fresh from the States and new to combat, had done what others before had for months been unable to do. German field commanders, startled by the speed with which the outfit climbed and moved, called it America's elite mountain division. American commanders noted the compliment and then chose the 10th to spearhead the final push through the German lines. The story of that last assault in Italy is the subject of this film. It will be told by Italian citizens Angelo Maldini, Maria Morotti, and through the personal views and recollections of those who served at the front. My name is Bill Putnam. I was lieutenant for the 85th. My name is Franz Buber. I was a German soldier with a heavy artillery unit in Italy. My name is Ben Busch. I was a sergeant with the 86th. My name is Horst Kugelmeier. During the Second World War, I was a corporal with a mountain division in Italy. My name is William J. Moran. I was the division chaplain. I am Hans George Hildebrand. I was a German general in northern Italy at the end of the war. My name is George P. Hayes. I was the commanding general of the 10th Mountain Division. This is part two of the Climb to Glory, a combined German, American, and Italian account of the combat record of one of America's most unusual fighting outfits, the Army's 10th Mountain Division. As the last traces of the snows of 44 vanished from the Italian soil, the 10th Mountain Division prepared to move north to break through the rest of the German Apennine defense line. One of its immediate objectives was the once quiet town of Castel Diano. Innkeeper Angelo Maldini lives there today. The story of the 10th American Mountain Division in Castel Diano began on March the 3rd, 1945. There are many people at Castel Diano who remember that day. The American 10th Mountain Division could be seen coming through the valley. They had two objectives. Looking south on the right, the town of Castel Diano, and on the left, Monte de la Spé. The Germans were well entrenched. They were ready for them. We had eight months of front lines. In those eight months they tore down all the houses at Castel Diano. There wasn't one covered. There were also some dead. And then the Germans took from the houses all they could take. But when the Americans arrived, they gave us things to eat. And, well, we lived a little better. Castel Diano once again was secure and was given back to its own people. Three days after the battle started, Monte de la Spé was also secure. Some never knew the name of the place. They were left behind in the stillness that enveloped that mountain town. It was a bloody battle. The people here were glad when it was over. But the sadness that all wars bring can still be felt in these hills. The division paused to wait for its supply lines to catch up. And the men prepared for the next offensive. During this relative respite from battle, routine patrolling continued. The 10th Mountain Vision will attack from positions on Mount Delos Bay. The 85th Mountain Infantry will be on the left. The 87th on the right. The 86th Mountain Infantry will mop up the right half of the objective assigned to the 87th. This is what some men saw from their positions. Veterans of the campaign will remember that distant peak as the Roca Rofino and the lump to its left as the ridge of Mount Pigna. Held by the Germans, it marked the last major defense of their once touted Gothic line. Mount Pigna, too sheer to climb, would have to be captured at night from behind. This was done in a matter of hours. Rofino would have to be taken head on by day. The Roca Rofino's attack began very early in the morning at dawn. And we were starting from a high ridge looking down a valley. We weren't to start until after all the preparations had been readied so that we had a beautiful view in a beautiful day bathed in the sunlight of the valley, the mountain, and everything around it. This was in the spring and we were waiting for the beginning of the air attack. Before long the planes came overhead and it was a pleasure to see them diving down toward the mountain. And as they screamed down the mountain and turned on their way up, you'd see a release of flame that would reach almost the sky. An APOM BAM released. The fire lasts a long time because of the jelly that spreads along the mountains. And the rate of burning seemed to be terrific. Everything seemed to be inflamed. And as plane after plane peeled down and let go, it's bombed. And more and more flame reached up in the sky, it seemed as if nothing, nothing that was alive, could ever survive that fire. And when everything had been finished and everything had been done, and there seemed nothing more for us to do than just walk over. Just walk over leisurely and take the ground and it was ours, then everything came right back at us. Everything and more. Once again silence surrounded the valley as the tenth moved out. And the Germans watched them come. And they wondered how this elite division would ever cross this open terrain and climb to this incredible height. Few people will remember the name of this mountain hamlet below the Rocca Rufino. But it's where a number of Americans discovered that there were a number of Germans who were unwilling to throw in the towel. Their resistance ended when General Hayes sent a fresh battalion in from behind and surrounded the town. The tenth now fixed eyes on the ridges above and moved in to tackle the Rocca Rufino. A German corporal remembers what happened next, his name Horst Kugelmeier. Down in the valley there was heavy artillery fire, which made it impossible for us to retreat. And in front of us there were the Americans. We gave in to what was inevitable, threw our weapons away, walked toward the Americans, raised our hands and did exactly as the pamphlets had told us to do, to surrender. We expected hostile reactions, but well, one becomes a prisoner of war only once in life. The Americans searched us for weapons, ordered us to sit down, and suddenly it was rather funny at the moment. There came an American sergeant and he asked in German where we came from. We said we are from Munich and he remarked that he knew Straubing. They offered us cigarettes and suddenly all of us were sitting together. Americans and Germans next to each other and we smoked cigarettes. Our canteen went around, we still had some cognac in it, and I had the feeling that suddenly there was peace. By nightfall the Rocca Rufino was secure, but the Germans continued to harass the new arrivals with accurate mortar fire. And so for some people the battle ended on a different note. I was awfully tired that night, and sleepy too, but I think most of all I was thirsty. It had been a hot climb up Rocca Rufino, dusty, tired, and the water gave out awfully soon. But here it was past midnight, and I was on my way down to pick up replacements. No water in the canteen, nothing to drink. Even though the evening was cool, my throat was parched and thirsty. My legs were given out. I stumbled the way down, however got there I'll never know. And the backlight, that eerie light, orange flames licking out of the treetops, out of the little houses, red flames too. The whole fires, the whole mountain was dying, with that wonderful eerie light. And I was just making my way down, hoping I'd find them, hoping I'd find my way back. Without any mines, without any shells, without anybody being hit. Even now and then a gun would go off, not often. I guess the Germans were tired too. But they would go off once in a while, not enough to scare me. And then when I found them, and we started the way back, it was even more tired than, more tired. I stumbled forward, up to find my place where we were before. And suddenly, there was nothing, a huge light. A red light, I was an enveloped in the light, and I was floating. I was floating on my back, and I was saying to myself, so this is what it's like to be dead. So this is what it's like to be dead. So this is what it's like to be dead. It wasn't bad, didn't feel a thing, just floating in the air. Suddenly I landed. I could only tell I landed because it started hurting. I must have landed. I began to hurt all over. And then the mortar fire began, and the men came running over. Leaning over me, hiding me, acting like an umbrella to save me. Putting a blanket around me. Even then I began to think, boy, first aid, first aid for shock. I didn't care. Just too tired to move. I didn't care what happened. The division took a great many casualties in breaking through and securing the heights which you see in front of you. The 10th Mountain Division had finally cleared the last obstacle in its drive to capture the Poe Valley below. The Germans, tossed off the Apennines for good, began rolling north in the hope of slowing the Allied advance at two river crossings. The first at Bomb Porto, the other farther north at the town of San Benedetto. It was no secret that the Germans would try to destroy all the bridges. The 10th would attempt to prevent this from happening. Brigadier General Robinson Duff, second in command, was assigned to this mission. I gave Robbie Duff a battalion of infantry mounted on trucks. Some light tanks and reconnaissance units and told him to bypass any resistance he ran into and move as rapidly as he could down to the Bomb Porto bridges and capture them intact. I told him, never mind the Germans that he ran into to go around them, the rest of the division would come along behind and mop them up. Miraculously, the Germans were outrun. The bridge at Bomb Porto was captured intact. The rest of the division, racing up from behind, overran so many Germans that for a moment it looked as though the advance might be stopped by the simple burden of figuring out what to do with so many prisoners. General Hayes solved the problem by stationing MPs, 10 miles apart. The MPs then waved these war weary men into hastily erected enclosures. Captain Moran, in convoy up at the front, remembers taking part in these proceedings. Just before we moved from the Apodine Mountains into the Poe Valley, I had an unusual and rather rare experience. That is rare and unusual for a chaplain. I was returning from an aid station with my driver, my jeep driver, and we were coming down a country lane in this farm yard. When suddenly two Germans jumped out in front of the jeep. At first we thought they were going to engage us in combat, but we noticed that they did not have any weapons. However, one of them did have something that looked like hand grenade, but on closer examination we found that it was a hand of rations. We came to a sudden halt, of course, and with that they put up their hands and said the words kaput, meaning they wished to surrender. Unusual as this was, and unfamiliar as I was with this procedure, I however put the two prisoners in the back of my jeep and proceeded towards the main road. On the main road we joined in with the stream of traffic that was going back and forth, and as we went down the road we noticed a number of soldiers standing on the side. And as other prisoners and other vehicles went by, they made certain remarks to them, always in a jolly mood of course. But as I went by, with the division chapel written on my jeep, I heard one soldier say with an expletive, even the chaplain gets them. Farther north, however, there were still German units determined to make a last ditch stand. General Hayes remembers that it was in this action that he lost his second in command. It was then about nine o'clock at night. After we got straightened out and started again toward the Poe, Robbie Duff saw a mine lying in the middle of the road, and he ran over to the tank that was advancing on this mine, and wrapped on the door trying to tell them to stop and not run over the mine. Unfortunately, they ran over the mine just as he got to it, and that wounded it. Just a few miles away, the Germans were making a desperate attempt to get to the other side of the Poe. Their retreat was costly. Private Franz Hubel was there. We had to leave the wounded behind, and only those who found some means or material could save their lives. We crossed the Poe on trees, trunks, on telephone poles, car tires, and whatever else we had at our disposal. The physical and mental efficiency of the German soldiers at that time was at its lowest point, and everyone hoped that the war would soon be over. General Hildebrand remembers it this way. There was a shortage of everything, of ammunition, of gasoline, of reinforcements, of tanks, and above all, aircraft. Nevertheless, gentlemen, a demoralization of the troops did not occur. Our men at the front did their duty to the bitter end. That night, the tenth arrived at the Poe. Well, the next morning, I went down and looked across the Poe with my field glasses, and I could see that the dike on the other side was all prepared for defense. They had foxholes vetted in there, and as far as I could see, there were no infantry over there. And I thought, well, we'd better get across before the German infantry come and man those defenses. So I planned the crossing with the 87th infantry making the initial crossing at Hainu. It was warm and sunny, I believe, although we didn't much care about the scenery or the type of day. We had to cross up over the dike, and things were rather uncomfortable because the Germans had some anti-aircraft batteries on the north side of the river, a few miles upstream, and they were shelling us all the way across with time bursts which exploded right over us as we were in the field next to the river and as we were crossing. Once we got across the river, we could spread out and escape from this murderous type of artillery, so we did. At the same time, Bill Putnam remembers taking note of a sad realization. It was the day we crossed the Poe River. Ahead of me in the crossing had been Company L of the 87th. I spent happiest, perhaps, days of my army life in that company as a private, and I knew all the people in that company. When we crossed the Poe, they'd stopped ahead of us and my company crossed through theirs. I only recognized two people. Beyond the Poe, the 10th Mountain Division got fresh supplies, captured the town of Verona, and a few hours later lost its assistant division commander, Colonel William O. Darby, to a German shell. He received the rank of Brigadier General after his death. The 10th rolled north to Lake Garda and took to the water to capture the tunnels on both sides of the lake, and it left friends behind as the fading war claimed its very last victims. It fought for the town of Torboli and silenced resistance on the northern shore. It battered the Germans out of their last mountain stronghold. It cleared the Adige Line and then held the Germans at bay. My dear son, it appears that it won't last much longer in these murderous hills. Don't be sorry when I say we have lost, for that is the bitter fact. We no longer have any hope of stopping this incredible turn of events. I write this to you certain that no censor would be so foolish as to disagree with these words at this late hour. We will surrender when we can. We have been left no other course. No ridge, no peak, no height seems safe enough. We have been followed into the very heavens. We took the town of Riva. The war was over. At the war's end, General George P. Hayes stood on the bank of Lake Garda, faced his troops and said, When you soldiers go home, no one will believe you when you start telling of the spectacular things you have done. There have been more heroic deeds and experiences crammed into these days than I have heard of. I have been privileged to participate in many actions that were considered important and fierce battles. And I can assure you that one of the most better were the ones that we fought right here. Many times, we stuck our neck out with exposed planks. At one time, we were 20 miles in advance with both our planks exposed. The Lord held us by the hand. And then bells pealed in a thousand towns and for a moment time stood still as the world readjusted. And then it was no more than a memory, a memory of gunfire and mountains and of those who had died between Belvedere and Largo de Garda. Their memory will ever be with us, those who for a year or more, for a few months perhaps, were our friends, our comrades. And we feel that we have thy divine approval when we say that we are proud to be with them, members of the same unit, the same army, the same Commonwealth. And as we stand this day in the final moments of remembrance, under the same sun and same sky, under which our comrades worked and prayed and fought and played so well, we pray to thee, our sovereign God, that under the same sun and sky, they may find repose, rest everlasting, and life eternal, a soldier's valhalla, their reward. May they rest in peace.