Eighth Army in Italy by Richard Doherty

Author:Richard Doherty
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pen & Sword Military
Published: 2007-10-10T16:00:00+00:00

With Gioiella taken, Ward passed 10 Brigade through 28 Brigade in the direction of Casamaggiore. The brigade advance was led by 2nd Duke of Cornwall’s LI with a Three Rivers’ squadron which moved through the Hampshires at Lopi before encountering stiff opposition in the difficult country beyond. It took two and a half hours to push forward some 400 yards, as far as the valley floor beyond Lopi, but the attackers then seized the ridge east of Gioiella before gaining a foothold on the next ridge, a thousand yards east of Casamaggiore. Here they held a cemetery with two companies and some Shermans while a standing patrol covered the ground between the main positions and Casamaggiore. As the divisional historian commented: ‘every yard over which the division had advanced since breaking through the Trasimene positions had been fought for.’ There seemed no prospect of the Germans yielding any ground and the 28th proved another day of hard fighting. But, with support from 2nd Lancashire Fusiliers on their right, 10 Brigade’s DCLI and 2nd Bedfords cleared the ridge, 1/6th East Surreys took Casamaggiore and the Lancashire Fusiliers entered nearby Frattavecchia.39

Similar tough fighting had faced the South Africans. To the west 11 Armoured Brigade’s Imperial Light Horse had been thwarted by the Hermann Göring Division in their first attempt to enter Chiusi. A new plan was made and a night attack was launched on 21/22 June with 1st Capetown Highlanders advancing towards the town from the railway station with an armoured regiment to each flank; this allowed a company of Highlanders to enter the town.* Once there the Highlanders were counter-attacked with much ferocity and, isolated, were overrun during the morning of the 22nd. But the division had been successful in blocking the western road from Chiusi to Chianciano while, farther west, 24 Guards Brigade’s advance was hampered by poor tracks made almost impassable by heavy rain. By 23 June the Guards were two miles south of the Astrone river but about to enter Sarteano on the extreme western flank of Eighth Army. In spite of all the difficulties they faced the guardsmen persevered in their advance: they were, after all, the elite of Britain’s army and the monarch’s personal troops.41

By the evening of 28 June the Albert Line was broken. The Germans had fought hard to hold the attackers while the next line, the Arezzo, was occupied. Here one must reflect on John Horsfall’s analysis of James Dunnill’s failure to reinforce success at Città della Pieve, the key to the Albert Line. Dunnill had thrown away that key.

*

Its part in the breaking of the Albert Line concluded, 78th Division moved forward again to reach Cortona where, on 4 July, it was relieved by 6th Armoured Division and withdrawn to Egypt for rest and training. The Battleaxe Division would not return to Italy until the autumn. Now 16th/ 5th Lancers’ battlegroup took up the running, moving along the Chiana valley on Highway 71; the group included C Battery 12th Royal Horse Artillery, 111 Anti-Tank Battery, 8 Field Squadron and 10th Rifle Brigade.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.