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In the aftermath of the breakout from Salerno the Allies advanced steadily up Italy, pushing through a series of German defensive lines, before finally coming to a stop at the Gustav Line, most famous for the battles around Cassino. This book looks at some of the battles at either end of the line towards the end of the advance towards the Gustav Line, involving the US lead Fifth Army in the west and British led Eighth Army in the east. Their target was the Winter Line, a defensive line created to win time for the construction of the Gustav Line further north.
This campaign was neither side’s main objective late in 1943. For the Germans it came third, after the vital Eastern Front and preparing for the obviously upcoming invasion of north-western Europe. For the Allies the first priority was that invasion, Operation Overlord. On the Allied side this saw six divisions leave Italy to move back to Britain before the battles covered here, and would see Montgomery leave the Eighth Army at the end of 1943 to take up his new role in Britain. Although the Allies outnumbered the Germans during these battles, none of their divisions were at full strength, reinforcements were limited and there were very few reserves. The German units were in a similar state, and included units being rebuilt after being lost in North Africa or at Stalingrad.
The battles covered here were very different. On the west coast the fighting at Orsogna was largely dominated by mountains, and while San Peitro included urgan fighting, again difficult terrain dominated (in particular the terraced hillsides on the approaches, which made it very difficult for tanks to move off the road. In the east there was more urban fighting, with the town of Orsogna being a key position (although the terrain here was also difficult).
The scale of the fighting covered here wasn’t huge. During the account of the fighting at San Peitro there is space to follow individual attacks, while the failed second attack on Orsogna cose the New Zealanders involved 30 dead, 90 wounded and 30-40 missing, a significant human cost, but not on the same scale as some of the larger battles in Italy. This means the author has the space to cover them in some detail, so we can see the impact of individual moments on the course of a battle – a tank shedding its tracks can deny its accompanying infantry armoured support, ending an attack.
The most interesting of these battles is that for the coastal town of Ortona, where a badly outnumbered German garrison held out for much longer than might have been expected. The key to their success was planning, with their commander turning the town into a trap, blocking most of the streets to force the Allies into pre-prepared killing zones, using tunnels to move men around, setting up huge numbers of booby traps etc.
These battles played a key part in slowing the Allied advance in Italy, ending a period when it looked like they might have been in Rome by Christmas of 1943. Instead they would bog down not far from the positions established at the end of these battles, where they would remain until Cassino finally fell in the late spring of 1944, after one of the more controversial battles of the war. This book demonstrates just how effective the Germans could be on the defensive, and how that could negate all of the Allied advantages in artillery, air power or (to some extent) in numbers.
Chapters
Origins of the Campaign
Chronology
Opposing Commanders
Opposing Forces
Opposing Plans
The Campaign
Aftermath
The Battlefields Today
Author: Pier Paolo Battistelli
Edition: Paperback
Pages: 96
Publisher: Osprey
Year: 2023