ROCKWELL PRAISED FOR RIDGE ATTACK
“Rocky’s Ridge Running Raiders,” part of the unit commanded by Lt. Col. Lloyd H. Rockwell of Council Bluffs, shattered any opinion held by the allied staff in Italy that the village of Oliveto, north of Venafro, couldn’t be taken.
The story of how the Company I boys went to work on the objective on Nov. 4 and blasted the well bulwarked Germans out of their nest was contained Wednesday in a Chicago Daily News dispatch.
In a battle that tested the mental as well as the physical stamina of the United States troops, Company I crossed the Volturno river under shell fire, passed through three miles of mine-infested plain and then, without rest, stormed the heights to Oliveto.
At 6:30 a.m. they reached the top and before the Germans knew what was happening the Americans got into a house at the eastern edge of the town and others pounced on Germans in the vicinity.
Many Iowa men were in the outfit, including Lt. Dennis F. Neal of Villisca, commander of Company L. The units, equipped with light mortars and machine guns, battered away for 36 hours before the nazis moved out, leaving 13 dead and half a dozen prisoners.
Company I lost only two men in the battle and the company commander, Lt. Wayne D. Frazier of Jamestown, N. Y., was wounded.
Source: The Council Bluffs Nonpareil, Council Bluffs, Iowa, Wednesday, November 17, 1943, Page 5
