Tobacco Factory

By 12 September elements of the 26th Panzer Division and the 29th Panzer Grenadier Division, arriving from the South, had reinforced the 16th Panzer Division in the Battipaglia-Eboli area. These forces entered the
battle of Salerno against VI Corps. From the North the Hermann Goering Division with detachments of the 15th Panzer Grenadier Division had also come to form another concentration in the Nocera district, facing 10 Corps. The 3d Panzer Grenadier Division had at least one battalion in the line on 14 September. Units from these divisions, organized in battle groups resembling our combat teams, were preparing to counterattack the Fifth Army.

Late in the afternoon of 12 September, Allied troops moved up again under a smoke screen fired by Company C, 2d Chemical Battalion. Companies A and C, 191st Tank Battalion, spearheaded the advance toward
the Factory at 1700. After clearing the Factory grounds, the tanks pushed on into the woods at the northeast end of the Tobacco Factory swell and withdrew at 1830. They left the 1st Battalion, 157th Infantry, in command of the area from the Factory to the road junction in the Grataglia. The 3d Battalion paralleled the advance by moving into positions west and south of Torre Palladino by 2200.