Italy’s Sorrow: A Year of War 1944–45. James Holland

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      ITALY’S SORROW

      A Year of War, 1944–1945

      JAMES HOLLAND

       For Daisy

      By the spring of 1944, the vast reach of Hitler’s Third Reich, chieved so spectacularly in the early part of the war, was diminishing. In the East, the Soviet Red Army was clawing back land lost and was about to regain the Crimea, while in the West, the Western Allies were poised to invade France. Already the Axis powers had lost North Africa and, the previous summer, Sicily. Mussolini, the Fascist dictator of Italy, had been deposed, and on 8 September 1943, the Italians surrendered to the Allies. With British troops already on the southern toe of the peninsula, the main Allied invasion force landed at Salerno, south of Naples, the morning after the Italian armistice. Thus began a long and bloody campaign that would cause untold suffering. Seven months of fighting, mostly in the intractable terrain around the town of Cassino, would wreak appalling destruction.

      By May 1944, with the Italian winter behind them, the Allies were ready to renew their drive towards Rome. As the battle rolled north, the rest of Italy would become consumed by the campaign raging up its narrow leg. That year, from May 1944 to the war’s end almost exactly twelve months later, would be one of the most terrible in Italy’s history.

      CONTENTS

      List of Maps

      Note on the Text

      Principal Personalities

      Prologue

       Part I: The Road To Rome

      1 The Eve of Battle: May 1944

      2 Battle Begins: 11–12 May 1944

      3 Churchill’s Opportunism

      4 The Slow Retreat

      5 Frustrations

      6 Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

      7 Masters of the Skies

      8 The Battle Rages: 13–16 May 1944

      9 New Order

      10 Breaking the Gustav Line: 17–18 May 1944

      11 Achtung Banditen!

      12 The Fog of War: 18–23 May 1944

      13 Break-out: 23–26 May 1944

      14 General Clark and the Big Switch: 26–30 May 1944

      15 The Fall of Rome: 1–5 June 1944

       Part II: The Brutal Summer

      16 The North

      17 The Problems of Generalship: June 1944

      18 The Typhoon Rolls North

      19 Breaking the Albert Line: 20–30 June 1944

      20 The Politics of War

      21 Differences of Opinion

      22 Summer Heat: July 1944

      23 Crossing the Arno: July–August 1944

      24 A Change of Plan: August 1944

      25 Despair: August 1944

      26 The Gothic Line: 25 August–1 September 1944

      27 The Tragedy of Gemmano: 1–12 September 1944

      28 Mountain Passes and Bloody Ridges: 12–21 September 1944

       Part III: The Winter of Discontent

      29 Death in the Mountains: 22–29 September 1944

      30 The Reason Why

      31 Rain, Mud and Misery, Part I: 1–14 October 1944

      32 Rain, Mud and Misery, Part II: 15–31 October 1944

      33 The Infantryman’s Lot: November 1944

      34 The Partisan Crisis: November–December 1944

      35 White Christmas: December 1944

       Part IV: Endgame

      36 Stalemate: January–February 1945

      37 Getting Ready: February–April 1945

      38 The Last Offensive: 9–20 April 1945

      39 The End of the War in Italy: 21 April–2 May 1945

      Postscript

      References

      Bibliography

      Acknowledgements

      Abbreviations and Glossary

      Guide to ranks

       Index

       Copyright

      About The Publisher

       MAPS

      Italy showing German defensive lines

      Cassino front, 11 May 1944, and Alexander’s battle plan for DIADEM and the destruction of AOK 10 south of Rome

      The Monte Sole massif

      Operational zone of the 8th Garibaldi Brigade of Partisans, also showing the river network Eighth Army had to cross, September 1944 to April 1945

      The Val d’Orcia

      Northern Italy, Lake Como and Lake Garda

      Main Italian rail network and ports

      Allied Control Commission Organisation of Italy, 1 September 1944

      The Winter Line, January 1945

      DIADEM: The battle for Rome and German lines of retreat for AOK 10

      The Allied pursuit from Rome to the Albert Line, 5–20 June 1944

      From the Albert Line to the River Arno, July and early August 1944

      Alexander’s battle plan for the Gothic Line, August 1944

      Eighth Army’s attack on the Gothic Line, August to September 1944

      Fifth Army’s assault on the Gothic Line, 10–18 September 1944

      The German attack on Monte Sole

      Fifth Army’s attempt to break through the Apennines, 1–15 October 1944

      The final offensive, April to May 1945

      Italy showing German defensive lines

      Cassino front, 11 May 1944, and Alexander’s battle plan for DIADEM and the destruction of AOK 10 south of Rome

      The Monte Sole massif

      Operational zone of the 8th Garibaldi Brigade of Partisans, also showing the river network Eighth Army had to cross (Sept.