 On the Mount Samocron Ridge, the first battalion fought its way to within a few hundred yards of the objective. The ground gained at the rate of a man a yard. And it did not have strength to carry the fight any further forward. On Mount Lungo, however, despite bitter resistance, battalions of the 142nd and successive waves kept pushing upwards. Until, in the early daylight hours of the 16th of December, its foot soldiers had gained a summit and were wiping up what remained of a stubborn enemy. And that height proved to be a key position in the enemy plan of defense. For even as Mount Lungo fell, the enemy throughout the San Pietro area made preparations to withdraw. Almost invariably, the enemy will counterattack to cover a withdrawal. The first violent thrust was delivered within a few hours. Counterattacks came in waves. The roar of the last mingling with the rush and fury of the next to break. Many companies lost all their officers. Enlisted men came forward as inspirational leaders to rally their battered companies and resisted yet one more onslaught. Our own artillery was brought to fall within a hundred yards of our frontline elements. There's during which the earth never ceased to tremble, counterattacks ended, indicating the withdrawal of the enemy's main body had commenced. Maintained contact with the enemy, our patrols immediately pushed ahead, entering the town they discovered that San Pietro was ours for the paking. The second and third battalions, less than a rifle company in strength, weary to death who were alive, stumbled forward past San Pietro to consolidate gains and re-establish contact with the enemy, now taking up new positions some five kilometers beyond. That is the broad shape of the battle of San Pietro, which was the first of many battles in the early valley. It was a very costly battle. After the battle, the 143rd Infantry Regiment alone required 1,100 replacements. The lives lost were precious lives to their country, to their loved ones, and to the men themselves. For the living of the 143rd Infantry Regiment, more than 100 decorations were acts of fowl above and beyond the call of duty. Many among these you see alive here have since joined the ranks of their brothers-in-arms who fell at San Pietro. For ahead lay San Vittorio and the Rapido River and Casino, and beyond Casino more rivers and more mountains and more towns, more San Pietros, greater or lesser, a thousand more. As the battle passed over and beyond San Pietro, westward, towns people began to appear coming out of their caves in the mountains where they had stayed in hiding during the enemy occupation. They were mostly old people and children against enemy mines and booby traps which were in the process of being cleared, be as though the bad things had never happened, was resumed in San Pietro. Eat the enemy. The capture of the town itself and the liberation of its people is of an incidental nature. But the people in their military innocence look upon us solely as their deliverers, free them and their farmlands that we came. Behind our lives, southwest of the sea, the fields are green with growing crops planted after our coming by other people of other towns believed likewise. New one earth of San Pietro was plowed and sown. It should yield a good harvest this year, and the people prayed to their patron saint to intercede with God on behalf of those who came delivered them and passed on to the north of the passing battle.