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There are a total of 41 Cemeteries and 4 memorials in South and North of
Italy namely Cassino Memorial, Forli Indian Army Cremation Memorial,
Rimini Gurkha War Cremation Memorial, and Sangro River War Cremation
Memorial. Common Wealth War Graves Commission Register has recorded 5727
causalties of WW-2 in Italy of which the British Indian forces in
Cemeteries are (2830) and commemoration by Memorial are (2897). Rimini
Gurkha War Cemetery has the largest (618) soldiers, and other notable
are Sangro River War Cemetery (517), Forli Cemetery (492), Cassino War
Cemetery (431), Salerno War Cemetery (385), Arezzo War Cemetery (378),
Cassino Memorial (1440), Forly Cremation Memorial ( 768 ), Sangro
Cremation Memorial (517).
The story of British Indian Army in Italy starts in September 1943 when
8th Indian Division attacked and took over Larino which is near the city
of Termoli. After crossing river Sangro, German strong defence line
known as Berhardt Line was attacked and succeeded in joining the 4th
Indian Division already in action at Cassino. Now both the Divisions
were ready to attack and finally suceeded in breaking the German
stronghold in May 1944. The German forces started retreating north from
Rome to the Gothic Line and were pursued by the 10th Indian Division and
others, and heavy losses were inflicted on the retreating German forces
in June 1944. On 9 April 1945, a strong offensive was launched by Indian
forces across the Senio and Santerno rivers and they reached river Po on
the night of April 25-26. By May 2, they had penetrated beyond the river
Adige, when the German forces finally surrendered.
Common Wealth War Graves Commission Register has recorded 5727 of total
causalties of British Indian forces in Italy from September 1943 to 2
May 1945. In the register are also recorded 46 Indian soldiers of WW-I.
It is quite interesting to note the overal position of the allied forces
including the forces of the Commonwealth recorded by Common Wealth War
Grave Commission. Below is their version of the story.
The Campaign in Northern Italy: From Rome to the Alps
The associations of the land of Italy and its people with England and
the English are ancient, profound and various. The fortunes or the
tastes of many of our northern race have led them in one way or another
to that southern country and accustomed them to her classic
inheritances. This tradition of travels and sojourns was formerly
concerned with the recreations and the pursuits and studies of times of
peace. In the first half of the twentieth century this course of life
was interrupted, and for the first time it became the lot of the Briton
to appear in Italy as a fighting man. What then ensued through the
Kingdom in a series of battles and all that warfare means has found its
record, in one noble form, in the actual scene, where the cemeteries of
the Commonwealth are set in the varied landscape.
In order that the nature and full meaning of these many dispersed
cemeteries may be more readily understood, particularly by those who now
make their pilgrimages to them in the cities or in the country places, a
succinct chronicle of the war in Italy from the point of view of the
Commonwealth forces is given here. It reminds us of the stubborn and
intense contests for key positions, and how these alternated with
marches and movements on a large scale. In these great episodes the fate
of individual soldiers, whose duties and posts were of the widest
variety, and the locality and appearance of their last resting-places
were inevitably involved.
Rome was taken by the Allies on 6th June, 1944, but the Italian campaign
lasted eleven months more. Those who died in Italy during these months
are buried in twenty-six war cemeteries in central and northern Italy;
they number just over 17,750. The cemeteries by their locations show the
course of the campaign. To the north of Rome lie first Bolsena War
Cemetery, Orvieto War Cemetery, and Assisi War Cemetery, near the zone
of the first halt made by the Germans after their retreat from Rome.
Farther north, Arezzo War Cemetery and Foiano della Chiana War Cemetery
show where the Germans made another stand. Florence, the centre of the
Arno line and the point from which the winter campaign of the
Appennino's was launched, had one war cemetery, the Florence War
Cemetery near the River Arno. On the difficult routes through the
mountains are the Castiglione South African Cemetery and the Santerno
Valley War Cemetery. The Eighth Army's progress up the Adriatic coast is
marked by a cemetery at Ancona, and then by a cluster of cemeteries
ranging from near Pesaro to just beyond Ravenna: Montecchio War
Cemetery, Gradara War Cemetery, Coriano Ridge War Cemetery, Rimini
Gurkha War Cemetery, Cesena War Cemetery, Meldola War Cemetery, Forli
War Cemetery and Forli Indian Army War Cemetery, Faenza War Cemetery,
Ravenna War Cemetery and Villanova Canadian War Cemetery. Finally in the
zone of the break-through in the springof 1945 lie Argenta Gap War
Cemetery and Bologna War Cemetery. Among the cities of the north, Milan,
Genoa and Padua have war cemeteries, and Udine War Cemetery, in the
north-east, is not far from some of the cemeteries of the 1914-18 War.
All of these cemeteries contain burials brought together into them from
a considerable area round about when once the battle had passed on;
some, however, were started as battlefield cemeteries-Argenta Gap War
Cemetery, Castiglione South African Cemetery, Foiano della Chiana War
Cemetery, Meldola War Cemetery, Montecchio War Cemetery, Santerno Valley
War Cemetery, Ravenna War Cemetery, Villanova Canadian War Cemetery and
Orvieto War Cemetery.
After the taking of Rome by the Allies in June 1944, the Germans, if
they were to avoid a complete rout, must fall back quickly; but the
Gothic Line, their next strong defensive position, roughly 242
kilometres farther north, was not yet completed, and they had to make a
stand somewhere before long in order to gain time for its completion.
The aim of the Allies was to reach the Northern Appennino's if possible
before the Germans could consolidate anywhere: they must reach the Arno
in the shortest time possible and then use the Arno Valley as their base
for a drive to Bologna. Thus it was that in the first eight days after
the fall of Rome, the Fifth Army advanced some 129 kilometres along the
coast, and the Eighth Army farther inland about 97 kilometres, when the
Allies found resistance stiffening.
The valuable port of Civitavecchia was taken on 7th June, and was
speedily made usable; beyond that, however, there was some hard fighting
before the U.S. 4th Corps took Orbetello and Grosseto. In the centre,
the South African 6th Armoured Division made swift progress at first
towards Orvieto, but that town was not taken till 14th June, the South
African drive having been held up at Bagnoregio. Much farther to the
right, the New Zealanders took Avezzano on 10th June, while on the
Adriatic the Germans started to withdraw. On the 9th Orsogna, after
being for six months just out of reach, was at last taken by the Allies,
followed by Pescara and Chieti on the 10th. On 17th June an assault was
made on the island of Elba, the land forces being French, the air force
American, and the naval force mostly British; all resistance on the
island ceased by the 19th.
German resistance had been growing for about a week, when on 20th June
the Allied forces reached the line on which the Germans had decided to
make a stand-a line running past Lake Trasimene, the scene of the defeat
of the Romans by Hannibal's army in 217 B.C. By 21st June the 13th Corps
was checked south-west of Lake Trasimene, and the 10th Corps in the
hills north and west of Perugia. The battles for this line lasted till
the end of the month. At the western end the Americans were slowed down,
but not stopped; their heaviest fighting was for Cecina. The French,
heading for Siena, were held up for a few days, but reached Siena on 3rd
July. On both sides of Lake Trasimene, the British 13th and 10th Corps
met with heavy opposition from some of the best German divisions, but
the Germans were driven from their line on 28th June, and on 2nd July
the 78th Division cleared the northern shore of Lake Trasimene.
Thosekilled in the fighting of that month of June are buried in the
cemeteries at Bolsena, Orvieto and Assisi.
The German retreat did not last long, however; on 5th July the Allies
encountered resolute resistance in defence of positions just south of a
line Ancona-Arezzo-Leghorn, and in particular there was a spell of
fairly heavy and inconclusive fighting on both sides of the Chiana
valley, leading to Arezzo. To this period belong the cemeteries at
Foiano della Chiana and Arezzo. The Allied attack all along the line
began on 14th/15th July; within less than a week it had succeeded in
taking all the strong points of the German defences and in gaining for
the Allies the ports of Ancona and Leghorn. The Americans had reached
the Arno on 4th August, though it was not till 13th August that the 8th
Indian Division crossed the river at Florence and occupied the city
itself-two days before the landings in southern France. During the
previous two months, the Allied armies in Italy had lost three American
and four French divisions for these French landings, which were given
priority over the Italian campaign.
The first days of August, then, saw the end of the campaign in Central
Italy, and the conclusion of plans for the advance towards the Po
valley. Ahead of the Allied forces was a major German defence line,
known as the Gothic Line; it ran from Pesaro on the Adriatic up the
River Foglia, across the Appennino's to Bibbiena, then just south of the
main Appennino watershed to a point near Pistoia, whence it cut across
to the coast near Carrara, 19 kilometres south of La Spezia. The line
was naturally strong, and had been heavily fortified by the Germans,
whose delaying actions at Lake Trasimene and near Arezzo had given them
time to complete their work on it. It was decided that the main weight
of the next Allied attack must fall on the Adriatic sector of the Gothic
Line; when this had forced the Germans to commit their reserves in this
sector, an attack across the Appennino's on the right of the Fifth Army
front was to follow. The forces of the Allies were therefore regrouped
so as to bring the weight of the Eighth Army over to the Adriatic, where
for months it had been playing a holding role with a minimum of
strength.
The Allied attack on the Adriatic sector began on 25th August 1944. It
took the Germans by surprise and, as had been hoped, it compelled them
to reinforce in that sector and to withdraw towards the Gothic Line
proper. These first Allied efforts won some key positions and achieved a
break-through on the River Foglia; by the beginning of September the
Allies were in possession of some 32 kilometres of the main German
defences but the Germans were still strongly holding the Coriano Ridge,
south of Rimini. Having strengthened their positions on the Adriatic,
the Germans had to withdraw elsewhere, but the Fifth Army found them in
general prepared to offer resistance on the high ground north of
Florence which formed the approach to the main Gothic Line defences in
the Appennino's.
In mid-September came the next Allied push; on the 12th the Eighth Army
began their attack on Coriano Ridge, which after very heavy fighting was
taken by the Canadians the following day; and on the 13th the Fifth Army
launched their main offensive ontheir right, the 13th Corps being by
then in a position to attack the main Gothic Line defences in the
Appennino's. On 15th September the first units of the Brazilian
Expeditionary Force came into action with the Fifth Army. By the end of
17th September, in spite of very difficult country and strong
opposition, the enemy's main defences on Il Giogo pass had beenbroken,
and by the 22nd all units of the 13th Corps and of the U.S. 2nd Corps
had passed through the Gothic Line on a front of 48 kilometres. On the
west coast, the U.S. 4th Corps was able to advance steadily as the
Germans withdrew to their main defensive positions 19 kilometres south
of La Spezia, and fighting was not heavy.
Along the rest of the front, however, the fighting had been probably the
severest experienced by either Army in Italy. On 21st September the 3rd
Greek Mountain Brigade entered Rimini, on the Adriatic coast. On 24th
September the important Futa pass, on one of the main routes across the
Appennino's, and one of the strongest defensive positions on the German
line, was cleared. By the end of September the Germans had decided to
abandon all their Gothic Line positions except in the extreme west. The
fighting during September had been severe and the losses on both sides
heavy. The Allied armies had won a great success, but at high cost, and
they were unable to follow it up as they would have wished. The Eighth
Army had advanced about 48 kilometres in less than a month, and hoped
now to be able soon to reach the Po; but apart from their battle
casualties, they now lost the 4th Indian Division and the 3rd Greek
Mountain Brigade, ordered to Greece, and they had not the reserve of
manpower to keep up their strength.
Moreover, they had now come to a region of innumerable water channels
which proved serious obstacles in the very rainy autumn weather, and the
German determination not to yield a yard of ground without fighting for
it was almost fanatical. So it was that during October the Eighth Army
gained only a few kilometres of rain-sodden ground, while the Fifth Army
struggled through the mountains in appalling weather against spirited
resistance by some of the best German divisions in Italy, until on 27th
October, almost within sight of their immediate goal, Highway No. 9, the
main road along the base of the mountains from Rimini to Bologna and
Milan, they had to assume the defensive. The Eighth Army continued their
advance a little longer; in November they took Forli and gained the
outskirts of Ravenna, and on 4th December troops of the 1st Canadian
Corps entered Ravenna. By the end of December they reached the line of
the River Senio and the great lagoon called the Valli di Comacchio;
Faenza had been taken by the 5th Corps on 16th December after obstinate
defence by the enemy.
The Allied armies, then, were halted on a winter line which in the
Appennino's was only some 16 kilometres short of Bologna, and in the
plains on the Adriatic sector was formed by the Senio and the fringe of
the Comacchio marshes and lagoon. Bad weather, lack of ammunition,
shortage of reinforcements, and desperate resistance by the Germans at
Hitler's insistence had combined to force this halt; not until April
1945 was the general offensive resumed. The fighting during the last
months of 1944 and early in 1945 is reflected in the cemeteries of
Castiglione and the Santerno Valley, of Florence, and in the group
between Pesaro and Ravenna.
The first operation of the spring offensive took place on 2nd April
1945, when Commandos moved against German positions on the narrow spit
of land between the Comacchio lagoon and the Adriatic. Next, on the
extreme left of the front, the U.S. 92nd Division started to attack up
the Ligurian coast towards Massa Carrara and La Spezia. Massa was taken
on 10th April, then the advance was slowed down; but it continued
todamage the Germans severely, and had forced them to throw in reserves
not only from close at hand but from farther east.
On 9th April the final drive of the Italian campaign began when the
Eighth Army, now including the newly reformed Jewish Infantry Brigade
Group, directed its main effort with the 5th Corps towards Comacchio and
the Argenta Gap-that gap between the River Reno and the Valli di
Comacchio, now only some 3640 metres wide between areas flooded by the
Germans, and heavily defended. It was the key to Padua, Venice and the
north-east. On the morning of 14th April the main offensive of the Fifth
Army was started by the 4th Corps, with the U.S. 10th Mountain Division
as its spearhead. To the right, the U.S. 2nd Corps gave battle the
following day, the 6th South African Armoured Division making the most
notable first advance. By dawn of 18th April the enemy in front of the
U.S. 2nd Corps had begun an orderly withdrawal all along the line,
dictated partly by the rapidity of the 4th Corps' advance on the left.
By 21st April the U.S. 10th Mountain Division had thrust through the
defences north-west of Bologna, had cut Highway No. 9 and was preparing
for the drive on the Po; 2nd Corps troops and Poles from the Eighth Army
were in Bologna; and on the right the Germans were retreating in
complete defeat before the Eighth Army-a general withdrawal to the Po
had been ordered on the 20th by the German commander-in-chief. By the
night of 24th April, the Fifth Army held a front of 97 kilometres along
the River Po; by the 25th they had taken about 30,000 prisoners from the
disintegrating German armies. The effective elements of the German
armies were largely destroyed south of the Po; although they succeeded
in withdrawing large numbers of troops across the river, they lost great
quantities of equipment, and no longer had sufficient fighting troops to
hold another defence line.
The final days of the campaign passed in a rapid whirl of movement. A
few broad strokes on the map describe it all. From the region of Bologna
the Allied forces radiated in various directions. A part of the U.S. 4th
Corps (including the Brazilian force) headed up Highway No. 9 and along
the northern base of the Appennino's, cutting off considerable German
forces. Other elements of the 4th Corps crossed the Po, went north to
Mantua and Lake Garda (just too late to capture Mussolini), and along
the northern edge of the plain by Bergamo to Como and Milan. The U.S.
2nd Corps, farther east, went to Verona, Vicenza, and north and
north-eastwards into the Alps. And on the extreme left, the U.S. 92nd
Division followed the Ligurian coast to Genoa (which was taken by
Italian partisans, as were also Turin and Milan), and surging inland,
joined up with the Brazilians. Meanwhile, the Eighth Army had crossed
the Po on 25th April and the Adige two days later. The Germans offered
some final resistance before Indian troops took Padua and the 2nd New
Zealand Division entered Venice (already underpartisan control) on the
29th. On May 1st the New Zealanders met Yugoslav troops at Monfalcone,
and the following day they entered Trieste, which had already been
entered from the other side by the Yugoslavs, to whom the Germans,
however, had refused to surrender. Contacts had also been made in the
north-west between American and French forces in Piedmont, and in the
north between forces of the Fifth Army advancing from Italy and those of
the U.S. Seventh Army coming southwards from Austria.
The formal end of the campaign came on 2nd May, when the representatives
of the German commander-in-chief accepted the Allied terms of
unconditional surrender. The campaign had lasted twenty-two months from
the time of the Allied landings in Sicily, during which time the Allied
armies had covered more than 1610 kilometres, a great part of that
distance being through mountains. The total Allied casualties killed,
wounded and missing were 312,000; of these, 42,000 of the killed
belonged to the forces of the Commonwealth.
The Campaign in Southern Italy: From Reggio to Rome
The associations of the land of Italy and its people with England and
the English are ancient, profound and various. The fortunes of many of
our northern race have led them in one way or another to that southern
country and accustomed them to her classic inheritances. This tradition
of travels and sojourns was formerly concerned with the recreations and
pursuits and studies of times of peace. In the first half of the
twentieth century this course of life was interrupted, and for the first
time it became the lot of the Briton to appear in Italy as a fighting
man. What then ensued through the kingdom in a series of battles and all
that warfare means has found its record, in one noble form, in the
actual scene, where the cemeteries of the Commonwealth are set in a
varied landscape.
In order that the nature and full meaning of these many dispersed
cemeteries may be more readily understood, particularly by those who now
make their pilgrimage to them in the cities or in the country places, a
succinct chronicle of the war in Italy from the point of view of the
Commonwealth forces is given here. It reminds us of the stubborn and
intense contests for key positions, and how these alternated with
marches and movements on a large scale. In these great episodes the fate
of individual soldiers, whose duties and posts were of the widest
variety, and the locality and appearance of their last resting places
were inevitably involved.
The campaign in Southern Italy lasted from 3rd September, 1943, when
British and Canadian troops crossed the Straits of Messina from Sicily
to the mainland of Italy, until 4th June, 1944, when the first Allied
troops entered Rome. During this campaign and in the subsequent period
of garrison duties, just over 20,250 members of the Commonwealth forces
laid down their lives in Southern Italy. They are buried in eleven war
cemeteries: Bari War Cemetery; Salerno War Cemetery; Naples War
Cemetery; Caserta War Cemetery; Minturno War Cemetery; Sangro River War
Cemetery; Moro River Canadian War Cemetery, Ortona; Beach Head War
Cemetery, Anzio; Anzio War Cemetery; Cassino War Cemetery; and Rome War
Cemetery.
None of these are purely battle cemeteries; into all of them have been
brought the dead from the surrounding areas. But the site of each has a
particular significance. That at Bari represents the initial period of
relatively easy advance, slowed down by demolitions rather than by enemy
opposition, through the extreme south of the peninsula; Bari, too, was a
headquarters town. Salerno was the scene of the fiercely contested
American and British landings on 9th September, 1943, aimed at seizing
Naples. Naples was the first major objective of the campaign. Caserta
was for long the headquarters of the Allied armies in Italy, and is not
far from the scenes of bitter fighting in October 1943 on the Volturno
River. Minturno lies near the mouth of the Garigliano River, the
crossing of which was hotly contested in January 1944. By that time the
forces on the Adriatic coast had been brought to a standstill near
Ortona, and the Sangro River and Moro River cemeteries mark the hardest
battles on that sector, fought just before the end of 1943. The Allies
made landings at Anzio in January 1944, intended to threaten the rear of
the German forces farther south, and to hasten the capture of Rome; they
did not finally break out from the Anzio area, however, until the end of
May 1944. During these early months of 1944, too, Allied forces had been
striving in vain to take and pass Cassino, where the largest cemetery in
southern Italy is now situated. And eventually in June 1944 they reached
Rome the ultimate goal of the campaign in southern Italy. The following
paragraphs delineate that campaign in greater detail.
The plans for the invasion of Italy were necessarily dependent upon the
extent of the resources available to the Allies by the end of the
Sicilian campaign, and upon the material and moral condition of the Axis
forces by the same time. The collapse of the Italian forces in Sicily,
the heavy losses sustained by the Germans, and the downfall of Mussolini
were encouraging factors, and the plan decided upon, on 16th August,
provided that the British Eighth Army under General Montgomery would
cross the Straits of Messina and land near Reggio, in order to secure a
hold on the "toe" of Italy and open the Straits of Messina for Allied
naval forces. The Army would engage German forces as strongly as
possible in the South so as to contain troops that might otherwise be
used to resist the coming assault on the beaches of the Gulf of Salerno.
This was to be the task of the Fifth Army, a mixed British and American
force under General Mark Clark, which was to land on the shores of the
Gulf of Salerno, six days after the Eighth Army landings, in order to
seize Naples and the neighbouring airfields.
The Eighth Army actually made its landings just three weeks after
victory was gained in Sicily, in the early hours of 3rd September, 1943.
The assault was made by the 13th Corps on the beaches just north of
Reggio, with the 1st Canadian Division on the right and the 5th Division
on the left, supported by air bombardments and a heavy artillery barrage
across the Straits of Messina. Reggio town and airfield were quickly
captured that day; many Italian troops surrendered early. There was no
contact with the Germans on that first day. Their plan, indeed, in the
first stages of the campaign was to avoid battle in order to save their
troops, and to delay the Allied advance by means of mines and
demolitions. Allied casualties of all kinds on 3rd September numbered
only twenty-three. At first the 5th Division advanced along the north of
the "toe" and the 1st Canadian Division through the mountainous centre;
although opposition was weak, the advance was slowed down by demolitions
and difficult country. On 6th September the Canadians switched their
line of advance to the south coastal road running up towards Locri and
the "instep." By 10th September the line Catanzaro-Nicastro, across the
narrowest part of the Calabrian peninsula, had been reached without any
heavy opposition.
Meanwhile, on 8th September the armistice with Italy (agreed on 3rd
September) had been publicly declared.
In the early hours of 9th September the U.S. Fifth Army made landings in
the Gulf of Salerno, with Rangers and commandos on the left, the British
10th Corps making the main assault with the 46th and 56th Divisions in
the centre, just south of Salerno, and the U.S. 6th Corps some 16
kilometres farther south, near Paestum. The fighting on the Salerno
beaches was amongst the fiercest of the Italian campaign, the landing
forces being greeted by violent resistance. The first three days were
relatively successful for the Allies, but the Germans rapidly brought up
reinforcements from Calabria and from the north, and for a few days the
situation at the beach-head was critical. Heavy and accurate shelling
from British battleships and other naval units and bombing by the
Strategic Air Force had great effect, both material and moral; by 15th
September Fifth Army reinforcements were arriving, and the advance of
the Eighth Army from the south was proving rapid enough to give the
Germans cause to fear for the safety of their left flank. On 16th
September the Americans, who three days before had been forced half-way
back to the beaches, found the Germans beginning to withdraw before
them; with this German confession of their inability to destroy the
bridgehead, the Allied hold on the mainland of Italy could be said to be
firmly established.
On the same day as the Salerno landings, 9th September, the British 1st
Airborne Division had landed by sea at Taranto, without opposition.
There were no Germans in the town, and the Italian authorities were
friendly and co-operative. The possession of this port was invaluable,
as the supply position of the Eighth Army was causing anxiety; it was
also improved by the capture on 11th September of the smaller port of
Crotone. By 15th September the Eighth Army line ran across the "instep"
of Italy, through Belvedere and Castrovillari. On the following day
contact was made by the forces that landed at Reggio with the troops of
the Salerno bridgehead on the left and the troops that had landed at
Taranto on the right. By 21st September the entire south-eastern corner
of Italy, including the ports of Bari and Brindisi as well as Taranto,
was clear of the German forces. The next objectives were the port of
Naples and the great airfield centre of Foggia, possession of which
would immensely widen the scope of Allied bombing operations in Italy
and over the Balkans.
On 27th September the Eighth Army captured Foggia and Melfi; this marked
the end of that part of their campaign which consisted of rapid advances
after a retreating enemy, in which the major problems had been those of
overcoming demolitions and maintaining supplies. The Fifth Army had a
hard struggle for the passes that lead from the Gulf of Salerno to the
plain of Naples, but by 28th September the 10th Corps had penetrated
them, and the city of Naples was entered on 1st October; despite German
demolitions its port was rapidly made serviceable. The cemeteries at
Bari, Salerno, and Naples contain casualties of the fighting up to this
stage, from the south-east, the south-west, and the Naples area
respectively.
The Eighth Army found the Gargano Peninsula (the "spur" of Italy)
undefended, and proceeded to Termoli. Here the 2nd Special Service
Brigade was landed by sea 1.5 kilometres beyond the town, captured it
early on 3rd October, and soon made contact with troops of the 78th
Division which, advancing from the south, had established a bridgehead
across the Biferno River. This bridgehead held firm against German
counter attacks, and on 7th October the Germans fell back. In the
centre, the 1st Canadian Division was fightingits way slowly in
difficult country, but took Campobasso on 14th October and Vinchiaturo
on the 15th. The Fifth Army by the end of the first week in October had
reached the Volturno River. The river was swollen by the recent rains,
crossing-places were few, and the Germans had better observation. The
Allied attack was launched on 12th October; strenuous fighting followed,
and it was not till 25th October that both the 10th Corps and the 6th
U.S. Corps had finally consolidated their bridgeheads.
By the end of October, then, both Allied armies were facing the German
"Winter Line", which stretched from the Garigliano River to the Sangro
River and was a series of fortified positions in depth rather than a
line. It now became increasingly evident that the original German
tactics (based on an over-estimate of Allied strength) of sparing troops
by avoiding battle and practising extensive demolitions had changed, and
that every inch of ground would henceforth be hotly contested. The
results of this change are reflected in the fact that from here
northwards there are more and larger cemeteries within a smaller area
than that covered by the campaign so far.
During November and December, 1943, the Fifth Army made persistent
attempts to break into the Winter Line, and to occupy the mountains on
either side of the gap at Mignano through which runs the road to Rome.
After attacks in this area from 5th to 15th November, they had to pause.
Meanwhile the Eighth Army, proceeding up the Adriatic coast, was faced
by a series of river crossings. By 4th November they had crossed the
Trigno River in bad weather against heavy opposition, and were preparing
to attack the Sangro River positions of the Winter Line. A bridgehead
across the river having been firmly established by 24th November, the
final attack on German positions on the ridge north of the river began
on 28th November, with the 8th Indian Division on the right, the 78th
Division following through, and the 2nd New Zealand Division on the
left. By nightfall on 30th November, the whole ridge overlooking the
River Sangro, the main position of the Winter Line in the east, was in
Allied hands. The Sangro River War Cemetery is a sign of the bitterness
of the contest.
Towards the western end of the front, the Fifth Army had by now rested
and regrouped its forces, and on 1st December launched its next attack
on the mountains south of the Mignano Gap. In this attack, which
succeeded by 7th December, the British troops engaged were the 56th
Division. On their right, from 8th December till the end of the year
there was bitter fighting for the mountains on the north of the Mignano
Gap and for certain isolated hills that stand up in the gap itself. By
the end of the year the Winter Line had, in General Alexander's words,
been "broken into, but not broken", and its main strength, the Gustav
Line, hinged upon Cassino, still lay ahead.
On the Adriatic Sector, the Eighth Army had been slow making progress.
On 6th December the 1st Canadian Division (which had relieved the 78th
Division), and on 7th December the 8th Indian Division crossed the Moro
River and drove towards Ortona; in Ortona itself for over a week
(20th-28th December) there was most bitter street fighting between the
Canadians and the German 1st Parachute Division. Ortona fell on 28th
December. Farther inland, the 2nd New Zealand Division had twice (7th
and 14th December) attacked Orsogna without success, but on 24th
December they occupied the high ground north-east of the town.
Thereafter virtually no advance was made east of theAppennino's until
after the fall of Rome. The fighting immediately preceding this halt is
marked by the Moro River Canadian War Cemetery, near Ortona.
The Adriatic Sector was left with only a sufficient force to contain the
Germans there, while the full weight of the Allied armies was swung to
the entrance to the Liri Valley, the gateway to Rome, and the one place
where an attack in force could be developed. Plans also were now made
for landings at Anzio, in an outflanking movement towards the Alban
Hills (or Colli Laziali), with a view to cutting the German
communications and threatening the rear of the Gustav Line.
The operations of which the Anzio landings formed a part began on 17th
January, 1944, with the 10th Corps attacking across the River Garigliano
with the 5th, 46th and 56th Divisions; by 19th January the 5th Division
had taken Minturno (the site of another War Cemetery) and the 56th
Division was in the outskirts of Castelforte. By 8th February the
bridgehead across the Garigliano gained by the 10th Corps had reached
its greatest extent; the Corps had suffered heavy casualties, and only
in one area had it reached and exploited its original objectives.
Farther inland, the Americans had failed in their first attack, their
36th Division suffering great losses; by 31st January they had made a
small but important breach in the Gustav Line north of Cassino; and the
French Expeditionary Force had consolidated a considerable advance into
the mountains still further north.
The Anzio landings meantime had taken place, in the early morning hours
of 22nd January. They achieved almost complete surprise, the port of
Anzio was found almost undamaged, and there was at first practically no
resistance, so that the area decided upon for the bridgehead was
occupied by the evening of 23rd January, with the 1st British Division
on the left, and the 3rd U.S. Division on the right. The Allies did not
reach the Alban Hills, however, being held up by the enemy, who rapidly
brought up such reinforcements as he was able to without weakening the
defence of the Gustav Line. He was determined both to hold that line and
to seal off, if he could not destroy, the new bridgehead in its rear, at
Anzio. In these two aims the Germans were successful for the next four
months, and the heavy cost in lives to the Allied forces is shown by the
two cemeteries at Anzio and that at Cassino, the largest in Italy.
On 16th February the Germans launched their first strong attack towards
the port of Anzio, driving a deep wedge into the Allied front and
reaching the final beachhead line. The 18th was a critical day, but
counter-attacks on the following day began to drive the Germans back,
and 20th February saw the end of this offensive. On 16th February also
the Allies made an attack on Cassino; it had been preceded on the 15th
by the destruction of the monastery by air bombardment and artillery
fire. The attack was made by the New Zealand Corps (comprising the 2nd
New Zealand Division, 4th Indian Division, and 78th British Division),
and its progress was at first not unsatisfactory, but the eventual gains
in the face of extraordinarily stubborn enemy resistance were small, and
the attempt ended on 28th February.
The next German offensive began at Anzio the following day (29th
February), but was a complete failure; after 1st March the Allied
bridgehead at Anzio could be considered secure.
The Allies opened their next attack on 15th March with a terrific
bombardment of Cassino town. Although it was reduced to rubble its
defenders, the German 1st Parachute Division, still played their part,
and the debris was a hindrance to the Allied advance, especially to
tanks. By 18th March the greater part of the town was in Allied hands,
but on the 23rd the assault was abandoned.
After a long period of stalemate, and a regrouping of the Allied forces,
the final attack on the Gustav Line began during the night 11th-12th
May, and achieved surprise, catching the Germans in the midst of some
reorganisation of their forces. Progress was still slow in the first
stages of the battle, because of the strong defences and the doggedness
of enemy resistance. The first notable success was won by the French on
the left of the front, where the German line collapsed on 16th May,
leaving a gap through which the French forces passed, to advance over
country which the Germans had supposed impassable. By then the 13th
Corps had almost pierced the Gustav Line; by the evening of the 17th
they had cut Route 6, and the Poles on their right were ready for the
final move on Cassino. In the morning of the 18th the town of Cassino
was finally cleared, and the Polish standard was raised over the ruins
on Monastery Hill.
The Germans, who had suffered heavy casualties, now held their next
defence line, known originally as the Hitler Line, which was very
strongly fortified. It stretched across the Liri Valley farther upstream
and the Allied forces had orders to push on against it before the
retreating Germans had time to settle down in it. At the same time as
this drive was made up the Liri Valley, the 6th U.S. Corps was to break
out of the Anzio Bridgehead.
The main attack on the Hitler Line, delivered by the Canadian Corps,
opened on 23rd May. In spite of stiff resistance and heavy casualties,
the German line was cleared except for Aquino by noon on the 24th, and
by the night of the 25th the Germans were driven from the Liri Valley
east of the River Melfa.
The break-out from the Anzio bridgehead also started early on 23rd May.
It achieved local surprise, rapidly gained ground, and on the 25th
captured Cisterna and linked up with the American forces moving
northward from Terracina.
The re-united Fifth Army was now ready for the drive on Rome, while the
Eighth Army was to pass east of the city and up the Tiber valley. Speed
was essential, so as to leave the Germans no opportunity to settle down
in the Caesar Line, their last defensive position south of Rome, based
on the forward slopes of the Alban Hills. The defences in this line were
less elaborate than in the Gustav or Hitler Lines, but the terrain was
difficult. On 30th May, however, the 36th U.S. Division found a weak
spot on the fringe of the Alban Hills, penetrated it, and the last
defences of Rome were broken. By 3rd June the Germans had no alternative
but to withdraw their forces across the Tiber-a move which had
alreadystarted the previous night. On 4th June the first Allied troops
entered Rome, just two days before the invasion of Normandy was
launched; after some skirmishing in the suburbs, the centre of the city
was reached by evening. Rome had in fact been declared an open city
before the Allies entered it, and the burials in the War Cemetery are
mostly later garrison burials, and those of members of the British
forces who died in Rome during the German occupation, as prisoners of
war.
The Eighth Army in the meantime had been making steady progress up the
roads towards Avezzano and Arsoli, against surprisingly stubborn
resistance, and at the critical moment was ready to send forward the 6th
South African Armoured Division and the 6th British Armoured Division to
pursue the Germans retreating from Rome.
The Allied naval and air forces throughout the campaign had multifarious
tasks in collaboration with the land forces. The most obvious and most
constant task of the Navy was, of course, the transport, supply, and
reinforcement of the land forces, and the protection of these
operations. But on at least one occasion naval supporting fire helped to
turn the scales in a crisis when, at Salerno on 15th September, 1943,
four battleships, H.M.S. Rodney, Warspite, Nelson and Valiant, were
brought in to help to break up the German counter-attack that threatened
to destroy the Allied beach-head. At Salerno, too, H.M.S. Warspite was
badly damaged by a radio-controlled glider bomb. The Anzio landings and
subsequent naval operations also resulted in casualties to naval
vessels.
The Air Forces had to provide cover for the initial landings-at extreme
fighter range in the case of Salerno-for shipping, and for troop
movements; to provide close support for troops when required; and at
longer range to destroy German communications, hindering withdrawals as
well as preventing supplies and reinforcements from coming up, and to
bomb supply bases, factories, airfields, and other vital targets-tasks
which multiplied particularly during the period of stalemate in front of
Cassino. Until the Allies had a firm hold on southern Italy and were
established on airfields there, air force tasks were particularly
difficult. The move of the strategic air force to the Foggia airfields,
although it occupied a great deal of shipping space and for a time
delayed the building up of the ground forces, was fully justified by the
enormously extended range over enemy targets in Europe thus made
available. Throughout the campaign the Allies had air superiority, which
was a decisive factor in their success.
So it is that sailors and airmen lie buried with their soldier comrades
in cemeteries throughout Italy.
On many headstones some inscription from one of our own poets has been
engraved. Those who recall the elegy written in Italy in 1821 by one of
the English residents for another, of peculiar valour of disposition,
who died young, may have in mind, as suitable to the whole company of
the fallen, these lines:
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