James Holland - Italy’s Sorrow - A Year of War 1944–45

A Year of War, 1944–1945

JAMES HOLLAND

For Daisy

By the spring of 1944, the vast reach of Hitler’s Third Reich, chieved so spectacularly in the early part of the war, was diminishing. In the East, the Soviet Red Army was clawing back land lost and was about to regain the Crimea, while in the West, the Western Allies were poised to invade France. Already the Axis powers had lost North Africa and, the previous summer, Sicily. Mussolini, the Fascist dictator of Italy, had been deposed, and on 8 September 1943, the Italians surrendered to the Allies. With British troops already on the southern toe of the peninsula, the main Allied invasion force landed at Salerno, south of Naples, the morning after the Italian armistice. Thus began a long and bloody campaign that would cause untold suffering. Seven months of fighting, mostly in the intractable terrain around the town of Cassino, would wreak appalling destruction.

By May 1944, with the Italian winter behind them, the Allies were ready to renew their drive towards Rome. As the battle rolled north, the rest of Italy would become consumed by the campaign raging up its narrow leg. That year, from May 1944 to the war’s end almost exactly twelve months later, would be one of the most terrible in Italy’s history.

List of Maps

Note on the Text

Principal Personalities

Prologue

Part I: The Road To Rome

1 The Eve of Battle: May 1944

2 Battle Begins: 11–12 May 1944

3 Churchill’s Opportunism

4 The Slow Retreat

5 Frustrations

6 Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

7 Masters of the Skies

8 The Battle Rages: 13–16 May 1944

9 New Order

10 Breaking the Gustav Line: 17–18 May 1944

11 Achtung Banditen!

12 The Fog of War: 18–23 May 1944

13 Break-out: 23–26 May 1944

14 General Clark and the Big Switch: 26–30 May 1944

15 The Fall of Rome: 1–5 June 1944

Part II: The Brutal Summer

16 The North

17 The Problems of Generalship: June 1944

18 The Typhoon Rolls North

19 Breaking the Albert Line: 20–30 June 1944

20 The Politics of War

21 Differences of Opinion

22 Summer Heat: July 1944

23 Crossing the Arno: July–August 1944

24 A Change of Plan: August 1944

25 Despair: August 1944

26 The Gothic Line: 25 August–1 September 1944

27 The Tragedy of Gemmano: 1–12 September 1944

28 Mountain Passes and Bloody Ridges: 12–21 September 1944

Part III: The Winter of Discontent

29 Death in the Mountains: 22–29 September 1944

30 The Reason Why

31 Rain, Mud and Misery, Part I: 1–14 October 1944

32 Rain, Mud and Misery, Part II: 15–31 October 1944

33 The Infantryman’s Lot: November 1944

34 The Partisan Crisis: November–December 1944

35 White Christmas: December 1944

Part IV: Endgame

36 Stalemate: January–February 1945

37 Getting Ready: February–April 1945

38 The Last Offensive: 9–20 April 1945

39 The End of the War in Italy: 21 April–2 May 1945

Postscript

References

Bibliography

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations and Glossary

Guide to ranks

Index ITALY’S SORROW A Year of War, 1944–1945 JAMES HOLLAND

Copyright ITALY’S SORROW A Year of War, 1944–1945 JAMES HOLLAND

About The Publisher

Italy showing German defensive lines

Cassino front, 11 May 1944, and Alexander’s battle plan for DIADEM and the destruction of AOK 10 south of Rome

The Monte Sole massif

Operational zone of the 8th Garibaldi Brigade of Partisans, also showing the river network Eighth Army had to cross, September 1944 to April 1945

The Val d’Orcia

Northern Italy, Lake Como and Lake Garda

Main Italian rail network and ports

Allied Control Commission Organisation of Italy, 1 September 1944

The Winter Line, January 1945

DIADEM: The battle for Rome and German lines of retreat for AOK 10

The Allied pursuit from Rome to the Albert Line, 5–20 June 1944

From the Albert Line to the River Arno, July and early August 1944

Alexander’s battle plan for the Gothic Line, August 1944

Eighth Army’s attack on the Gothic Line, August to September 1944

Fifth Army’s assault on the Gothic Line, 10–18 September 1944

The German attack on Monte Sole

Fifth Army’s attempt to break through the Apennines, 1–15 October 1944

The final offensive, April to May 1945

Italy showing German defensive lines

Cassino front, 11 May 1944, and Alexander’s battle plan for DIADEM and the destruction of AOK 10 south of Rome

The Monte Sole massif

Operational zone of the 8th Garibaldi Brigade of Partisans, also showing the river network Eighth Army had to cross (Sept. 1944–April 1945)