page_title: 13th Cavalry Regiment
section_title: North Apennines
hierarchical_section_title: 13th Cavalry Regiment / History / World War II / North Apennines
caption_attribution_description: English: B Co 13th Armor in Italy
context_page_description: The 13th Cavalry Regiment is a unit of the United States Army. The 2nd Squadron is currently stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas, as part of the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division.
context_section_description: Despite a rapid Allied advance into and beyond Rome, the Italian Front had stalemated once again at the German Gothic Line. The 13th Tank Battalion, commanded by LTC Henry E. Gardiner, was assigned to Combat Command B (CCB), commanded by COL Lawrence Russell Dewey, for the coming offensive. On 1 September 1944, CCB crossed the Arno river with combined tank and infantry columns and met only scant resistance. Swiftly advancing, CCB captured the town of Altopascio on 4 September, and the 13th Tank Battalion continued its steady advance. On 10 September, the tankers faced their first real German resistance of the offensive, but they continued to apply pressure to the enemy’s western flank to divert German troops from Fifth Army’s main effort at Il Giogo Pass. On 25 September 1st Armored Division was split up. The steep mountains and foothills of the Apennine Range were ill-suited to rapid armored assaults, and the Combat Commands of the Division were attached to infantry units to provide them with necessary tank support. 13th Tank Battalion was assigned to “Task Force 92” under BG John E. Wood. TF 92 was a component of the 92nd Infantry Division, a “Colored Division” in the segregated Army of WWII. TF 92 and 13th Tank Battalion worked together well, and from 26-29 September, they launched a large attack on German positions on the Gothic Line. They managed to capture the town of Lucchio and push the enemy out of the Serchio Valley. By the end of September 13th Tank Battalion and TF 92 was attacking down Highway 64 toward Vergato, operating independently of the 1st Armored or the 92nd Infantry Divisions.
  On 6 October 13th Tank was temporarily attached to the “6 South African Armoured Division.” The 1st Armored Division now held the extreme western flank of the II Corps Zone. Throughout October, the 13th Tank Battalion, on the left flank of CCB, pushed up the mountain slopes along Highway 64. First they reached Porretta Terme, and then near the end of the month, arrived beyond the town of Riola. An attack on 29 October against German positions at Castelnuovo was stopped short. The Germans counterattacked, but 13th Tank defeated them. In a last-ditch effort, the enemy destroyed all nearby bridges, forcing CCB to halt its attack. On 10 December 1944, after a month of inactivity on the front-line, 13th Tank Battalion was attached to the Allied Brazilian Expeditionary Force in an attack against Monte Castello, but they were repulsed by the Germans. As the winter cold and rain set in, both sides in this sector maintained defensive positions along the stalemated front. Late in 1944 and in early 1945, D Company’s M5 Stuart light tanks began to be replaced by the more modern M24 Chaffee light tanks. The Chaffee was a vast improvement over the Stuart, as its 75mm gun more than doubled the firepower of the Stuart’s 37mm gun. Throughout the winter, Companies A, B, C, and D conducted training and refitting for the coming campaign.
caption: B Co 13th Tank Battalion in Italy
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