Bonus Content

A black-and-white informational flyer asking if the reader has joined their ski patrol system, explaining the organization and requesting support for their volunteer work with the National Ski Patrol System.
Historical military map showing troop movements and operations in a region with terrain features such as mountains and rivers, details of phase lines, and allied axes of attack during Operation Encore from February to March 1945.
Cover page of a CSI Battlebook titled 'Operation Encore' from the Combat Studies Institute, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, dated March 21, 1985.

Combat Studies Institute Battlebook 15-D — “Operation Encore”

To crack Field Marshal Albert Kesselring’s Gothic Line in northern Italy, the Allies had to overcome an obstacle deemed impossible: Riva Ridge.

In the predawn darkness of Operation Encore, soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division silently scaled the sheer cliffs and seized the crest, opening the route to the real prize—Mount Belvedere, a heavily fortified bastion.

The bold vertical assault cemented the division’s reputation as “the … spearhead that pointed the way to final victory in Italy” (Combat Studies Institute, 1984, p. 19).