Content provided in partnership with
Documenting the 10th
Soldiers Magazine, June, 2005 by Cain S. Claxton
IN MAKING a documentary about the 10th Mountain Division's operations in Italy during World War II, film producer Abbie Kealy thought she might learn more about her uncle, who was killed in the division's assault on Mount Belvedere.
The more Kealy learned about Stuart Abbot, the more she learned about the division, she said, and realized there was a "great story" to tell.
The ambitious project took Kealy across America to conduct interviews with scores of World War II veterans, and to Afghanistan, where she met the young men and women who are part of the division today.
In Italy, she filmed re-enactments of battles at the sites where division Soldiers fought German troops.
- Most Popular Articles in News
- The Ten Best Laptop bags
- Tata plans cheapest-ever car for Indian market
- GLOBALIZATION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF UNDERDEVELOPMENT OF THE THIRD WORLD
- Corn is good for you; Corn is not only a tasty treat, but also a cereal that ...
- THE 50 BEST STYLISH HANDBAGS TO CARRY
- More »
Her effort gained momentum when author and historian McKay Jenkins asked her for photographs of her uncle. McKay was writing "The Last Ridge," a book about the 10th Mtn. Div. Using journals and letters from division veterans, Jenkins wanted to personalize the division's historical record.
Kealy adopted the book's title for her film, which will be narrated by actor David Hyde Pierce, who is also a descendant of a World War II 10th Mtn. veteran. Kealy filmed narratives of some 80 veterans.
For historical film footage, she searched archival records of the division and found that the film record before the division shipped to Italy in 1945 was excellent, largely due to the fact that Hollywood filmmakers frequented the division's mountain training area--Camp Hale, Colo.--because they were captivated by the unit's specialization as ski troops.
The division's visual record in Italy, where it was deployed to close out the war, dropped off precipitously, she said.
Having been to Italy to trace the division's campaign trail, Kealy knew much of the terrain was virtually unchanged since the war.
"The goal with the re-enactments was to try and create a visual record where there really was none," Kealy said. "I really wanted viewers to get a sense of what it was like to be looking for your next hand- and foot-hold," in a battle that took Soldiers uphill in the snow, she said.
The re-enactment Kealy described is the division's assault on Riva Ridge, a series of six or seven peaks that jut 3,000 feet from a narrow river valley. In a nighttime assault, Soldiers from the division's 86th Infantry Regiment silently ascended the steep slopes, surprising Germans troops who were at the top of the ridge.
German soldiers had been watching for activity on nearby Mount Belvedere and were ready to rain artillery on any American trying to capture that important vantage point. No one watched the steep southern slope of Riva Ridge, Kealy said, because German soldiers had thought it was impassable.
"When you actually start re-enacting, you realize just how difficult the actual attack must have been," Kealy said. Soldiers on both sides were operating under horrible conditions.
"That's really difficult to understand from the pictures and movies that have been shot from the bottom of the ridge. I really felt it was important for people to understand what the physical obstacles were, and we made a big effort to capture that--not only on Riva Ridge, but other areas that are big in legend but small in critical visual record."
"This is a very modestly budgeted documentary film, and it's worth making, but it's not like we can afford to shoot 'Saving Private Ryan,'" said Emmy Award-winning cameraman Richard Chisolm. "In terms of these re-enactments, it is very tricky, because we can't shoot a whole battle when we only have three or four actors and one little video camera. So what do we do?
"We shoot nostalgic dream sequences that are mixed in with stories, interviews and still photographs to create glimpses of emotions and textures of war in the mountains," Chisolm said.
"We also filmed the topography, which is timeless if you avoid modern architecture and telephone poles," he said. "My job is to squeeze paint onto the pallet. The film is made on the editing table. The more paint I can squeeze out, the better the film might be."
Even without the threat of enemy fire and the burden of 90-pound rucksacks on their backs, Kealy, Chisolm and the small team of re-enactors were challenged by Riva Ridge. Six to eight inches of snow blanketed the Appenine Mountain region two days before filming began.
Fortunately for Kealy's crew, four Italian mountain men, called "Alpini," accompanied them on the climb. Months earlier, these men--three of whom are in their 70s--cleared and marked a route all the way to the top of the ridgeline.
"We're so grateful to the Alpini for creating a path for us," Kealy said. "We're so lucky to have these people who are still so grateful to the Americans that they are willing to clear these miles and miles of paths for us to climb."
When talking to current 10th Mtn. Div. Soldiers in Afghanistan, Kealy said, she heard stories of gratitude from Afghans, similar to those of the Italians, who were treated well by U.S. forces during World War II.
