Leoni battalion commander
In the 2nd battalion, Commander Berne engaged on the 25th to the left of the Gandoët battalion with hills 771 and 721 as the first objective (0 1). crossed the Rio Secco on the outskirts of Olivella, he moved with two companies, first in the lead on 382, to then occupy with a company, the 5th (Thévenon), 721 and at the same time seize the coast 700 dominating the road to Terelle, which must absolutely be taken to reach 771.
It is Captain Tixier, commanding the 7th company, who will take care of it. Bad news in the evening:in 382, a Cifalco minen fell on Commander Bern who, three-quarters stunned, had time to designate his deputy, Captain Leoni, to take command of the battalion.
A remarkable officer, Léoni had the connection established on the right with the Jordy company so that the front on 0 1 is now continuous, but the objective is 0 2, that is to say the Abate pass (hill 915). However, the men are shriveled with fatigue because they have walked and climbed all day and the cans are empty; nothing, either, as food, the K rations having been quickly absorbed. It is better to sleep, because the day promises to be rough for the next day.
But we leave before daybreak, the order being given to seize 0 2 as quickly as possible, and the assault will become general. Jordy on 862 and Léoni on 915, with two companies, the 6th and the 5th introduced after the death of its leader, Captain Chatillon.
Léoni had left without delay, preferring to walk at night in this basin of the Col Abate battered by fires, in order to find the hand-to-hand combat as quickly as possible and indeed he had won hill 915. But now the ammunition was running out and there was no not to hope for a refueling during the day.
But if Jordy succeeded at 862 and if Léoni did the same at 915, the news is worse for the right of the 3rd Battalion (Gandoët).
During the night of the 25th to the 26th, Commander Gandoét. worried about his 9th company left on 470. goes to Olivella with his command group.
There he found the 10th company and the accompanying company. but he also learns of the disaster that occurred in 470 after the death of second lieutenant El Hadi and the very strong reactions of the enemy.
Hill 470 has been lost and there is no news of Captain Denée, left wounded on the battlefield. Commander Gandoèt immediately decides to attempt the recovery of 470 with his command group, his support company and a company from the 1st battalion (Commander Bacqué) who has just arrived. He only managed to cling to the slopes of the position, but many wounded were picked up and evacuated on the Olivella.
Captain Denée. Seriously wounded, Midshipman Koeltz, son of General Koeltz, commanding the army corps of Algeria, wounded in the legs, dead and dead everywhere, testify to the relentlessness of the fight. Commander Gandoët would like to resume the attack at daylight, but it is an even more harmful day. The 3 'tirailleurs (Rocquigny battalion), which must come to relieve at 470 and prohibit the road to Belmonte, has not yet shown itself.
It seems, in fact, that on this third day of the fight, the enemy understood that it was in their interest to cut off from their rear the assailants who had ventured to the Belvedere and the Abate pass, and probably without supplies.
So he emerges, at dawn, in force, on the Belmonte road to throw himself on the Olivella right on the rear base of the Tunisians, while triggering a general counter-attack on the Abate pass and even 862. Nothing reached the units in line, neither food nor ammunition, and in the face of the powerful counter-attack of the enemy, that is the most serious thing.
Commander Berne, barely recovered from his concussion of the 25th, tried to join Captain Léoni on the morning of the 27th to resume command of his battalion. He will get there in the middle of a fight; the battalion no longer having a cartridge, was overwhelmed on its Golgotha and Commander Berne, again seriously wounded, was taken prisoner by the enemy.
The 2nd battalion survived, except for Captain Tixier's 7th company, which desperately clung to Hill 100 and the twists and turns of the Terelle road.
During the day, the news of the fight that can be heard crackling in the back of the Olivella is most alarming. Certainly. Bonjour's tanks are doing good work there, but we have no news of Colonel Roux, taken prisoner for a moment. We learn a little later that, having seen the tanks approaching, he rushed to his guards and was killed in this scuffle.