Warfare and the Third Reich by Chant Christopher

Author:Chant, Christopher
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-849943-18-5
Publisher: Pavilion Books
Published: 2015-06-24T16:00:00+00:00

COLONEL-GENERAL HEINRICH VON VIETINGHOFF

When the Allies entered Rome on 4 June 1944, the German 10th and 14th Armies were still conducting so chaotic a retreat that there seemed every likelihood of cutting them off and destroying them before they could reform and establish another defensive front. That this was not achieved was due to the magnetic influence of the Italian capital, which had come to obsess the 5th Army ever since the Allies had been fought to a halt at Cassino the previous November. Kesselring’s shaken forces were given just enough time to get clear of the trap which never closed.

When Kesselring ordered the retreat to the northern Apennine Gruen-Linie (or Gothic Line, as it was more familiarly called) he was in a unique position. He had to retreat fast enough to prevent a débâcle in the Rome area, but not so fast that his armies got to the Gothic Line before its defences were ready. (This was scheduled for the autumn of 1944.) He was helped that he still had the terrain on his side as he retreated along the line of the Apennines, Italy’s spine; and on either side of Lake Trasimene he had drawn the ‘Albert Line’, where he intended to make another stand.

Kesselring was also helped by a dramatic switch in the balance of forces in Italy. His opponent, General Alexander, was about to lose 97,000 men – the US VI Corps and the French Expeditionary Corps – which were required for the ‘Dragoon’ landings in southern France. This meant that Kesselring would not only be spared from having to face the markedly superior masses which had assailed him in the third battle of Cassino: he would also no longer have to worry about the best troops to serve on the Allied side in the Italian theatre. At the same time, OKW was sending him reinforcements: a paper strength of eight divisions in all, of which the most bizarre were the mounted Cossacks of the 162nd Turkestan Division. The first Allied withdrawals of troops came just in time to take the pressure off the 14th Army, on the German right flank, and enable it to reach the Albert Line in safety (20/23 June).

During the Cassino fighting, Vietinghoff’s 10th Army had borne the brunt, drawing on reinforcements from 14th Army. The keynote of operations between 20 June and 3 August reversed this pattern, for Alexander’s objective was a powerful thrust up the western side of the Apennines with Florence as its first objective. This was the 14th Army’s front, and it was now the 10th Army’s turn to do the reinforcing. While Vietinghoff had Lemelsen handled the operations of the 10th and 14th Armies, Kesselring presided like an anxious chef who knows that he is short of ingredients, doling out the appropriate reinforcements as required. The assault on the Albert Line commenced on 20 June, and by 2 July the Allies were through to Foiana, north of Lake Trasimene, and Cecina on the west coast. The Albert Line was breached.

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