These were sent to me by Papa Art...
The 10th Mountain Division was highly trained for operations in this environment and hand-picked personnel, at least initially.
Two questions:
1. Were replacements to the 10th from the regular infantry replacement pool or were specially trained replacements provided? If so, where were they trained and by whom?
The main question though is:
2. Standard infantry divisions without specialized training had to fight in the same environment and conditions and from my understanding they did well. Has anyone ever read anything addressing that? A comparison on how well standard divisions did in the mountains of Italy under winter conditions compared to the 10th?
Gordo
Marion J Chard
Proud Daughter of Walter 'Monday' Poniedzialek
540th Combat Engineer - H&S Company
More from same email...
Interesting question.
As a slight note, I'd note that the internal makeup of the 10th wasn't quite the same, which makes your question interesting for an additional reason. For example, the 10th trained a mounted reconnaissance at Camp Hale Colorado, disbanded it, and then reformed it as part of its makeup in 1943, keeping it until the end of the war.
I may post this query on TMH, as I'm curious about it.
Marion J Chard
Proud Daughter of Walter 'Monday' Poniedzialek
540th Combat Engineer - H&S Company
From Art personally...
Marion,
10th Mountain had 112th Mountain Engineer Battalion
papa
Marion J Chard
Proud Daughter of Walter 'Monday' Poniedzialek
540th Combat Engineer - H&S Company