The Canadian Trick That Climbed a Cliff the Germans Called Impossible

The Canadian Trick That Climbed a Cliff the Germans Called Impossible: the First Special Service Force on Monte la Difensa, the battle of Monte la Difensa, Italy 1943. The First Special Service Force WW2 put Canadian special forces WW2 and Canadian army WW2 men beside Americans for Operation Raincoat on the Winter Line, the Mignano gap of the Italian campaign WW2. Thomas MacWilliam led the climb up the cliff the Germans called impossible; Robert Frederick commanded the Force. Then Remetanea and Monte Camino: WW2 mountain warfare in rain and snow, Canada in World War 2 and Canadian military history from the cliff to the Cassino War Cemetery. Monte la Difensa, Remetanea and Monte Camino were the Camino mountains of the Winter Line above the Mignano gap. The First Special Service Force climbed Monte la Difensa at night, held Monte la Difensa for six days in the Italian campaign WW2 and took Remetanea: Canadian special forces WW2, WW2 mountain warfare, Canadian military history. Did someone in your family serve with the First Special Service Force? Leave the name below. Chapters: 0:00 A cliff in Italy, after dark 4:52 Why this mountain 8:26 Built in Montana 10:54 The plan and the guns 12:42 A day below the cliffs 14:31 The mountain fights back 16:06 Remetanea 18:24 A white stone Sources: 1. Martin Blumenson, "Salerno to Cassino" (U.S. Army Center of Military History), chapters 14-15 2. U.S. Army, "75th anniversary of First Special Service Force at Monte la Difensa" (2018) 3. National Defence Canada, Western Sentinel, "The First Special Service Force is remembered and honoured at The Military Museums" (2022) 4. Legion Magazine, "The taking of Monte La Difensa" 5. Canadian Virtual War Memorial, Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Cail MacWilliam Archive film: "The Battle of San Pietro" (U.S. Army, 1945, partly restaged), public domain. Photographs: U.S. Army Signal Corps, Library and Archives Canada (CC BY 2.0), Imperial War Museums and others, via Wikimedia Commons; stand-in pictures are captioned on screen.