Foothold in Europe by Strategicus

Author:Strategicus [Strategicus]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, United States, Europe, General, Germany, Special Forces
ISBN: 9781787202405
Google: TQtkDQAAQBAJ
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Published: 2016-10-27T03:03:20+00:00

CHAPTER 10—ADVANCE IN ITALY

Some idea of the quality of the struggle in Italy during the autumn and winter can be gathered from the mileage of the advance. Kesselring praised Montgomery’s speed of movement and we have seen that the rapidity of his advance from the south materially influenced the outcome of the struggle for Salerno. But with the Allies stretched across the peninsula between Termoli and Capua the tempo changed. In the 105 days that separate the battle of Naples from that of Anzio the powerful Fifth Army succeeded in advancing only about 33 miles. Such is the distance between Capua and Cassino, as the crow flies, though very rarely can an army travel in so direct and undisturbed a manner in Italy. But, taking it as a gauge, it works out as an average of two and a fifth miles per week; and that can scarcely be described as Blitzkrieg. It resembles positional warfare. It was not positional warfare in the finished sense of the last war when positions in many places varied little for years, and this in a country where only in one particular area was the terrain comparable with that of Italy.

Topographically, Italy has somewhat the configuration of a herring, with the Apennines forming the vertebral column and sending off spurs to the coastal area. Between these spurs run numerous streams and rivers, smiling and friendly in summer but inclined to show a different and far less complacent temper in winter. Though the Apennine backbone is about double the distance from the western coast that it is from the eastern the rivers run athwart the line of advance for only about the same distance, after first striking out a course parallel to the main ridge.

It was not to be expected that the armies would make their best pace across such country, particularly when every opportunity for defence was seized by such troops as Panzer Grenadiers and the 1st Parachute Division; and we can note, in passing, that these physical features, the creation of nature, bore out the conclusion of experience elsewhere that nature is more formidable than art in providing defences that can best put the brake on the progress of an army. The Siegfried Line did not long withstand determined attack; but in this terrible country of Italy the finest British, Indian, and Canadian infantry seemed to hark back to the veritable ‘footslogger’ of the last war.

The Allies had so far followed Belisarius with marked fidelity in their approach to ‘Fortress Europe’. They conquered Sicily after some hard fighting at Catania; crossed the Straits of Messina at Reggio and, advancing up the west coast of Italy came, as did he, to the river Volturno. At the end of the battle of Naples the Eighth Army were in possession of Termoli and their forward positions lay a few miles to the north, across the Biferno, while the Fifth Army were at the Volturno with Capua on the northern bank in their hands. They pushed forward their

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