Gothic Line

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German defensive positions in Northern Italy 1944

Italian Campaign
Invasion of Sicily – Invasion of Italy – Armistice with Italy – Winter Line – San Pietro – Anzio – Monte Cassino – Gothic Line

370th Infantry Regiment walking toward the mountains at north of Prato - April 1945

The Gothic Line, also known as Linea Gotica, formed Field Marshal Albert Kesselring's last major line of defence in the final stages of World War II along the summits of the Apennines during the fighting retreat of Nazi Germany's forces in Italy against the Allied Armies in Italy commanded by General Sir Harold Alexander .

Hitler had concerns about the state of preparation of the Gothic Line: He feared the Allies would use amphibious landings to out-flank 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 wouldn't be able to use the more pretentious 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 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 1945. On April 29 1945 Heinrich von Vietinghoff, Commander of German Army Group C signed an instrument of surrender and hostilities in Italy formally ceased on May 2.

[edit] Background

After the nearly concurrent breakthroughs at Cassino and Anzio in spring 1944, the 11 nations representing the Allies in Italy finally had a chance to trap the Germans in a pincer movement and to realize some of Churchill's strategic goals for the long, costly campaign against the Axis "soft underbelly". This would have required U.S. 5th Army General Mark Clark to commit most of his Anzio forces to the drive east from Cisterna, and to execute the envelopment evisioned in the original planning for the Anzio landing (i.e., flank the German 10th Army, and sever its northbound line of retreat from Cassino). Instead, fearing that the British Eighth Army might beat him to Rome, 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 Line (running from just south of Ancona on the east coast, past the southern shores of Lake Trasimeno near Perugia and on to the west coast south of Grosetto) and in July on the Arno Line (running from the west coast along the line of the Arno River and into the Apennine Mountains north of Arezzo). This gave time to consolidate the Gothic Line, a 16 km-deep belt of fortifications extending from south of La Spezia (on the west coast) to the Foglia Valley, through the natural defensive wall of the Apennines (which ran unbroken nearly from coast to coast, 50 miles deep and with high crests and peaks rising to 7,000 feet), to the Adriatic Sea between Pesaro and Ravenna, 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^[1]. 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. von Senger, 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, General Crisolli commanding the 20th Luftwaffe Field Division, was caught and killed by partisans as he returned from a conference at corps headquarters^[2].

Construction of the defenses was also hampered by the deliberately poor quality cement 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"^[3].

[edit] 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 Dragoon. By August 5 the combined strength of the 5th Army and the British 8th Army had fallen from 249,000 to 153,000^[4] and they now had only 18 Divisions to confront the combined German 10th and 14th Army 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 north east through the 'Ljubljana Gap' into Austria and Hungary. Whilst this would threaten Germany from the rear, Churchill was more concerned to forestall the Russians advancing into central Europe. The US 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 US Chiefs relented and there was complete agreement amongst the Combined Chiefs of Staff at the Second Quebec Conference on September 12^[5].

[edit] Allies' Plan of Attack

Gothic Line August 1944: concept of Operation Olive

Alexander's original plan was to storm the Gothic Line in the centre, where most of his forces were already concentrated. It was the shortest route to his objective, the plains of Lombardy, and could be mounted quickly. With this in prospect, 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 Leese, to find that Leese did not favour the plan. He argued that the Allies had lost their specialist French mountain troops to Operation Dragoon and that the 8th 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 5th 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^[6]. 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^[7].

Operation Olive, as the new offensive was christened, called for Leese's British Eighth Army to attack up the Adriatic coast towards Pesaro and Rimini and draw in the German reserves from the center of the country. General Clark's U.S. Fifth Army would then attack in the now weakened central Apennines north of Florence towards Bologna with British XIII Corps 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.

[edit] Adriatic front (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 Corps were on the coast, Canadian I Corps were on the coastal plain on the Poles' left and British V Corps were in the hills on the Canadians' left. British X Corps were 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 US 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^[8] 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 manning, the Canadians punched through and by September 3 had advanced a further 15 miles to the third line of defenses running from the coast near Riccione. At this point the Allies were within a hairsbreadth of 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^[9]. Fierce resistance from the Corp's 1st Parachute Division, commanded by Richard Heidrich, supported by intense artillery fire from the Coriano ridge in the hills on the Canadians' left brought their advance to a halt.

Meanwhile, British V Corps was finding progress in the more difficult hill terrain with its poor roads tough going. On September 3 and 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 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.

[edit] The Battles for Gemmano and Croce

The Battle of Gemmano has been nicknamed by some historians as the "Cassino of the Adriatic". After eleven assaults between September 4 and 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 3am on the morning of September 15 and finally carried and secured the German defensive positions.^[10]. 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.

[edit] 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^[11] and bombers Canadian 5th Armoured Division and British 1st Armoured Division launched their attack on the night of September 12-13. 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 his positions on the Marano river and the dorrway to the Lombardy plain slammed shut. Once more 8th Army were confronted by an organised line of defense and they would have to slog their way yard by yard. It was not until September 21 that Rimini fell to the 8th Army's advance.

Meanwhile with Croce a and beyond it Montescudo secured, the left wing of the 8th Army advanced to the Merano river and the frontier of San Merino. The Germans had occupied neutral San Merino 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 Allies with relatively little cost^[12]. Three miles 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 next to impossible to keep roads and tracks open, creating a logistical nightmare. Although they were now 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^[13]. Once again, the conditions prevented 8th Army's armour from exploiting the breakthrough and the infantry of British V Corps and Canadian I Corps (now joined by New Zealand 2nd Division) had to grind there 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 8th Army paused at the end of September to reorganise, General Leese was reassigned to command the Allied land forces in South-East Asia and Richard McCreery was promoted from British X Corps to take over command^[14].

[edit] Central Front (5th Army)

[edit] U.S. 5th Army formation

General Clark's 5th Army comprised 3 Corps: U.S. IV Corps on the left (U.S. 1st Armored Division, South African 6th Armoured Division and the regimental combat team, equivalent to a brigade, of the U.S. 92nd Infantry Division (colored)); 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, 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^[15]

[edit] German formation in the central Apennines

In the front line facing Clark's forces were 5 Divisions of General Joachim Lemelsen's Fourteenth Army (20th Luftwaffe Field Division, 16th S.S. Panzer Grenadier Division, 65th and 362nd Infantry Divisions and the 4th Parachute Division) and two divisions on the western end of Heinrich von Vietinghoff'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^[16].

[edit] Allied plan

Clark's plan was for II Corps to strike along the road from Florence to Firenzuola and Imola through the Il Giogo pass to outflank the formidable defenses of the Futa pass (on the main Florence - Bologna 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 Faenza. 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^[17].

[edit] The battle

During the last week in August US 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, US 5th Army's main assault began at dusk on September 12.

Top of Il Giogo Pass in the Gothic Line, looking toward the north.

Progress at the Il 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 east of the Il Giogo pass and a key position on the Gothic Line^[18]. 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 of 5th Army IV Corps had fought their way to the main Gothic Line whilst 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 Forlì, 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 towatds 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^[19].

The fighting towards Imola had drawn German troops from the defence of Bologna and Clark decided to switch his main offense back towards the Bologna axis. U.S. II Corps pushed steadily through the Radicosa Pass and by October 2 had reached Monghidoro some 20 miles 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 bacame morasses^[20].

On October 5 U.S. II Corps renewed its offensive along a 14 mile front straddling Route 65 to Bologna. They were supported on their right flank by British XIII Corps including British 78th Infantry Division, newly returned to Italy after a three month re-fit in Egypt. 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 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^[21]. On the right of U.S. II Corps British XIII Corps was experiencing equally determined fighting on terrain just as difficult.

[edit] 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 Rubicon) 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 Cesena to the Adriatic and by October 25 were closing on the Ronco river, some ten miles beyond the Savio, behind which the Germans had withdrawn. By the end of the month the advance had reached Forlì, 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."^[22]. 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. Extraordinarily the Allied Armies in Italy were now 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^[23]. 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 from Route 9, and three days later British 78th Division stormed Monte Spaduro. However, the remaining four miles were over difficult terrain and were now 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 Ravenna 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 3 miles further along Route 9 being crossed only on November 23. By December 17 the river Lamone had been assaulted and Faenza cleared^[24]. 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^[25].

[edit] Spring offensive 1945

Allied Spring Offensive April 1945: Note that 21 ID NZ is actually New Zealand 2nd Infantry Division

[edit] Command changes

On the death on November 5 of Field Marshall Sir John Dill, the head of the British Mission in Washington, Field Marshall Wilson was appointed his replacement. Alexander having been promoted Field Marshall, was in turn appointed to replace Wilson as Allied Supreme Commander Mediterranean on December 12. Lieutenant General Mark Clark succeeded Alexander as commander of the Allied Forces in Italy (now renamed once more 15th Army Group), but without promotion. Lucian Truscott had been commanding U.S. VI Corps from its time in the bridgehead at Anzio and the capture of Rome to its current location in Alsace, having landed in the South of France during Operation Dragoon. He now returned to Italy to assume command of U.S. 5th Army.

Command changes also took place in the German army before the spring campaign. On March 23 Kesselring was appointed Commander-in-Chief Army Group West, replacing General-Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt. von Vietinghoff returned from the Baltic to take over from Kesslering whilst Traugott Herr, the experienced commander of 10th Army's LXXVI Panzer Corps, took over 10th Army. Joachim Lemelsen, who had had temporary command of the 10th Army, returned to the command of the 14th.

[edit] Orders of battle

Main article: Gothic Line order of battle

Looking ahead to the spring, the problems of manning continued. In October 4th Indian Division had been sent to Greece and Btitish 4th Division had followed them in November as well as part of British 46th Division, the rest following in December. At the end of January Canadian I Corps and British 5th Division were ordered to North-West Europe reducing the 8th Army to 7 divisions. On the positive side, 5th Army had been reinforced in January with the arrival of fresh troops, the specially trained and equipped 10th Mountain Division. Allied strength amounted now to 17 divisions plus 8 independent brigades (including four Italian groups of volunteers from the old Italian army, equipped and trained by the British), a total equivalent of just under 20 divisions. Against them were ranged 21 much weaker German divisions and 4 Italian divisions, a total of 25^[26]. Three of the Italian divisions were allocated to the Ligurian Army under Rodolfo Graziani guarding the western flank facing France and the fourth to 14th Army in a sector thought least likely to be attacked^[27].

[edit] Plan of attack

The key to a decisive Allied victory in the spring, despite their numerical inferiority, would be for the 8th Army to strike across the Senio and take advantage of their strength of mobility to quickly capture Ferrara so to cut the enemy's lines of supply and retreat across the Po. Fourteen miles behind the Senio lay the town of Argenta where the dry land narrowed to a front of only 3 miles, bounded on the right by Lake Comacchio, a huge lagoon running to the Adriatic coast, and on the left by marshland. The critical role of getting across the Senio, with its raised artificial banks varying between 20 and 40 feet in height, honeycombed with defensive tunnels and bunkers front and rear, was given to 8th Indian Division, reprising the role they played crossing the Rapido in the final Battle of Monte Cassino. British 78th Division would also be reprising their Cassino role and were tasked to pass through the bridgehead established by 8th Indian and drive for the Argenta gap. On the left of the 8th Indian Division, the New Zealand Division would lead the attack across the Senio to outflank the marshland on the left whilst further left on Route 9 the Polish Corps would widen the front further by attacking across the Senio towards Bologna. The Poles, desperately under strength in the autumn of 1944 had received 11,000 reinforcements during the early months of 1945, mainly from Polish units in the German army taken prisoner in the Normandy campaign^[28].

On the U.S. 5th Army front Geoffrey Keyes readied U.S. II Corps, which he had commanded since its arrival in the Italian mainland in the autumn of 1943, for its unfinished business at Bologna whilst Willis D. Crittenberger's U.S. IV Corps on their left would attack towards Route 9 between Bologna and to its left, Modena.

[edit] The Allied attack

In the first week of April diversionary attacks were launched on the extreme right and left of the Allied front to draw German reserves away from the main assaults to come. This included Operation Roast, an assault by British 2nd Commando Brigade suppoted by the partisans of 28th Garibaldi Brigade and armour to capture the seaward isthmus of land bordering lake Comacchio and seize Port Garibaldi on the lake's north side.

The build-up to the main assault started on April 6 with a heavy artillery bombardment of the Senio defenses. In the early afternoon of April 9 825 heavy bombers dropped fragmentation bombs on the support zone behind the Senio followed by a follow up from medium and fighter bombers. From 3.20pm to 7.10 pm five half hour heavy artillery barrages were fired interspersed with fighter bomber attacks. 8th Indian, New Zealand 2nd Division and 3rd Carpathian Division (on the Polish Corps front at Route 9) attacked at dusk. In fighting which saw two V.C.s won by 8th Indian Division members, they had reached the river Santerno, 3.5 miles beyond, by dawn on April 11. The New Zealanders had reached the Santerno at nightfall on the 10th and succeded in making a crossing at dawn on the 11th. The Poles had closed on the Santerno by the night of the April 11^[29].

By late morning of April 12, after an all night assault, 8th Indian Division were established on the far side of the Santerno and British 78th Division started to pass through to make the assault on Argenta. In the meantime British 56th Division had launched an amphibious flanking attack from the water and mud to the right of the Argenta Gap but were still hald up at positions on the Fossa Marina on th night of April 14. 78th Division were also held up on the same day on the river Reno at Bastia.

U.S. 5th Army began its assault on April 14 after a bombardment by 2,000 heavy bombers and 2,000 artillery pieces, with an attack by U.S. VI Corps, on the left and followed on the night of April 15 by U.S. II Corps striking on the left of Route 65 to Bologna.

By April 19 the Argenta Gap had been forced and British 6th Armoured Division released through the left wing of the advancing 78th Division to to swing left to race north west along the line of the river Reno to Bondeno and link up with the U.S. 5th Army to complete the encirclement of the German armies defending Bologna^[30]. On all fronts the German defense continued to be determined and effective but Bondeno was captured on April 23 and 6th Armoured Division linked with U.S. VI Corp's 10th Mountain Division the next day at Finale some 5 miles upstream along the river Panaro from Bondeno. U.S. VI Corps had broken through onto the plains on April 19 whilst bypassing Bologna on their right. Bologna was entered by the Poles advancing up the line of Route 9 on April 21 followed two hours later by U.S. II Corps from the south^[31].

U.S. VI Corps had continued their northwards advance and reached the river Po at San Benedetto on April 22. The river was crossed the next day and they advanced north to Verona which they entered on April 26. On the 5th Army's right wing British XIII Corps crossed the Po at Ficarolo on April 22 whilst on the 8th Army front British V Corps were crossing the Po by April 25 heading towards the Venetian Line, a defensive line built behind the line of the river Adige. British V Corps, meeting by now lessening resistance, traversed the Venetian Line and entered Padua in the early hours of April 29 to find that partisans had locked up the German garrison of 5,000^[32].

von Vietinghoff (who by then was in Bolzano under siege by partisans) sent emissaries to Allied Army headquarters on April 28. On April 29 they signed an instrument of surrender to the effect that hostilities would formally end on May 2^[33]. Confirmation from von Vietinghoff of the arrangements did not reach Allied 15th Army Group headquarters until the morning of May 2. It emerged that Kesselring had had his authority as Commander of the West extended to include Italy and had replaced von Vietinghoff with General Schulz from Army Group G on hearing of the plans. However, after a period of confusion during which the news of Hitler's death arrived, Schulz obtained Kesselring's agreement to the surrender and von Vietinghof was reinstated to see it through^[34].

[edit] Bibliography

Gerhard Muhm : German Tactics in the Italian Campaign , http://www.larchivio.org/xoom/gerhardmuhm2.htm
Gerhard Muhm : La Tattica tedesca nella Campagna d'Italia, in Linea Gotica avanposto dei Balcani, (Hrsg.) Amedeo Montemaggi - Edizioni Civitas, Roma 1993
Anon (1946). The Tiger Triumphs: The Story of Three Great Divisions in Italy. HMSO.
Douglas Orgill (1967). The Gothic Line (The Autumn Campaign in Italy 1944). London: Heinemann.
Field Marshall Lord Carver (2001). The Imperial War Museum Book of the War in Italy 1943-1945. London: Sidgwick & Jackson. ISBN 0 330 48230 0.
Gregory Blaxland (1979). Alexander's Generals (the Italian Campaign 1944-1945). London: William Kimber & Co. ISBN 0 7183 0386 5.
Clayton D. Laurie. Online Bookshelves WWII Campaigns: Rome-Arno 22 January-9 September 1944. US Army Center of Military History. CMH Pub 72-20.
Dwight D. Oland. Online Bookshelves WWII Campaigns: North Apennines 1944-1945. US Army Center of Military History. CMH Pub 72-34.
Thomas A. Popa. Online Bookshelves WWII Campaigns: Po Valley 1945. US Army Center of Military History. CMH Pub 72-33.