Attached to the side of the base of Maori’s war memorial. Plaque

A plaque with a white wooden frame about 18” by 18”.

The plaque remembers the US Army Rangers, or Darby’s Rangers, who were the key force component that landed at Maiori, the extreme left flank of Operation Avalanche or the Salerno Landings, and quickly took their objective of the Chiunzi Pass.  The Rangers were awarded a Distinguished Unit Citation for this action. The 1st, 3rd, and 4th Battalions were known as Darby's Rangers.

From the Army Special Operations Website, Article:

 “RANGERS IN WORLD WAR II

Part II, Sicily and Italy”

by Kenneth Finlayson and Robert W. Jones, Jr.

From Veritas, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2007

The Ranger Force was part of the British 10th Corps and consisted of the 1st, 3rd, and 4th Ranger Battalions, the British Number 2 and Number 41 Commando, and Companies C and D of the 83rd Chemical Mortar Battalion.19 The Rangers came ashore before daylight on 9 September 1943 at Maiori, about twenty miles west of Salerno on the extreme left flank of the Allied landing. Their mission was to take the town, destroy the nearby coastal defenses, then move to the high ground above the town, and seize the Chiunzi Pass over which passed the main road to Naples. Once at the pass, they were to prevent any Germans attempts to retake the pass which would hold up the Allied advance toward Naples. The 4th Battalion under Major Roy Murray quickly secured the beach and cleared the way for the 1st and 3rd battalions, who headed northwest to secure the Chiunzi Pass. The Rangers surprised the few defenders around Maiori, and they quickly gained their objectives by midmorning of the first day, occupying the heights on both sides of Chiunzi Pass.

Unlike the Rangers, however, the main invasion force failed to achieve most of its D-Day objectives. The Fifth Army was slow to break out of the beachhead as the Germans quickly moved to contain the landing. The Rangers’ two-day mission to hold the heights ended up lasting more than two weeks. The Rangers fought off successive German counterattacks and suffered through sustained artillery barrages as the Allied divisions continued to try to break through the stubborn German defenses. The Rangers’ defensive position stretched steadily westward toward the sea as they were forced to extend the line to match the movement of the Germans trying to outflank Salerno.23 In the days following the landing, Darby’s Ranger Force grew with the addition of a battalion of the 143rd Infantry, a battalion of the 325th Glider Infantry (minus one company), as well as tank, tank destroyer, and artillery elements (319th FA). When the Allies finally broke through and reached Naples on 8 October 1943, LTC Darby was in command of a force of roughly 8,500 men.24 Not until 9 February 1944 did the Rangers reach Naples and establish themselves in the city as the German Army evacuated and pulled back to defensive positions further north.

The 1st and 3rd Ranger Battalions won the Distinguished Unit Citation for their success at Chiunzi Pass, but the recognition came at a high price. In the month of September, Darby’s Ranger Force lost twenty-eight killed, nine missing, and over sixty-six wounded—approximately 10 percent of the force. Most of the casualties were suffered during the conventional fighting that followed the seizure of Chiunzi Pass.

The text on the plaque is written in Italian and English.  The English reds:

(Symbols of the 1^st, 3^rd and 4^th Rangers)

TO THE RANGERS WHO FELL

IN THE BATTLE FOR SALERNO

UNDER THE COMMAND OF COL. WM. O. DARBY, 1600 U.S.

RANGERS FOLLOWED BY THE 83^RD CHEM MORTAR BN.

LANDED AT MAIORI SEPTEMBER 9, 1943. THEY CONQUERED

AND SECURED CHIUNZI PASS ABOVE THE PLAIN OF NAPLES

AND DIRECTED MORTAR, ARTILLERY, NAVAL AND AIR

ASSAULT ON GERMANS USING THE ROADS TO SALERNO.

THEY DEFENDED THE ALLIES LEFT FLANK DESPITE DAILY

ATTACKS UNTIL VICTORY. THE RANGERS HERE WON TWO DISTINGUISHED UNIT CITATIONS.