European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 6, 1945, Darmstadt, Hesse                                10th Mountain division these ski and Boot troopers Hove Learned How to get f he maximum in mobility and Surprise on the Snow covered slopes of by George Barrett yank staff correspondent with the fifth army in six Foo three my waved the German Pris Oner into the pm Cage with his machine the krauts fingers played nervously with the a Bullet Hole in his right breast he turned around and said to no one in particular they look upon the War As though it were a they Are not tired at its All a sport with he was talking about his the pm was one of 388 germans captured recently in three Days by the picked and specially trained ski and Boot troops of the lath Mountain infantry same outfit that used to pose for All those Snow pictures in the magazines and newsreels when it was training Back at Camp Hale in the Colorado in a Way the German was it sometimes seems As if the 10th regards this slow and Pun Ishing War in the apennines As a part of a College Winter sports there Are regi mental orders decreeing undergraduate Crew haircuts for every Man and encouraging before the division began its drive on mount Bel Vedere in late first successful american offensive action in Italy since the cracking of the gothic line five months the divisional newspaper published the following in Case youre worried about being Able to that Luger or machine pistol you expert to take from forget heres a direct quote from the top i dont want any souvenirs my men May get from a Kraut taken away from Luger or burp gun belongs to that Soldier and if he wants to Trade it off for Cognac or save it for his besi girl until after the Page 8 its to do with As he sees its open and there Are plenty of Good the next morning the 10th climbing upward Over sheer Cliffs that the germans had considered inaccessible and losing men in deep chasms and from dangerously High they took the strategic Mountain which had been lost on two previous they stripped the burp guns and and the mor tars and from the dead krauts and rolled the corpses Down the we returned with much said a i in the 2d platoon of company 86th Mountain we took a Victrola from a German dugout and carted it to our Jerry had left a lot of Al Jolson and we played them All night Long after we took the top of that there was nothing dangerous about making All that they knew we were there their butter is the Winter carnival atmosphere in the 10th is something that might be after Walter the Dartmouth ski is a first sergeant in the 87th Mountain Friedl slalom Champion and ski instructor at Sun is one of the Buck ser Torger the National ski jumping is a tech Herbert scout observer in the 86th regiments i and r has spent his whole life at Winter sport resorts he is the son of Hannes the famous austrian ski and most of the other men Are members of the National ski which helped the army organize its first Mountain infantry battalion in december at fort one of the few soldiers in the 10th who didst spend All their free time before the War at win Ter sports resorts and ski tournaments is the division George who flew Here from where he had been commanding the 2d infantry divisions and took Over the Mountain outfit when it arrived from the but Hays has another claim to distinction he is one of the rare generals who Are entitled to Wear the congressional medal of Honor he won it As a second lieutenant in the other world because the division was drawn largely from the social class of men who could afford the rather expensive sport of skiing in civilian it has More Swank than the usual infantry it is quite Normal to hear one of its lieutenants my platoon sergeant is a Princeton Grad William Douglas of Lake carefully makes his Way across a Mountain Stream on his cum laude or to get challenged in its area by a sentry with a Harvard Back at Camp where they bothered about such the average act of one of the regiments was which meant that the dumbest Buck private was eligible for if he did decide to take that the chances Are it  have gotten him out of the most officer candidates from the because of their specialized Moun Tain go right Back into the division after they get their nine of the current company commanders used to be enlisted men in the the men of the 10th have been trained for every kind of Mountain summer and Stu toed ski boots have heavy rubber cleats for Rock they Are particularly effective in Snow As Snow according to one platoon patrols of the 10th move five times As four times As fast As regular Winter reconnaissance patrols by the 10th Are Likely to be More successful than i and r sorties by Ordinary in Fantry outfits because ski soldiers go higher and deeper into the if they Are suddenly spotted by the krauts at close they have the mobility to get out and away the 10th faces Peculiar it is not for skiers to carry their rifles at port in enemy territory it takes two hands to use ski and skiers must use their poles to climb High under they have to fire their rifles with these poles still hanging from their the 12 Pound skis and 2pound poles make it important for the Mountain trooper to streamline his move he will sometimes carry grenades fast ened to his harness so the safety pin will be pulled out automatically when he yanks a Gre Nade off to toss a lot of the special equipment and tactics they cooked up Back in the states in How have been discarded at the they used to get super streamlined Mountain but they now find that the 10inls Are just As they dont bother to Wear the White ski pants any More the Parka is just As effective for rifles were once painted but that is not considered necessary on the line in special ski waxes Are in the but candles do the trick almost As we also discovered that the mountains Here Are a lot steeper and More windswept than those in the one i consequently we Learned that wed probably have to carry our skis a lot oftener than they carried on the other the altitudes in the apennines Are nothing compared with the feet of the where we its much easier to breathe Over during training Back in the states we stuck pretty close to the cover of but Here weve found were not taking Many risks if we move in the even in Day when we Are in positions higher than the the men find their skis make noise on the hard Snow crusts in the and they have to take their boards off when approaching a Kraut on the Mountain troops often require two one to break Trail and another to do the everybody in the division is trained to move of skis or snowshoes in even the Chap the Mountain troopers use the Arlberg technique of it is slower than the parallel technique but it provides More control on the turns and is a lot surer for soldiers carrying packs and they can move at 10 Miles per hour if they have to make a fast and a Good using i will Cut Over the Snow at 25 Miles per hour on some what with the Back pack and the weapons they this is considered pretty Good by the same Guys who in prewar races thought 50 Miles per hour was nothing and who made records of 80 Miles per Snow or weasels As they Are usually the Al purpose vehicles of the these amphibious even to the leather Tow skiers and do generally on the Snow what jeeps do on the with their tread they can go Al most anywhere a mule can the 10th is organized on the combat team Prin the rugged terrain of the mountains re quires that the various units be because supplies Are often impossible to trans the divisions artillery pack broken Down into sections and carried Over the mountains on gunners Are trained to direct their fire against masses of Rock and Snow to create avalanches and engulf Kraut positions on the slopes these tactics Are surprisingly division artillery officers Point out that More than half of the casualties in Alpine fighting during the first world War were caused by fighting in the mountains As a division pre sents the 10th with other for the length of a battalion going single file up a Mountain is four but there May be More than feet difference in Altitude Between the head and the Tail of the affecting differently the Speed and endurance of the men in its various the 10th probably does More climbing than and Many of their sessions look like some thing out of a sea Story when the gis practice knots and they use the tyrolean tra two rope Bridge stretched across Cre Vasses and improvise cableway to hoist jeeps and supplies up sheer ropes Are Standard equipment and Are Given the same personal care that mis the lore of hemp has been drilled into the men of the yank army amt they know that rope will lose 40 percent of its strength in nine months from age alone percent of strength is lost when Manila is Bent sharply around a and that any knot weakens a rope but no knot weakens it so Little As the the Mountain medics have had to alter Ordi nary plasma is useless to one medic it wont flow in intense and we dont even take it in we take very Little with us except morphine and what counts in our work is speedy wounded men relapse into Shock cases very fast in the cold at High and unless we get them to a warm place soon there the other Day we picked up a sergeant in the Snow and brought him to the station on a sled it was fast work but he was in profound Shock when we if we had not been equipped for Snow transport the Normal delay would have killed the medics Are picked partly for their size they Are generally husky Guys who have been Given intensive training in Mountain it takes a Strong Man to get casualties out of Moun Tain and Snow a medical Captain Points medics must be Snow shoe ropes and they must work in Large for it takes six or seven medics to go one expert Mountain climbing infantryman and bring him the medics Job is made harder by the fact that the ratio of walking wounded to litter cases is sharply decreased in Mountain even slightly wounded soldiers cannot stand the heavy Strain of struggling on foot Down Steep slopes and across special precautions must be taken with litter their helmets Are kept for to protect them from falling they must be securely but painlessly tied onto the litter across the Pelvis so they will not slide off while lurching Over the uneven to hard to think of any operation of ours that i is not different from most outfits a Captain in 10th division units Are told that no matter How Small they Are they can at any time become Independent mountains separate outfits very and on the basis of knowledge that 10th division troops Are extremely Alert and sop requires that Junior leaders be Given the they Are expected to do whatever needs doing to Complete the Overall then the Captain quoted from the manual there Are no problems in Mountain warfare which an aggressive and indomitable Leader can not the movement of Hannibal elephants through the in the dead of without Aid of is ancient proof that insurmountable obstacles can be that from our army the Captain its the kind of stuff we believe the Mountain medics Are skilled in getting sleds and litters up Steep the gis in the foreground Are having a rope tossed to them to tie to the Hubert Campbell of a 10th division stands guard Over a Bunch of prisoners just brought in by ski he has an m3 machine