Operation Encore

“In the brutal calculus of the Italian Front, Operation Encore was a desperate gamble to shatter Field Marshal Kesselring’s Gothic Line—a merciless network of fortified peaks and hidden strongholds the Germans deemed ‘unscalable.’ The 10th Mountain Division, comprising men like Johnnie Grey, launched a multi-pronged offensive that began with a silent, harrowing night climb of Riva Ridge—undertaken without artillery or preliminary bombardment and relying solely on ropes, pitons, and sheer human will against the unyielding rock.

Each desperate foot of ascent through the inky blackness was an act of extraordinary bravery, propelling the climbers toward an enemy entrenched in what seemed an impregnable fortress, utterly unaware of the impossible incursion creeping up the cliffs. The fate of the Italian campaign—and thousands of lives—teetered on the razor’s edge of that silent, death-defying climb.”