Excerpt from ATTACKS
By Field Marshal Erwin Rommel

As we neared the Pirago bridges the enemy blew them up. Under cover of the 1st Company up on the slope to the left, we soon reached the site of the blown bridges to find, half buried under debris, a severely wounded mountain rifleman. There was no sign of the enemy on the other side.
Heavy machine guns were emplaced on the steep slopes just south of the bridge sites, and under their cover we scrambled over the wreckage of the iron bridges. As we approached the spot where the barricade had been placed the night before, we saw Lieutenant Schoffel riding toward us from Longarone astride a mule. He was followed by hundreds of handkerchief-waving Italians. Schoffel, who had been taken prisoner in the night battle south of Pirago, brought the glad news of the capitulation by the entire Italian force around Longarone as written down by the enemy commander:

Headquarters, Fortress Longarone
To the commander of the Austrian and German forces:

The forces in Longarone are not in any condition to offer further resistance. This Headquarters places itself at your disposal and awaits your decision as to the disposition of our troops.

Major Lay

This happy ending to days of hard fighting made us feel fine, especially since we knew that our comrades, who had been taken prisoner at Pirago, were free again. The Italians lined up on both sides of the road and our march to Longarone was to the accompaniment of their cheer "Evviva Germania!" The commander of the 1st Machine-gun Company of the 26th Rifle Regiment, who had been captured, severely wounded, by the Italians before Longarone with the greatest part of his company, was driven out toward us in an automobile ambulance. Our progress through the crowded streets was very slow. I went ahead with the ambulance and, in the Longarone marketplace, found the units of my detachment who had been captured. Their arms and equipment had been restored and they held the town pending our arrival. My detachment was the first body of German troops to enter Longarone. We marched in and quartered ourselves in a group of buildings south of the church. It began to rain. There were thousands of Italians and it was slow work moving them from Longarone to the Piave flats to the east. The remaining units of the Wurttemberg Mountain Battalion, following the 22d Imperial and Royal Infantry Division, marched out of the Vajont ravine.