Mount Torraccia (1,083 m asl.) represented the top strategic German defense on the Gothic Line (Green Line II) centered on Mount Belvedere. Fortified and held by the German 232nd division from the summer of 1944. From 21 February 1945 it became the target of attack of the “mountaineers”, Americans of the 10th Mountain Division as part of “Operation Encore”, the Allied offensive to liberate the hills north of the Porrettana 64 state highway. After ferocious fighting on the afternoon of 24 February, with air support and artillery, the Americans of the 3rd Battalion, 86th Regiment were able to conquer the summit, maintaining control even in the face of successive and repeated German counterattacks. Remains of the German defense consisting of German trenches, posts and walkways, along with traces of “fox holes” dug by the Americans are still visible today on the peaks and slopes to the south-west.
