Monte Camino

[Paul Reed]

On our Italy trip this year we are aiming to visit this battlefield. I have just been reading about the action here in November 1943 - it looks as if it was fought over even more impossible terrain than Cassino.


Caption: Monte Camino November - December 1943: View of Monte Camino during the early stages of the first assault by the British 10th Corps.

Anyone got any good photos, sources etc?

Anyone been up there?

[Paul Reed]

This looks like the mule track used to get up and down to the positions on the feature.



Caption: Monte Camino November - December 1943: Stretcher bearers work under fire and in heavy rain to bring casualties down the side of Monte Camino.

The approx GE location of this is: 41°21'28.02"N 13°56'56.54"E

[Owen]

Paul.
I have this from The Grenadier Guards 1939-1945.
The short version not the multi-volume set.
The photo of strecther bearers is captioned on my copy as "Monte Camino, Evacuating casualties of the 6th Battalion."
Sorry photos are blurred, I'll redo them some other time.
It's not from the original book but a photo-copied one in a file I did back in 1986 after being lent it by Mr Calvert.

[Paul Reed]

Interesting - wonder if the monument is still there?

[Owen]

I'm sure we'll look for it.
Some other stories regarding 6GG.
Grenadier Guards Association Nottinghamshire Site1: BATTLE OF CAMINO, ITALY (Entd 04)

Grenadier Guards Association Nottinghamshire Site1: ADDENDUM TO BATTLE OF CAMINO (04) JAN 07

Testimonianze
From that last link, Paul, the Memorial is still there.
>>> I caduti militari 3 4

[Paul Reed]

Just found these photos of the battlefield:

MONTE CAMINO

[Owen]

http://www.history.army.mil/books/ww...rno-across.htm

[Paul Reed]

Nice one, Owen!

[Owen]

Not quite an exact then & now but I was on the right track, give or take a few hundred yards.

Monte Camino November - December 1943: Stretcher bearers work under fire and in heavy rain to bring casualties down the side of Monte Camino.

[Owen]

I'm currently kicking myself as I forgot that D.A.S. Adair , 6GG , was killed on Camino and is buried in Cassino War Cemetery.
CWGC :: Casualty Details

Son of Maj-Gen Adair, GOC, Guards Armoured Division.


Here is a view of Monte Camino overlooking the hamlet of Mieli, where we found the scorpion, the mule track leads up from there too.



If I remember correctly, the Scots Guards went up from Mieli to aid 6 GG.
The Grenadiers history also mentions Mieli.

Four hundred and eighty three Grenadiers had gone up to Camino, and only two hundred and sixty three returned.
Of the survivors, some could scarcely move from frost-bite, and others arrived back in Mieli in a state of such exhaustion that even the prospect of rum , blankets and a hot meal after all those days of cold and rain and near starvation could not rouse them to stir another yard.
They slept in the caves and shells of houses, indifferent to the heavy gunfire around them.

Here is another wartime photo of Camino.