Excerpt from ATTACKS
By Field Marshal Erwin Rommel

We were glad to meet the scout squads at Fae. They quickly informed us as to their activities. Deputy Officer Huber and Technical Sergeant Hohnecker with sixteen men of the 1st Company succeeded in fording and swimming the Piave a mile south of Pirago, in spite of the very violent hostile machine-gun fire from Longarone, and took possession of Fae castle. Private Hildebrandt was killed. At Fae the small group blocked the road and railway to Belluno and captured the small squads of Italians coming from Longarone who believed they had reached safety. Lieutenant Schofel arrived later. In the course of the afternoon the units of the 1st Company at Fae captured 50 Italian officers and 780 men, and a large number of vehicles of all types.

They were glad to see the arrival of these welcome reinforcements. At times it had been rather uncomfortable for so few men to have so many prisoners. Above all, the Italian offficers needed to be strictly guarded. It had been impossible to move them off, and they were confined in an upper story of the castle and were guarded by two mountain troops. I had more important things to do than to worry about them.

Our scout squads had cut all telephone lines connecting Longarone and Belluno. Nevertheless, I was convinced that help was on the way for the Italians who were trapped in Longarone at the very least the hostile battery on Mount Degnon knew exactly what was going on in the vicinity of Longarone. I therefore gave the 3d Company of the 26th Imperial and Royal Rifle Regiment, reinforced by a heavy machine-gun platoon of the Wurttemberg Mountain Battalion, the mission of providing security and reconnaissance toward the south, the most advanced outpost being about half a mile south of Fae with the reinforced company in the neighborhood of Fae.

I did not count on receiving additional forces. The encircling detachments of the Wurttemberg Mountain Battalion (the Gossler and Schiellein detachments and the 2d Company), even if they did not encounter the enemy, could not have arrived at the mouth of the Vajont ravine, eleven hundred yards east of Longarone, before midnight. There, Major Sproesser had the remainder of the 1st Battalion of the 26th Imperial and Royal Rifle Regiment, the signal company of the Wurttemberg Mountain Battalion and the 377th Mountain Howitzer Detachment, which was out of ammunition.

Should I have been satisfied to block the Piave valley to the north and south on the west bank? Should I have waited until the enemy attacked? No, that was not according to my taste. In order to gain the decision at Longarone quickly, I decided to make a night attack on Longarone with the units of my force still at my disposal (1st, 3d Companies of the Wurttemberg Mountain Battalion and 1st Machine-Gun Company of the 26th Imperial and Royal Rifle Regiment).