Gothic Line - Time Runs Out For The Allies

Time Runs Out For The Allies

By the second half of October, it was becoming increasingly clear to 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 winter weather returned.

On the Adriatic front, 8th Army's advance resumed on its left wing through the Apennine foothills toward Forlì on Route 9. On 5 October 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 10th 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 21 October British V Corps crossed the Savio river which runs north eastward through Cesena to the Adriatic and by 25 October were closing on the Ronco river, some 10 mi (16 km) beyond the Savio, behind which the Germans had withdrawn.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.". Alexander and Clark had decided therefore to make a last push for Bologna before winter gripped the front.

On 16 October, 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. The 5th Army′s 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 2 October. 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 20 October U.S. 88th Division seized Monte Grande, only 4 mi (6.4 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: the 29th Panzergrenadier Division, 90th Panzergrenadier Division and the 1st Parachute Division. By 28 October, 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 5 November. In early November, the push up Route 9 resumed, the river Montone, just beyond Forlì, being crossed on 9 November. However, the going continued very tough with the river Cosina, some 3 mi (4.8 km) further along Route 9 being crossed only on 23 November. By 17 December, the river Lamone had been assaulted and Faenza cleared. The German 10th Army established itself on the raised banks of the river Senio (rising at least 20 ft (6.1 m) 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 used a predominantly Italian force of units from the Italian Monterosa Division to attack the left wing of the U.S. 5th Army in the Serchio valley in front of Lucca to pin Allied units there which might otherwise have been switched to the central front (the Battle of Garfagnana). Two brigades of the Indian 8th Infantry Division were rapidly switched across the Apennines to reinforce the U.S. 92nd Infantry Division. By the time the reinforcements had arrived, the Axis forces had broken through to capture Barga but decisive action by the Indian Division's Major-General Dudley Russell halted further advance and the situation was stabilised and Barga recaptured by the New Year.