A dramatic exhibit about a celebrated World War II U.S. Army unit, with Park Ridge ties, that fought the Germans on mountain slopes using skiing and mountain climbing techniques, opened April 13, kicked off by a Medal of Honor winner and a retired Army major general.
From vintage skis and uniforms to a gallery of photos to a 1944 Chicago Tribune front page, a time machine of memorabilia awaits visitors in a tribute to the Army’s 10th Mountain Division, deployed to northern Italy in World War II to dislodge their German counterparts from their mountainous redoubt and break through their lines.
The Park Ridge Historical Society exhibit also honors the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
Although the 10th Mountain Division, the Army’s first unit specifically trained in Colorado for mountain warfare, got its share of publicity when first formed, the veterans never got as dramatic a cinematic portrayal as all the other aspects of World War II heroism on land, sea and in the air.
The 10th Mountain would certainly have lent its history to re-created images, such as soldiers using mules to haul their equipment up mountainsides. When the mules could go no further, the GIs would lug their 100-pound packs up vertically themselves.
After six months of fighting in May 1945, the 10th’s record became so distinguished that the German commander in Italy elected to surrender specifically to the division, said Brian Claire, son of 10th Mountain veteran Frank V. Claire, Jr. and a Park Ridge native.
At the Park Ridge Historical Society, Evan Sanchez demonstrates how sealskin-type fabric on the U.S. Army 10th Mountain Division’s World War II-era skis was suited to going uphill or downhill. This part of the special exhibits is devoted to Frank V. Claire, who served in the 10th and lived until 2010. (Pam DeFiglio, Chicago Tribune/Pioneer Press)
Exhibit director Liz Ryles of the Historical Society and military history enthusiasts like Gary Linden, who is the curator of the Chicago Combined Veterans Museum in River Grove, put in many of the 400 hours needed to put the exhibit together, aided by Wilmette’s Jerry Shores, a collector who lent many of the items in the Italy portion of the exhibit, and others.
Claire recalled how the European theater of operation had two fronts for U.S. forces – France/Germany and Italy. The vast majority of publicity centered around D-Day, the Battle of the Bulge and the drive into the Reich.
The Italian campaign lasted much longer and was not as dramatic in ground-gaining for United States forces. The Germans stubbornly resisted, requiring the special talents of the 10th Mountain to battle an enemy experienced in mountain warfare.
The younger Claire said his father, who died in 2010 at age 85, did not talk a lot about actual combat, like millions of other World War II veterans who wanted to leave the horrifying memories behind. But he waxed eloquently about the training of the division, formed in 1943, that aimed to give the GIs the talents of mountain goats.
Elizabeth Ryles, in red dress, explains the Park Ridge Historical Society’s special exhibits in honor of the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Listening, from left to right, are Jerry Shores, a collector of military memorabilia who contributed to the exhibits, Martina Swanson, Evan Sanchez, Gary Linden, who worked with Ryles assembling the exhibits, and Robert Swanson.
“Only 5% of it was downhill skiing,” said Claire. The training was literally uphill and heavily psychological. If a soldier lost his grip and fell, he was trained to not yell in order to not give away the unit’s position.
Ryles directed attention to a part of the exhibit chronicling some northern Italian mountain towns, including Prunetta, in the province of Pistoia, north of Florence, where villagers took members of the 10th Mountain into their homes for warmth and friendship, and who in turn shared their rations with the hungry villagers.
When one of the soldiers didn’t come back from a mission, “the children would ask the remaining soldiers, ‘where’s your buddy?’” Ryles explained, saying some of the Italian families kept the diaries and letters of the fallen soldiers for decades because they had no contact information for their families. They were able to find each other in recent years on social media, she said.
In World War II, the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division used mountaineering, skiing and climbing skills to help defeat the Nazis. The Park Ridge Historical Society’s special exhibits on the 80th anniversary of D-Day pay tribute to them.
Claire said Charles “Minnie” Dole, who founded the National Ski Patrol in 1938, lobbied the U.S. military early in World War II to start a mountain corps, and they agreed to form a specialized Army unit trained in mountaineering and skiing.
In 1944, Ryles said, when ground-based U.S. Army troops in Italy couldn’t dislodge German soldiers from the mountains, they brought in the 10th.
The Army transported the soldiers of the 10th to Naples, in southern Italy, because the shores near northern Italy were infested with submarines. “I’m in touch with one of the guys who’s still alive, and he said they drove north from Naples in trucks,” Ryles explained, traveling far out of their way to avoid a submarine’s torpedo.
Claire and Ryles explained that the Germans had an encampment at the top of a sheer rock face and, because they considered it impenetrable, did not have much in the way of defenses at the top.
The 10th included mountain climbers in its ranks, and one night, they scaled the rock face and surprised the Germans at the top. Some of the mountain climbing crampons are included in the exhibit.
“It was a complete surprise; they never heard us come up the wall,” Ryles explained.
“They were rock-climbing before it was popular,” said retired Army Sgt. Allen Lynch, one of the honorees at the exhibit, who marveled at the division’s regimen compared to his own experience fighting in the fetid jungles of Vietnam. Lynch won the Medal of Honor for saving wounded squad mates under withering enemy fire.
No matter in which country their record was amassed, the feats of the “Greatest Generation” deserve to be commemorated indefinitely, said Lynch.
In World War II, the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division used mountaineering, skiing and climbing skills to help defeat the Nazis. The Park Ridge Historical Society’s special exhibits on the 80th anniversary of D-Day pay tribute to them.
“The World War II generation comes out of the Great Depression,” he said. “They knew how to make do without. They ate bread made of flour and sawdust. They knew if they lost World War II bad things would happen to the world and our country. They went on to build the greatest economy in the history of the world.”
More tributes were paid to the 10th Mountain by retired Major Gen. James H. Mukoyama, Jr.
“You can see the sacrifice of our service members,” said Glenview resident Mukoyama, who authored the memoir “Faith, Family and Flag: Memoirs of an Unlikely American Samurai Crusader,” available in book form. “It’s an honor to be here. This exhibit is incredible.”
Both Lynch and Mukoyama emphasized the lessons of history, in the ideal of Americans pulling together rather than operating in small tribes, from the exhibit.
“It’s important they know they’re part of something bigger than ourselves,” Mukoyama said. “It’s not about me.”
Veterans of the 10th Mountain put their skills to work for fun and profit when they returned home. Brian Claire said they founded the U.S. Ski Patrol, ran 62 ski resorts and were instrumental in starting sporting-goods companies like Nike.
And the offspring of division veterans hit the slopes without having to lay out the finances for new equipment.
“He had us skiing on Army surplus skis,” Brian Claire said of his father.
A sign at the exhibit also notes that veterans of the 10th Mountain founded Aspen, Vail and Arapahoe ski resorts in Colorado, Iron Mountain and Pine Mountain in Michigan and many others, invented the safety release binding for skis, the gondola lift and triple and quad chairs, among other things.
Ryles, a Park Ridge Historical Society board member who has helped with other exhibits, also had an important military influence in her family to guide her work. Husband Larry Ryles was a sergeant major in the 101st Airborne Division, another legendary military unit.
The exhibit can be viewed at the Park Ridge History Center, 721 N. Prospect, Park Ridge, during open hours from 1 to 3 p.m. on Saturdays April 20 and 27 and May 4, 11 and 18. A family-friendly outdoor event, “Living History World War II” will be held May 18 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The Italian makers of a recent film about the mountain villagers’ experience with the 10th Mountain Division are planning to screen it in June at the Des Plaines Theatre.
