Padre East addresses troops at Piedmonte, Cemetery, late May 1944.
The 48th Highlanders were at rest at Piedmonte d’Alife following their two-day breaching of the Adolph Hitler line on 22/23 May at the head of the Liri Valley near Pontecorvo. The 48th Highlanders were the first to breach the Hitler Line, despite being sent as a single battalion, without Armour, FOO for artillery or the engineers’ recce of the wire and mine fields, as a “subsidiary operation” prior to the Division’s two-brigade attack (Operation Chesterfield) at the Melo River, planned for several days later. The 48th success in creating a bridgehead enabled the 1st Brigade to follow up and complete the breaching through to Pontecorvo.