Originally known as the Apennine Position, the Gothic Line ran across the mountains, coast to coast, for 200 miles, from near La Spezia on the Gulf of Genoa to Pesaro on the Adriatic. It was longer than the line through Cassino, and the mountain barrier reached across the peninsula to within a short distance of Route 16, which followed the coast-line through the narrow plain to Rimini. Orders for the line to be reconnoitred and fortified had in fact been given by Jodi almost a month before the evacuation of Sicily, but more recently the work had been interrupted by the pressing demands for materiel and labour for building the defences of the Gustav and Hitler Lines.
At the time of the capture of Rome, Alexander estimated that Kesselring would have only the equivalent of ten divisions to man the Apennine positions, but Hitler’s immediate reaction to the threat of an Allied advance into northern Italy had completely changed the situation. Kesselring was now able to gain much-needed time for the Organisation Todt to complete most of the defences that had been so carefully planned.
At the very height of the fighting in Normandy, Hitler dispatched no fewer than seven divisions, withdrawn from Denmark, Holland, Hungary, and even the Russian front, to reinforce Army Group ”C” in Italy. Finally O. K.W. sent a battalion of Tiger tanks from V German reinforcements en route to the Italian front. The two vehicles in the foreground are ex-Austrian Army "Mulus" wheeledjtrackcd carriers, and the conventional vehicles appear to he civilian vehicles taken over by the military.
France and the whole of three divisions, forming in Germany, to fill up the ranks of the infantry divisions that had been virtually annihilated in the Liri valley.
Although Alexander had been warned as early as May 22, 1944, that he must be prepared to provide seven divisions for a landing in the south of France, it was not until July 5, when the battle for Arezzo was in the balance and the Polish II Corps was still short of Ancona, that he was told that his pleas to be allowed to keep his force intact, for a thrust into northern Italy and beyond, had finally been turned down.
The task that Alexander was now given was:
1. to cross the Apennines to the line of the River Po; and
2. to cross the river and seize the line Venice - Padua — Verona - Brescia.
After this he would receive further instructions.
In spite of the loss of so many divisions, including the French Expeditionary Corps with all its mountain troops, the Allied offensive must continue.
So long as there had been hopes of a rapid advance, the bridges over the Po had been spared by the Allied bombers. On July 12 the Tactical Air Force went to work and in three days cut all 23 of the rail and road bridges over the river. The battle for the Gothic Line had begun.
World History
