Packs On! Recalls Mountain Battles of WWII
Author Gathers Memoirs of U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division
Senator Bob Dole describes a significant challenge to the U.S. military during World War II in the introduction to Packs On! “It became evident that if the United States was going to wage a successful war in Europe, it would have to defeat the enemy’s finest soldiers,” says Sen. Dole. “However, the U.S. Army was deficient in one important respect: it did not have a mountain division.”
Mountain divisions are the best option for militaries forced to engage in mountainous areas and snow-covered terrain. Due to special training and equipment, such units can execute combat missions lasting several days without the support of additional forces.
The 10th Mountain Division
The 10th Mountain Division was activated at Camp Hale, Colorado on July 15, 1943. The all-civilian, volunteer division was created after Charles Minot Dole urged Resident Franklin Roosevelt and General George Marshall to form a specially trained mountain unit.
The unit included all types of outdoorsmen -- cowboys, trappers, forest rangers, and loggers. Young recruits with skiing experience and world class skiers such as Torger Tokle, Robert Livermore, and Werner von Trapp joined the division. Draftees and soldiers from other units were assigned to round out the 10th Mountain Division’s complement of fifteen thousand men.
Deprivation and Suffering in the Italian Campaign
A.B. Feuer, military historian and freelance journalist, brings together the accounts of several men who served in the 10th Mountain Division, an excerpt from a U.S. Army training manual, and even selections from a German officer’s diary to deliver a broad picture of the experiences of both infantrymen and officers in several significant moments of World War II. The first-hand accounts presented in Packs On! show readers the deprivation, suffering, courage, and villainy of men on both sides of the conflict.
Feuer opens the book with a detailed timeline of the 10th Mountain Division’s Italian Campaign and almost a dozen maps. The easy to read maps provide a wealth of information on key troop movements during the campaign.
He continues with the personal accounts of the men. These accounts are occasionally disjointed as they skip through time and from place to place, but never fail to hold the readers’ interest.
First Hand Accounts of World War II
John W. Dewey of the 86th Mountain Infantry Regiment says of war, “All the teachings of modern civilization are abandoned to the barbaric ways of self-preservation. We hated it. The enemy hated it. But we were at war with each other. In peacetime, you get the electric chair for killing. In wartime, you get a medal.”
Dr. Morton Levitan, a medical officer with the 85th Mountain Infantry Regiment was captured by a German officer while attending to wounded soldiers. His story of life as a POW reveals an interesting perspective on the war. He was able to educate German military doctors, ate a meal with high-ranking field officers (even though he was Jewish), and assisted other American POWs in living with their situation.
Feuer doesn’t shy away from recounting World War II as it truly was. He uses the term “German” rather than the oft-used and distancing term ”Nazi” to portray the humanity -- both good and bad -- on both sides, and the accounts and photographs chosen by Feuer reveal the different experiences had by American infantrymen versus officers. Packs On!: Memoirs of the 10th Mountain Division in WWII is only one of A.B. Feuer’s well researched books on Allied military history. He is an alumnus of the University of Notre Dame and served in the U.S. Navy from 1943 - 46.
Packs On!
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A.B. Feuer
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