page_title: Special Troops Battalion, 10th Mountain Division
section_title: Italy
hierarchical_section_title: Special Troops Battalion, 10th Mountain Division / History / World War II / Italy
caption_attribution_description: During the air preparation of the big "push" in Italy by the U.S. Fifth Army, the men, mules, and armor of the 10th Mountain Division and supporting tank units move forward between 8:30 A.M. and 9:10 A.M., 14 April 1945. Bologna, Italy.
context_page_description: The 10th Mountain Division Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion is an updated version of the special troops battalion of the United States Army headquartered at Fort Drum, New York. It is the organization for the command elements of the 10th Mountain Division. The Battalion contains the Division's senior command structure, including its Headquarters Company, as well as communications, intelligence, operational and support elements as well as the Division Band which provide services to any units assigned to the Headquarters at a time.
  Activated to oversee division elements prior to World War II, the battalion fought in Italy for a year. After the war it served as the command element for the 10th when it was a training unit. Due to reorganizations in the Army, the 10th Mountain Headquarters was activated with only a Headquarters Company in 1985, and served in numerous contingencies throughout the 1990s. During another Army reorganization in 2004, the 10th Mountain Division Headquarters Company was reestablished as the Division Special Troops Battalion, "Gauntlet" on 13 September 2004 in accordance with Army Modularity.
context_section_description: The battalion and its division sailed for Italy in late 1944, arriving in Italy on 6 January 1945. It was the last US Army Division to enter warfare in World War II.
  The battalion delivered command for the division as it instantaneously entered combat near Cutigliano and Orsigna. Preliminary defensive actions were followed on 19 February 1945 by Battle of Monte Castello in conjunction with troops of a Brazilian Expeditionary Force.
  The unit made concerted attacks on the Monte Della Torraccia-Mount Belvedere sector, and the mountaintops were cleared after several days of hefty fighting. In early March the division brawled its way north of Canolle and moved to within 15 miles (24 km) of Bologna. Maintaining cautious positions for the next three weeks, the division jumped off again in April, captured Mongiorgio on 4/20, and entered the Po Valley, seizing the premeditated points Pradalbino and Bomporto. The 10th crossed the Po River on 23 April, reaching Verona on 25 April, and ran into heavy resistance at Torbole and Nago. After an amphibious crossing of Lake Garda, it secured Gargnano and Porto di Tremosine on 30 April, as German resistance in Italy ended. After the German surrender in Italy on 2 May 1945, the division went on security duty, receiving the surrender of various German units and screening the areas of occupation near Trieste, Kobarid, Bovec and Log pod Mangartom, Slovenia until V-E Day, the end of the war in Europe.
caption: The division progressing in Italy, April 1945
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