In spite of the evacuation of Naples on October 1, it was the same thing along the way to Rome through Cassino and through Formia. When it had got through Venafro and Sessa-Aurunca, the 5th Army came up against the mountains and the deep valley of the Garigliano. The reinforcements which the 5th Army had just received, II Corps and the 1st Armoured Division, were not the most likely formations to cross these obstacles. Invited by General Clark to give his opinion. General Juin stated on October 1
<3<3 Although uncertain where exactly the Allien intended to land in Italy, Kesselring had a shrewd idea that it was going to he Salerno, and had deployed his forces well. Willi the aid of large calibre guns he hoped to be able to deal heavy blows to the invasion forces as they approached the beaches, but the first class gunfire support from Allied warships lying off the shore was more than a match for the German artillery shelling the beach-head.
<3 Italian children celebrate the arrival of the Allies, in the form of a Sherman tank and its British crew.
V Sherman tanks of a Canadian armoured regiment, attached to an Indian division. From this railway station they gave close support in the capture of the village of San Donato.
A A German wounded await evacuation to the north by Ju 52 transports.
A An over-hasty assessment, for Italy could never be crossed off -the Germans resisted right up to the end of the war.
"The whole way along the road from Salerno to Naples we kept running into the British 7th Division in close formation and incapable of getting off the road and deploying in the completely mountainous terrain. I had immediately concluded, along with Carpentier [his chief-of-staff], that the mechanisation of the British and American armies could actually hinder our rapid progress up theltalian peninsula. There is no doubt that the North African divisions would be very welcome. . .” And indeed from November 22 onwards the French Expeditionary Corps did begin to land in Italy. It consisted of the 2nd Moroccan Division and the 3rd Algerian Division, totalling 65,000 men, 2,500horses and mules, and 12,000 vehicles. But the corps was not used as such. Its 2nd Moroccan Division (General Dody) was attached to VI Corps which was trying to break out of the Mignano area, and General Lucas used it on his right some seven miles north of Venafro. The fortified position at Pantano was his first
Objective. This was defended by 305th Division (Lieutenant-General Hauck), a division which, wrote Marshal Juin "could never be caught napping”. By December 18 the 2nd Moroccan Division, which had never before been under fire, had got the better of the difficult terrain and the strong enemy resistance. On the 26th it had a further success when it took Mount Mainarde and this enabled General Juin to claim a permanent position for his French Expeditionary Corps. He was successful, and the corps was allocated a position on the right of 5th Army’s VI Corps.
All the same, Kesselring’s strategy had to a large extent imposed itself on his enemy, so that unless a completely new offensive were to be mounted at once, the victory in Sicily, in spite of the Italian armistice, would now run out of steam. On December 24 Generals Eisenhower, Montgomery, and Spaatz flew to London and the Italian theatre of operations was relegated to the background.
World History
