Cassino to the Alps - US Army Center Of Military History

THE GOTHIC LINE OFFENSIVE BEGINS 313
of gasoline were assembled in containers
concealed in a vineyard. 4
In the final weeks before the fall
offensive, the Fifth Army's combat
troops spent much of their time in rest
areas behind the front, there to enjoy
amenities so often missing at the front.
Refrigerator vans brought in large supplies
of fresh meats, butter, and eggs to
supplement regular rations. Shower
units enabled men to dispose of longaccumulated
grime. Field laundries
handled over two million pounds of
wash. Clothing was replaced, repaired,
salvaged. It would be a well-supplied,
well-fed, freshly scrubbed army that
would again take the field in September.
5
Preliminary Operatiom
Meanwhile, the 2 Polish Corps,
which since 10 August had been halted
along the Cesano River, prepared to
resume its advance as a screen f()l' the
assembly of the Eighth Army's two
assault corps. The corps was to cross
the Metauro River and establish bridgeheads
to be used by the assault corps as
jump-off points for the main offensive.
Although little ground action had
erupted since the Poles halted on the
10th, fighter-bombers of the British
Desert Air Force in a week had flown
392 sorties against German troops in
the main line of resistance and supporting
artillery positions.
For five days. beginning on 18 August
the 3d Carpathian and 5th Kresowa
Divisions ground steadily f()rward
in the kind of fighting that had come to
Gharacterize action on this part of the
4Ross and Romanus, The Quartermaster Corps:
Operations in the War Against Germany, pp.96-114.
5Ibid.
front. The Poles gradually pushed back
the enemy's 278th Infantry Division beyond
the Metauro River, and by the
evening of 22 August both divisions
had drawn up to the river. The Poles
counted 300 enemy dead and took 273
prisoners, but bridgeheads over the
Metauro, to be exploited in the Eighth
Army's main offensive, remained out of
reach. Ii
Leese's Plan
Troops of the 1st Canadian and
British 5 Corps moved on 24 August
into assembly areas behind the Poles a
little over a mile short of the Metauro.
In hope of achieving surprise and making
up for the lack of bridgeheads
beyond the river, General Leese directed
that the artillery remain silent
until assaulting elements had crossed
the river. The offensive was to begin an
hour bef()re midnight on 25 August.
General Leese's plan was quite simple.
Both the I st Canadian and British
5 Corps were to pass through positions
of the 5th Kresowa Division on the left
wing of the Polish corps. Once past the
lines, the Polish division was to shih
toward the coast and join the 3d Carpathian
Division in a drive on the minor
port of Pesaro, eastern anchor of the
Gothic Line. There the Polish troops
would be pinched out by the generally
northwestward advance of the Canadians
toward Rimini, while the 5 Corps
protected the Canadian left by dearing
a range of low hills. Farther west the
British 10 Corps, with a strength of
6 Operations of the British, Indian, and Dominion
Forces in Italy, Part III, Sec. F, 2 Polish Corps.