The
Gothic Line formed
Field MarshalField Marshal is a military officer rank. Today, it is the highest rank in the armies in which it is used, one step above a general or colonel-general.-Usage and hierarchical position:...
Albert KesselringAlbert Kesselring was a Luftwaffe Generalfeldmarschall during World War II. In a military career that spanned both World Wars, Kesselring became one of Nazi Germany's most skilful commanders, being one of 27 soldiers awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and...
's last major line of defence in the final stages of
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
along the summits of the
ApenninesThe Apennines or Apennine Mountains is a mountain range stretching c. 1,200 km from the north to the south of Italy along its east coast, traversing the entire peninsula, and forming the backbone of the country...
during the fighting retreat of
Nazi GermanyNazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany between 1933 and 1945, while it was led by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker's Party . The name Third Reich refers to the state as the successor to the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages and the German...
's forces in
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
against the
Allied Armies in ItalyAllied Armies in Italy, commanded by Field Marshal Sir Harold Alexander, was the title of the highest Allied field headquarters in Italy, during the middle part of the Italian campaign...
commanded by General Sir
Harold AlexanderField Marshal Harold Rupert Leofric George Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis was a British military commander and field marshal of Anglo-Irish descent who served with distinction in both world wars, and between 1946 and 1952 served as the Governor General of Canada...
.
HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , popularly known as the Nazi Party...
had concerns about the state of preparation of the Gothic Line: He feared the Allies would use amphibious landings to
out-flankIn military tactics, a flanking maneuver, also called a flank attack, is an attack on the sides of an opposing force. If a flanking maneuver succeeds, the opposing force would be surrounded from two or more directions, which significantly reduces the maneuverability of the outflanked force and its...
its defenses. So, to downgrade its importance in the eyes of both friend and foe, he ordered the name, with its historic connotations, changed, reasoning that if the Allies managed to break through they would not be able to use the more impressive name to magnify their victory claims. In response to this order, Kesselring renamed it the
"Green Line" in June 1944.
The Gothic Line was breached on both the Adriatic and the central Apennine fronts during Operation Olive (also sometimes known as the Battle of Rimini) during the autumn of 1944, but Kesselring's forces were consistently able to retire in good order, and no decisive breakthrough was achieved. This did not take place until the renewed
offensive in the spring of 1945The Spring 1945 offensive in Italy, codenamed Operation Grapeshot, was the Allied attack by Fifth United States Army and British 8th Army into the Lombardy Plain which started on April 6 1945 and ended on May 2 with the surrender of German forces in Italy....
. On April 29 1945,
Heinrich von VietinghoffHeinrich Gottfried von Vietinghoff genannt Scheel was a German Colonel-General of the German Army during the Second World War.-Early life and family:...
, Commander of the German Army Group C, signed an instrument of surrender, and hostilities in Italy formally ceased on May 2.
Background
After the nearly concurrent breakthroughs at
CassinoThe Battle of Monte Cassino was a costly series of four battles during World War II, fought by the Allies with the intention of breaking through the Winter Line and seizing Rome.In the beginning of 1944, the western half of the Winter Line was being anchored by Germans holding the Rapido, Liri and...
and Anzio in spring 1944, the 11 nations representing the
AlliesThe Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . The involvement of the Allies in World War II was either natural and inevitable they were invaded or under the direct threat of invasion by the Axis or compelled by concerns that the Axis powers...
in Italy finally had a chance to trap the Germans in a
pincer movementThe pincer movement or double envelopment is a basic element of military strategy which has been used, to some extent, in many wars, and is considered to be the consummate military maneuver, executed by Hannibal at the Battle of Cannae in 216 BCE...
and to realize some of
Winston ChurchillSir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC was a British politician known chiefly for his leadership of the United Kingdom during World War II. He served as Prime Minister from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. A noted statesman and orator, Churchill was also an officer...
's strategic goals for the long, costly campaign against the
AxisThe Axis powers comprised the countries that were opposed to the Allies during World War II. The three major Axis powers—Germany, Italy, and Japan—were part of a military alliance on the signing of the Tripartite Pact in September 1940, which officially founded the Axis powers...
"underbelly". This would have required Fifth United States Army under Lieutenant-General Mark Clark to commit most of his Anzio forces to the drive east from
CisternaCisterna di Latina is a town and comune in the province of Latina in Lazio, of central Italy. It was the scene of the Battle of Cisterna in January 1944.The abitants are also called cisternesi....
, and to execute the envelopment envisioned in the original planning for the Anzio landing (i.e., flank the German Tenth Army, and sever its northbound line of retreat from Cassino). Instead, fearing that the
Eighth ArmyThe Eighth Army was one of the best-known formations of the British Army during World War II, fighting in the North African and Italian campaigns....
might beat him to
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million...
, Clark diverted a large part of his Anzio force in that direction in an attempt to ensure that he and the 5th Army would have the honor of liberating the Eternal City.
As a result, most of Kesselring's forces slipped the noose and fell back north fighting delaying actions, notably in late June on the
Trasimene LineThe Trasimene Line was a German defensive line during the Italian Campaign of World War II. It was also sometimes known as the Albert Line...
(running from just south of
AnconaAncona is a city and a seaport in the Marche, a region of central Italy, population 101,909 . Ancona is situated on the Adriatic Sea and is the center of the province of Ancona and the capital of the region....
on the east coast, past the southern shores of
Lake TrasimenoLake Trasimeno or Trasimene , is the largest lake on the Italian peninsula south of the Po with a surface area of 128 km², slightly less than Lake Como...
near
PerugiaPerugia is the capital city of the region of Umbria in central Italy, near the Tiber River, and the capital of the province of Perugia. The city symbol is the griffin, which can be seen in the form of plaques and statues on buildings around the city.Perugia is a notable artistic center of Italy...
and on to the west coast south of
GrossetoGrosseto is a town and comune in the central Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of the Province of Grosseto. The city lies 14 km from the Tyrrhenian Sea, in the Maremma, at the centre of an alluvial plain, on the Ombrone river....
) and in July on the Arno Line (running from the west coast along the line of the
Arno RiverThe Arno is a river in the Tuscany region of Italy. It is the most important river of central Italy after the Tiber.- Source and route :The river originates on Mount Falterona in the Casentino area of the Apennines, and takes initially a southward curve...
and into the
Apennine MountainsThe Apennines or Apennine Mountains is a mountain range stretching c. 1,200 km from the north to the south of Italy along its east coast, traversing the entire peninsula, and forming the backbone of the country...
north of
ArezzoArezzo or Arretium is a city in central Italy, capital of the province of the same name, located in Tuscany. Arezzo is about south-east of Florence, at an elevation of 296 meters above sea level. In 2009 the population was about 99,000 people....
). This gave time to consolidate the Gothic Line, a 10-mile (16 km) deep belt of fortifications extending from south of
La SpeziaLa Spezia is a city in the Liguria region of northern Italy, at the head of La Spezia Gulf, and capital city of the province of La Spezia. It is one of the major Italian military and commercial harbours, located between Genoa and Pisa on the Ligurian Sea...
(on the west coast) to the
Foglia ValleyThe Foglia is the northernmost river of the Marche, Italy.In ancient times it was known as Pisaurus, as it debouched into the Adriatic Sea at Pisaurum .The Foglia originates from the Sasso Aguzzo, near Sestino, in the Tuscan Apennines....
, through the natural defensive wall of the Apennines (which ran unbroken nearly from coast to coast, 50 miles (80 km) deep and with high crests and peaks rising to 7,000 feet or 2,100 m), to the
Adriatic SeaThe Adriatic Sea is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan peninsula, and the system of the Apennine Mountains from that of the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges. The Adriatic Sea is a part of the Mediterranean Sea...
between
PesaroPesaro is a town and comune in the Italian region of the Marche, capital of the Pesaro e Urbino province, on the Adriatic. According to the 2007 census, its population was 92,206....
and
RavennaRavenna is a city and comune in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. The city is inland, but is connected to the Adriatic Sea by a canal. Ravenna was the capital of the Western Roman Empire till 476. It was later the capital ofKingdom of the Ostrogoths and the Exarchate of Ravenna till 751...
, on the east coast. The emplacements included numerous concrete-reinforced gun pits and trenches, and 2,376 machine-gun nests with interlocking fire, 479 anti-tank gun, mortar and assault gun positions, 120,000 metres of barbed wire and many miles of anti-tank ditches. This last redoubt proved the Germans' determination to continue fighting.
Nevertheless, it was fortunate for the Allies that at this later stage of the war the Italian partisan forces had become highly effective in disrupting the German preparations in the high mountains. By September 1944 German generals were no longer able to move freely in the area behind their main lines because of partisan activity. Lieutenant-General Frido von Senger und Etterlin, commanding German XIV Panzer Corps, later wrote that he had taken to travelling in a little Volkswagen "(displaying) no general's insignia of rank — no peaked cap, no gold or red flags...". One of his colleagues who ignored this caution, Brigadier Wilhelm Crisolli commanding the 20th Luftwaffe Field Division, was caught and killed by partisans as he returned from a conference at corps headquarters.
Construction of the defenses was also hampered by the deliberately poor quality concrete provided by local Italian mills whilst captured partisans forced into the construction gangs supplemented the natural lethargy of forced labour with clever sabotage. Nevertheless, prior to the Allies' attack, Kesselring had declared himself satisfied with the work done, especially on the Adriatic side where he "...contemplated an assault on the left wing....with a certain confidence".
Allied strategy
The Italian front was seen by the Allies to be of secondary importance to the offensives through France, and this was underlined by the withdrawal during the summer of 1944 of 7 divisions from the 5th Army to take part in the landings in southern France,
Operation DragoonOperation Dragoon was the Allied invasion of southern France, on August 15, 1944, as part of World War II. The invasion took place between Toulon and Cannes.- Background :...
. By August 5 the combined strength of the 5th Army and the British 8th Army had fallen from 249,000 to 153,000, and they had only 18 divisions to confront the combined German Tenth and Fourteenth Armies' strength of 14 divisions plus 4 to 7 reserve divisions.
Nevertheless, Winston Churchill and the British Chiefs of Staff were keen to break through the German defenses to open up the route to the northeast through the "Ljubljana Gap" into
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
and
HungaryHungary , in English officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary is a member of OECD, NATO, EU, V4 and is a Schengen state...
. Whilst this would threaten Germany from the rear, Churchill was more concerned to forestall the Russians advancing into central Europe. The U.S. Chiefs of Staff had strongly opposed this strategy as diluting the Allied focus in France. However, following the Allied successes in France during the summer, the U.S. Chiefs relented, and there was complete agreement amongst the Combined Chiefs of Staff at the
Second Quebec ConferenceThe Second Quebec Conference was a high level military conference held during World War II between the British, Canadian and American governments. The conference was held in Quebec City, September 12, 1944 - September 16, 1944, and was the second conference to be held in Quebec...
on September 12.
Allies' plan of attack
Alexander's original plan was to storm the Gothic Line in the centre, where most of
his forcesGothic Line order of battle is a listing of the significant formations that were involved in the campaign in northern Italy, August 1944 – May 1945 on the Gothic Line and in the Po valley.-Allied Forces Headquarters Mediterranean:...
were already concentrated. It was the shortest route to his objective, the plains of Lombardy, and could be mounted quickly. He mounted a deception operation to convince the Germans that the main blow would come on the Adriatic front.
On August 4 Alexander met his army commanders, Mark Wayne Clark and
Oliver LeeseLieutenant-General Sir Oliver William Hargreaves Leese, 3rd Baronet, KCB, CBE, DSO was a British general during World War II.-Early years:...
, to find that Leese did not favour the plan. He argued that the Allies had lost their specialist French mountain troops to
Operation DragoonOperation Dragoon was the Allied invasion of southern France, on August 15, 1944, as part of World War II. The invasion took place between Toulon and Cannes.- Background :...
and that the Eighth Army's strength lay in tactics combining infantry, armour and guns which could not be employed in the high mountains of the central Apennines. It has also been suggested that Leese disliked working in league with Clark after the US Fifth Army's controversial move on Rome at the end of May and early June and wished for the 8th Army to win the battle on its own. He suggested a surprise attack along the Adriatic coast. Although Alexander's Chief of Staff, General Harding, did not share Leese's view and 8th Army planning staff had already rejected the idea of an Adriatic offensive (because it would be difficult to bring the necessary concentration of forces to bear), Alexander was not prepared to force Leese to adopt a plan which was against his inclination and judgement.
Operation Olive, as the new offensive was christened, called for Leese's Eighth Army to attack up the Adriatic coast towards
PesaroPesaro is a town and comune in the Italian region of the Marche, capital of the Pesaro e Urbino province, on the Adriatic. According to the 2007 census, its population was 92,206....
and
RiminiRimini is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy and capital city of the Province of Rimini. It is located on the Adriatic Sea, near the coast between the rivers Marecchia and Ausa...
and draw in the German reserves from the center of the country. General Clark's US Fifth Army would then attack in the weakened central Apennines north of
FlorenceFlorence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence...
towards
BolognaBologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of northern Italy...
with
British XIII CorpsXIII Corps was a British infantry corps during World War I and World War II.-World War I:XIII Corps was formed in France on 15 November 1915 under Lieutenant-General Walter N. Congreve to be part of Fourth Army. It was first seriously engaged during the Battle of the Somme in 1916. On the First day...
on the right wing of the attack fanning towards the coast to create a pincer with the Eighth Army advance. This meant that as a preparatory move, the bulk of Eighth Army had to be transferred from the centre of Italy to the Adriatic coast, taking two valuable weeks, whilst a new intelligence deception plan was commenced to convince Kesselring that the main attack would be in the centre.
Adriatic front (British 8th Army) 25 August to 30 September 1944
British 8th Army crossed the Metauro river and launched its attack against the Gothic Line outposts on August 25.
Polish II CorpsPolish II Corps , 1943–1947, was a major tactical and operational unit of the Polish Armed Forces in the West during World War II. It was commanded by Lieutenant General Władysław Anders and by 1945 it grew to well over 75,000 soldiers.-History:...
was on the coast,
I Canadian CorpsI Canadian Corps was one of the two corps fielded by the Canadian Army during World War II. From December 24, 1940 until the formation of the First Canadian Army in April 1942, there was a single unnumbered Canadian Corps...
was on the coastal plain on the Poles' left and
V CorpsV Corps was an army corps of the British Army in both World War I and World War II. The first formation of V Corps was during World War I as part of the Third Army and was composed of the 17th Division and the 38th Division as its major units...
was in the hills on the Canadians' left. British X Corps was on the left wing of the 8th Army front in a holding role. As the coastal plain narrowed near Pesaro, it was planned that the Polish Corps, weakened by losses and lack of replacements, would go into Army reserve and the front on the coastal plain would become the responsibility of the Canadian Corps alone. The Germans were taken by surprise. They were in the process of pulling back their forward units to the Gothic Line proper and were uncertain whether this was the start of a major offensive or just 8th Army advancing to occupy vacated ground whilst the main Allied attack would come on the U.S. 5th Army front towards Bologna. It was not until August 28 when they saw a captured copy of General Leese's order of the day to his army prior to the attack that they realised that a major offensive was in progress, and 3 divisions of reinforcements were ordered from Bologna to the Adriatic front, still needing at least two days to get into position.
By August 30 the Canadian and British Corps had reached the second main defensive positions running along the ridges on the far side of the Foglia river. Taking advantage of the Germans' lack of manpower, the Canadians punched through and by September 3 had advanced a further 15 miles (24 km) to the third line of defenses running from the coast near Riccione. The Allies were close to breaking through to Rimini and the Romagna plain. However, German LXXVI Panzer Corps on the Tenth Army's left wing had withdrawn in good order behind the line of the Conca river. Fierce resistance from the Corps's 1st Parachute Division, commanded by
Richard HeidrichRichard Heidrich , was a highly decorated German Fallschirmjäger and general during World War II.-Military career:...
, supported by intense artillery fire from the Coriano ridge in the hills on the Canadians' left brought their advance to a halt.
Meanwhile, the British V Corps was finding progress in the more difficult hill terrain with its poor roads tough going. On September 3 and September 4, whilst the Canadians once again attacked along the coastal plain, V Corps made an armoured thrust to dislodge the Coriano Ridge defenses and reach the Marano river. This was to open the gate to the plain beyond which could be rapidly exploited by the tanks of British 1st Armoured Division, poised for this purpose. However, after two days of gruesome fighting with heavy losses on both sides, the Allies were obliged to call off their assault and reassess their strategy. General Leese decided to outflank the Coriano ridge positions by driving westwards towards Croce and Gemmano to reach the Merano valley which curved behind the Coriano and Riccione positions to the sea.
Battles for Gemmano and Croce
The
Battle of GemmanoThe Battle of Gemmano was fought between the German and Allied forces in World War II. It was part of the Allies' Operation Olive, the offensive in August 1944 on the Gothic Line, the German line of defence in the Apennines in northern Italy...
has been nicknamed by some historians as the "
CassinoThe Battle of Monte Cassino was a costly series of four battles during World War II, fought by the Allies with the intention of breaking through the Winter Line and seizing Rome.In the beginning of 1944, the western half of the Winter Line was being anchored by Germans holding the Rapido, Liri and...
of the Adriatic". After eleven assaults between September 4 and September 13—first by British 56th Division and then British 46th Division—it was the turn of Indian 4th Division who after a heavy bombardment made the twelfth attack at 03:00 on September 15 and finally carried and secured the German defensive positions.. In the meantime, to the north, on the other side of the Conca valley a similarly bloody engagement was being ground out at Croce. The German 98th Division held their positions with great tenacity, and it took five days of constant fighting, often door to door and hand to hand before 56th Division captured Croce.
Coriano taken and the advance to Rimini and San Marino
With progress slow at Gemmano, General Leese decided to renew the attack on Coriano. After a paralyzing bombardment from 700 artillery pieces and bombers,
Canadian 5th Armoured Division5th Canadian Division was a Canadian division during World War II. Following its redesignation from '1st Canadian Armoured Division', the bulk proceeded overseas in one main convoy, arriving in the UK at the end of November 1941....
and British 1st Armoured Division launched their attack on the night of September 12. The Coriano positions were finally taken on September 14.
Once again the way was open to Rimini. Kesselring's forces had taken heavy losses, and 3 divisions of reinforcements ordered to the Adriatic front would not be available for at least a day. Not for the first time in the Italian Campaign the weather intervened, with torrential rain turning the rivers into torrents and halting air support operations. Once again movement ground to a crawl, and the German defenders had the opportunity to reorganise and reinforce their positions on the Marano river, and the salient to the Lombardy plain closed. Once more 8th Army was confronted by an organised line of defense. It was not until September 21 that Rimini fell to the 8th Army's advance.
Meanwhile with Croce and beyond it Montescudo secured, the left wing of the 8th Army advanced to the Marano river and the frontier of
San MarinoThe Most Serene Republic of San Marino is a country situated in the Apennine Mountains. It is a landlocked enclave, completely surrounded by Italy. Its size is just over 60 km² with an estimated population of almost 30,000. Its capital is the City of San Marino...
. The Germans had occupied neutral San Marino over a week previously to take advantage of the heights on which the city-state stood. By September 19 the city was isolated and
fell to the AlliesThe Battle of San Marino was an engagement on 17–20 September 1944 during the Italian Campaign of the Second World War, in which German Army forces occupied the neutral Republic of San Marino, and were then attacked by Allied forces...
with relatively little cost. Three miles (5 km) beyond San Marino lay the Marecchia valley running across the 8th Army line of advance and running to the sea at Rimini.
On the right the Canadian Corps on September 20 broke the German positions on the Marecchia and into the Lombardy Plain. However, Kesselring's brilliant defense had won him time until the onset of the autumn rains. Progress for the 8th Army became very slow with mud slides caused by the torrential rain making it difficult to keep roads and tracks open, creating a logistical nightmare. Although they were out of the hills, the plains were waterlogged and the 8th Army found themselves confronted, as they had the previous autumn, by a succession of swollen rivers running across their line of advance. Once again, the conditions prevented 8th Army's armour from exploiting the breakthrough, and the infantry of British V Corps and I Canadian Corps (joined by New Zealand 2nd Division) had to grind their way forward while von Vietinghoff withdrew his forces behind the river Uso, a few miles beyond Rimini. The positions on the Uso were forced on September 26, and 8th Army reached the next river, the Fiumicino, on September 29. Four days of heavy rain forced a halt, and by this time V Corps were fought out and required major reorganization.
Since the start of Operation Olive 8th Army had suffered 14,000 casualties and lost 250 tanks from enemy action and 230 from other causes. As a result British battalions had to be reduced from four to three companies and 1st Armoured Division had to be disbanded. As 8th Army paused at the end of September to reorganise, Leese was reassigned to command the Allied land forces in South-East Asia and Lieutenant-General
Richard McCreeryGeneral Sir Richard McCreery GCB, KBE, DSO, MC , was a British career soldier, who was Chief of Staff to Field Marshal Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis, at the time of the Second Battle of El Alamein and later commanded the British Eighth Army in Northern Italy during 1944–45.-...
was moved from the leadership of British X Corps to take over the army command.
U.S. 5th Army formation
General Clark's 5th Army comprised 3 Corps:
U.S. IV CorpsThe IV Corps replaced the VI Corps in the Fifth United States Army's order of battle in Italy after Allied forces liberated Rome in the summer of 1944 when VI Corps was withdrawn to take part in Operation Dragoon, the Allied invasion of southern France. Initially the Corps had two divisions, U.S...
on the left formed by U.S. 1st Armored Division,
South African 6th Armoured DivisionThe South African 6th Armoured Division was the first armoured division in the military history of South Africa. It was formed during World War II and, equipped with tanks and armoured cars, served with great distinction as part of the British Eighth Army and the Fifth United States Army during the...
and two
regimental Combat Teams ("RCT")A regimental combat team was a provisional major infantry unit of the United States Army during the World War II and Korean War. The regimental combat team, or "R.C.T.", was formed by augmenting a regular infantry regiment with smaller tank, artillery, combat engineer, mechanized cavalry,...
, equivalent to 5,000 men each: one of the U.S. 92nd Infantry Division(
Buffalo SoldierBuffalo Soldiers originally were members of the U.S. 10th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army, formed on September 21, 1866 at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas...
s) and other was the Brazilian 6th RCT, the first arrived contingent of land forces element of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force; in the center was U.S. II Corps (U.S. 34th, 85th, 88th and 91st Infantry Divisions supported by three tank battalions); and on the right British XIII Corps (British 1st Infantry Division, British 6th Armoured Division, 8th Indian Infantry Division and 1st Canadian Tank Brigade). Like the 8th Army, the 5th Army was considered to be strong in armour and short on infantry considering the terrain they were attacking
German formation in the central Apennines
In the front line facing Clark's forces were 5 Divisions of General
Joachim LemelsenJoachim Lemelsen was a German general during the Second World War.-Early years:Born in Berlin as the son of a German career military officer, Lemelsen entered the German army in 1907. During the First World War Lemelsen served as an artillery officer until 1916, when he was transferred to the...
's Fourteenth Army (20th Luftwaffe Field Division,
16th S.S. Panzer Grenadier Division16th SS Panzergrenadier Division Reichsführer-SS. was a Panzergrenadier formation of the Waffen-SS during World War II. Formed in November 1943 when Volksdeutsche recruits were added to the Sturmbrigade Reichsführer SS, which was used as the cadre in the formation of the new division...
, 65th and 362nd Infantry Divisions and the 4th Parachute Division) and two divisions on the western end of
Heinrich von VietinghoffHeinrich Gottfried von Vietinghoff genannt Scheel was a German Colonel-General of the German Army during the Second World War.-Early life and family:...
's Tenth Army (356th and 715th Infantry Divisions). By the end of the first week in September the Luftwaffe Field Division and the 356th had been moved to the Adriatic front along with (from army reserve) the 29th Panzer Grenadier Division and the armoured reserve of 26th Panzer Division. Fourteenth Army was not of the same quality as the Tenth: it had been badly mauled in the retreat from Anzio and some of its replacements had been hastily and inadequately trained.
Allied plan
Clark's plan was for II Corps to strike along the road from
FlorenceFlorence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence...
to
FirenzuolaFirenzuola is a comune in the Province of Florence in the Italian region Tuscany, located about 40 km northeast of Florence....
and
ImolaImola is a town, comune in the province of Bologna, located on the Santerno river, in the Emilia-Romagna region of north-central Italy. The town is traditionally considered the western entrance to the historical region Romagna....
through the Il Giogo pass to outflank the formidable defenses of the Futa pass (on the main Florence -
BolognaBologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of northern Italy...
road) whilst on their right British XIII Corps would advance through the Gothic Line to cut Route 9 (and therefore Kesselring's lateral communications) at
FaenzaFaenza is an Italian city and comune, in the province of Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna, situated 50 km southeast of Bologna.Faenza is noted for its manufacture of majolica ware glazed earthenware pottery, known from the name of the town as "faience"....
. The transfer of 356th Division to the Adriatic weakened the defenses around the Il Giogo pass which was already potentially an area of weakness, being on the boundary between 10th and 14th Armies.
Battle
During the last week in August U.S. II Corps and British XIII Corps started to move into the mountains to take up positions for the main assault on the main Gothic line defenses. Some fierce resistance was met from outposts but at the end of the first week in September, once reorganisation had taken place following the withdrawal of three divisions to reinforce the pressured Adriatic front, the Germans withdrew to the main Gothic Line defenses. After an artillery bombardment, U.S. 5th Army's main assault began at dusk on September 12.
Progress at the II Giogo pass was slow, but on II Corps' right British XIII Corps were making better progress. Clark grasped this opportunity to divert part of II Corps reserve (the 337th Infantry) to exploit XIII Corps success. Attacking on September 17, supported by both U.S. and British artillery, the infantry fought their way onto Monte Pratone, some 2–3 miles (3–5 km) east of the Il Giogo pass and a key position on the Gothic Line. Meanwhile, U.S. II Corps renewed their assault on Monte Altuzzo, dominating the east side of the Il Giogo pass. The Altuzzo positions fell on the morning of September 17 after 5 days of fighting. The capture of Altuzzo and Pratone as well as Monte Verruca between them caused the formidable Futa pass defenses to be outflanked, and Lemelsen was forced to pull back, leaving the pass to be taken after only light fighting on September 22.
On the left, 5th Army IV Corps had fought their way to the main Gothic Line: the Brazilian 6th RCT had taken
MassarosaMassarosa is a town in the province of Lucca, Tuscany, Italy.-Frazioni:3191 People live in Stiava as of December 31 2004. 1564 Of them are men, 1627 women. In the centre of the village is a local supermarket, a bakery and a few other shops. There is also a small church dedicated to the Virgin...
, by September 18 it also took
CamaioreCamaiore is a town of 31,503 inhabitants within the province of Lucca, Tuscany, Italy. It stretches from the Alps to the east, to the plains and the coast of Versilia to the west.- Morphology :...
and other small towns on the way north. This unit had already conquered Monte Prano and controlled the
SerchioAt 126 kilometres the Serchio is the third longest river in the Italian region of Tuscany, coming after the Arno and the Ombrone...
valley region without suffering any major casualties in ten days of fighting..
On 5th Army's far right wing, on the right of the XIII Corps front, 8th Indian Infantry Division fighting across trackless ground had captured the heights of Femina Morta, and British 6th Armoured Division had taken the San Godenzo Pass on Route 67 to
ForlìForlì is a comune and city in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, famed as the birthplace of the great painter Melozzo da Forlì, of the humanist historian Flavio Biondo, of the famous physicians Geronimo Mercuriali and Giovanni Battista Morgagni....
, both on September 18.
At this stage Clark decided, with the slow progress on the Adriatic front, that Bologna would be too far west along Route 9 to trap the German 10th Army. He decided therefore to make the main II Corps thrust further east towards Imola whilst XIII Corps would continue to push on the right towards Faenza. Although they were through the Gothic Line, 5th Army, just like the 8th Army before them, found the terrain beyond and its defenders even more difficult. Between September 21 and October 3, U.S. 88th Division had fought its way to a standstill on the route to Imola suffering 2,105 men killed and wounded—roughly the same as the whole of the rest of II Corps during the actual breaching of the Gothic Line.
The fighting towards Imola had drawn German troops from the defense of Bologna, and Clark decided to switch his main offense back towards the Bologna axis. U.S. II Corps pushed steadily through the Raticosa Pass and by October 2 had reached
MonghidoroMonghidoro is a comune in the Province of Bologna in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about 30 km south of Bologna...
some 20 miles (30 km) from Bologna. However, as it had on the Adriatic coast, the weather had broken and the rain and low cloud prevented air support whilst the roads back to the ever more distant supply dumps near Florence became morasses.
On October 5, U.S. II Corps renewed its offensive along a 14 mile (22 km) front straddling Route 65 to Bologna. They were supported on their right flank by British XIII Corps including
British 78th Infantry DivisionThe British 78th Infantry Division, also known as the Battleaxe Division, fought in the Second World War in North Africa and Italy.- History :...
, newly returned to Italy after a three month re-fit in
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
. Gradual progress was made against stiffening opposition as German Fourteenth Army moved troops from the quieter sector opposite U.S. IV Corps. By October 9 they were attacking the massive 1,500 foot (450 m) high sheer escarpment behind Livergnano which appeared insuperable. However, the weather cleared on the morning of October 10 to allow artillery and air support to be brought to bear. It nevertheless took until the end of October 15 before the escarpment was secured. On the right of U.S. II Corps British XIII Corps was experiencing equally determined fighting on terrain just as difficult.
Time runs out for the Allies
By the second half of October it was becoming increasingly clear to General Alexander that despite the dogged fighting in the waterlogged plain of Romagna and the streaming mountains of the central Apennines, with the autumn well advanced and exhaustion and combat losses increasingly affecting his forces' capabilities, no breakthrough was going to occur before the spring weather returned.
On the Adriatic front 8th Army's advance resumed on its left wing through the Apennine foothills towards Forlì on Route 9. On October 5 10th Indian Infantry Division, switched from British X Corps to British V Corps, had crossed the Fiumicino river (thought to be river known in Roman times as the
RubiconRubicon is a 29 km long river in northern Italy.The river flows from the Apennine Mountains to the Adriatic Sea through the southern Emilia-Romagna region between the towns of Rimini and Cesena....
) high in the hills and turned the German defensive line on the river forcing the German Tenth Army units downstream to pull back towards Bologna. Paradoxically, in one sense, this helped Kesselring because it shortened the front he had to defend and shortened the distance between his two armies, providing him with greater flexibility to switch units between the two fronts. Continuing their push up Route 9, on October 21 British V Corps crossed the Savio river which runs north eastwards through
CesenaCesena is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, south of Ravenna and west of Rimini, on the Savio River, co-chief of the Province of Forlì-Cesena. It is at the foot of the Apennines, and about 15 km from the Adriatic Sea.-History:...
to the Adriatic and by October 25 were closing on the Ronco river, some ten miles (16 km) beyond the Savio, behind which the Germans had withdrawn. By the end of the month the advance had reached
ForlìForlì is a comune and city in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, famed as the birthplace of the great painter Melozzo da Forlì, of the humanist historian Flavio Biondo, of the famous physicians Geronimo Mercuriali and Giovanni Battista Morgagni....
, halfway between Rimini and Bologna.
Cutting the German Armies' lateral communications remained a key objective. Indeed, later Kesselring was to say that if in mid-October the front south of Bologna could not be held, then all the German positions east of Bologna "..were automatically gone.". Alexander and Clark had decided therefore to make a last push for Bologna before winter gripped the front.
On October 16, U.S. 5th Army had gathered itself for one last effort to take Bologna. The Allied Armies in Italy were short of artillery ammunition because of a global reduction in Allied ammunition production in anticipation of the final defeat of Germany. Fifth Army batteries were rationed to such an extent that the total rounds fired in the last week of October were less than the amount fired during one eight hour period on October 2. Nevertheless, U.S. II Corps and British XIII Corps pounded away for the next 11 days. In the centre along the main road to Bologna little progress was made. On the right there was better progress, and on October 20 U.S. 88th Division seized Monte Grande, only 4 miles (6.5 km) from Route 9, and three days later British 78th Division stormed Monte Spaduro. However, the remaining four miles were over difficult terrain and were reinforced by three of the best German Divisions in Italy which Kesselring had been able to withdraw from the Romagna as a result of his shortened front: 29th Panzer Grenadier Division, 90th Panzer Grenadier Division and the 1st Parachute Division. By October 28 the Allied offensive had petered out, and the U.S. 5th Army was condemned to a winter in the mountains awaiting better weather and conditions underfoot.
British 8th Army, held on Route 9 at Forlì, continued a subsidiary drive up the Adriatic coast and captured
RavennaRavenna is a city and comune in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. The city is inland, but is connected to the Adriatic Sea by a canal. Ravenna was the capital of the Western Roman Empire till 476. It was later the capital ofKingdom of the Ostrogoths and the Exarchate of Ravenna till 751...
on December 5. In early November the push up Route 9 resumed, the river Montone, just beyond Forlì, being crossed on November 9. However, the going continued very tough with the river Cosina, some three miles (5 km) further along Route 9 being crossed only on November 23. By December 17 the river Lamone had been assaulted and
FaenzaFaenza is an Italian city and comune, in the province of Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna, situated 50 km southeast of Bologna.Faenza is noted for its manufacture of majolica ware glazed earthenware pottery, known from the name of the town as "faience"....
cleared. The German Tenth Army established itself on the raised banks of the river Senio (rising 20 or more feet above the surrounding plain) which ran across the line of the 8th Army advance just beyond Faenza down to the Adriatic north of Ravenna. With snows falling and winter firmly established any attempt to cross the Senio was out of the question and 8th Army's 1944 campaign came to an end.
In late December, in a final flourish to the year's fighting, the Germans with assistance from the Italian Monterosa Division attacked the left wing of the U.S. Fifth Army in the Serchio valley in front of
LuccaLucca is a city in Tuscany, central Italy, situated on the river Serchio in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Lucca...
to pin units there which might otherwise be switched to the central front. Indian 8th Infantry Division was rapidly switched across the Apennines to reinforce the US 92nd Infantry Division. By the time they had arrived the Germans and Italians had broken through to capture Barga but decisive action by Major-General
Dudley RussellLieutenant-General Sir Dudley Russell KBE, CB, DSO, MC was an officer in the British and Indian Armies during World War I and World War II.-Early career:...
halted their advance and the situation was stabilised and Barga recaptured by the New Year.Notable in this action was the involvement of The XI Zone Partisans headed by their Commandant Manrico "Pippo" Ducceschi.
See also
- Italian Campaign (World War II)
The Italian Campaign of World War II was the name of Allied operations in and around Italy, from 1943 to the end of the war. Joint Allied Forces Headquarters AFHQ was operationally responsible for all Allied land forces in the Mediterranean theatre, and it planned and commanded the invasion of...
- European Theatre of World War II
The European Theatre of World War II was a huge area of heavy fighting across Europe from Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939 until the end of the war with the German unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945...
- Gothic Line order of battle
Gothic Line order of battle is a listing of the significant formations that were involved in the campaign in northern Italy, August 1944 – May 1945 on the Gothic Line and in the Po valley.-Allied Forces Headquarters Mediterranean:...
- Battle of Rimini (1944)
The Battle of Rimini is a name used to describe Operation Olive, the main Allied offensive on the Gothic Line in August and September 1944 during the Italian Campaign in the Second World War. It has been described as the biggest battle of materials ever fought in Italy...
External links
La Città Invisibile Collection of signs, stories and memories during the Gothic Line age.