Padre East leads services at Rimini, Italy after battle of the Rimini Line during which 32 Highlanders were killed. –  Photo of burial ceremony is 28 Sep 1944, with Piper Davy Donaldson behind Padre East. P0577

Rimini Line. The 48th received orders on 15 September 1944 to drive toward Rimini, eight kilometres away. To the left of their route was a ridge with a knoll at its end, code-named Kestrel. Crossing the start line at 0300 hours on the 16th, Baker Company immediately met a cluster of Spandau machine guns and Panzer tanks. Dog Company, with A Squadron of the 48th Royal Tank Regiment, moved to help. Able, joined up with B Squadron and with Charlie on the other flank, advanced along a dry stream bed to within 250 metres of their objective. Then the Observation Post on the knoll spotted them and shells poured in. Dog, failing to pass through Baker, charged through the wall of fire and dug in on their objective, one which to brigade planners in the rear was a pivotal location. On the ground one could see that it was flat, open, and useless. The CO ordered Charlie and Able back to a wadi to wait for night. The day had been costly, the most casualties in the Gothic line to date. The next afternoon at 1430 hours, the 48th resumed the attack. Charlie fought out of a check as its lead platoon, under Sergeant Andrew Gauthier, made 500 metres to their objective and dug in. Able was deluged by fire from the German 88s, yet persevered. Thirty metres from their objective Sergeant Stuart Montgomery led the charge to complete the task, throwing seventeen grenades to clear a strong point, then personally repelled a counterattack. The fire directed from Kestrel increased yet again. To cover a tactical withdrawal to a better position, CSM Vic Jackson stayed in the open and laid down smoke from a 2” mortar. Then, seeing Germans infiltrating between the two lead companies, the CO pulled them back. Able and Charlie Companies, now severely under strength, were consolidated into one under Captain Beal. Three Military Medals were awarded – Gauthier, Montgomery and Jackson.

On the night of 18/19, the 2nd Brigade flanked to the west and the Germans abandoned Kestrel; an OP rivalled only by the one at Monte Cassino in its construction and effect. Rimini fell on the 19th. The five-day toll for the 48th: 130 casualties of which 32 were killed, 8 captured and 90 wounded.