It is unlikely that you will find the battle for Cesena in October 1944 mentioned in many histories of the Second Word War. It was just one of the series of old Roman towns, strung out along the Via Emilia in the Po Valley, which Eighth Army had to take on its way to Bologna. The Canadian Corps were advancing up the highway; but protecting their left flank in the Apennine foothills was 46th British Infantry Division. 139 Brigade were tasked with taking two ridges south of Cesena, the 2/5th Leicesters on the left, the 5th Foresters on the right.
Both battalions were down to three rifle companies due to losses. The tactics were for these to leap-frog each other in a series of short advances. The operation began inauspiciously for the Foresters on 15 October when a jeep went over a bank injuring the adjutant and his signaller had been injured. Then two hours before midnight the HQ area was hit by German mortars, killing four NCOs in the Pioneer platoon. But during 16 October and the following night the battalion had fought their way forward along the ridge towards the church of San Tommaso where they planned to establish an artillery OP to direct fire onto the highway below.
On the morning of 17 October came the inevitable German counterattack. D Company came under small arms fire from both flanks, and its commander Captain ‘Dickie’ Dyke, at 22 years-old a veteran of ten months with the battalion, was hit by a rifle bullet in the left leg. Lieutenant James Lyall Robson, a DLI officer six years older than Dyke and who had been attached to the Foresters in April ordered a withdrawal but while doing this was killed crossing some open ground. Command passed to 29-year-old Lieutenant Alan Peter Fearn. He had been commissioned in May 1942, but in the Royal Artillery as an anti-aircraft gunner; he had only become an infantry officer when posted to the 14th Foresters on 21 September 1944. Five days later the 14th had been split up to provide replacements to 139 Brigade, and Fearn had gone to the 5th Battalion. Now just three weeks later he found himself in charge of a company, and led the rest of the men to take shelter in nearby houses.
Supported by the entire divisional artillery, as well as tanks of the Queens Bays and Vickers guns from the 9th Manchesters, the divisional machine-gun battalion, the Foresters and Leicesters managed to resume their advance and cleared the two ridges the following day. On 19 October the third battalion in the brigade, the 16th DLI, passed through the Leicesters into the outskirts of Cesena, fighting their way through the streets against determined but uncoordinated resistance. The Foresters meanwhile had made contact with the West Nova Scotia Regiment of the 1st Canadian Division that morning on the Via Emilia.
The 5th Foresters suffered 46 casualties during the operations south of Cesena, for possession of a relatively unimportant stretch of ground measuring roughly 2000 by 400 yards. An insignificant action? Not to the 14 men who lost their lives. This was attrition Italy-1944 style, using weight of metal to make up for diminishing manpower. It was the sum-total of thousands of these forgotten actions that bought victory.
