Cassino to the Alps - US Army Center Of Military History

THE GOTHIC LINE OFFENSIVE BEGINS 315
venna, Prato, and Bologna. 11l By nightfall
on the 27th the Allied divisions had
cleared all enemy south of the Arzilla
River and prepared to continue five
more miles to the northwest to reach
the Foglia River, last of the waterlines
before the main defenses of the Gothic
Line.
German Countermeasures
The Allied offensive clearly had
achieved tactical surprise. Reacting
nervously to a report on 24 August of
an Allied landing in the Ravenna area,
Field Marshal Kesselring had canceled
entrainment of the 3d Panzer Grenadier
Division for movement to France and
ordered a withdrawal of the 26th Panzer
Division from army group reserve to
become the Tmth Army's reserve. Even
after the Germans learned later in the
day that the basis for the landing
reports was the exceptionally heavy air
attack on Ravenna, Kesselring allowed
the shift of the panzer division to the
eastern sector to continue. But that was
more a precaution than recognition that
the offensive had begun. Not until 26
August, after the Allied troops had
reached the Arzilla River, did General
Vietinghoff cut short his leave and
hurry back to Tenth Army headquarters,
where his staff briefed him on the
developing situation. The long-awaited
Allied offensive, General Vietinghoff
discovered, had indeed begun. Vietinghoff
immediately informed Kesselring
of his conclusion. Believing the
Allies had other surprises up their
sleeve, Kesselring preferred to wait to
see what those might be before deciding
to react to what might be an
10 Craven and Cate, eds., AAF III, pp. 443-44.
opening or diversionary maneuver. II
As additional reports of Allied advances
along the Adriatic flank continued
to reach Army Group C headquarters
during the 28th, Field Marshal
Kesselring at last concluded that General
Alexander had indeed launched his
main offensive. He authorized General
Vietinghoff to withdraw Herr's LXXVI
Panzer Corps into the Gothic Line behind
the Foglia River and enlist from
army reserve the 26th Panzer Division to
back up the Gothic Line defenses in
that sector. That night the Germans
opposite the Eighth Army right wing
began to fall back in some disorder into
the Gothic Line. Opposite the Eighth
Army's left wing, General Feuerstein's
LI Mountain Corps withdrew into the
mountains to conform with Herr's maneuver.
12
The Assault
Late on the 29th, across a 17-milewide
front, the British and the Canadians
reached the crests of the last hills
overlooking the valley of Foglia. while
patrols from the Polish corps entered
the southern outskirts of Pesaro. That
night the last of the German troops
south of the Foglia retired. The next
morning Allied patrols found that in
many places the river was shallow
enough for fording and that a hard
gravel bottom was free of mines. A
study of aerial photographs and other
intelligence sources indicated that the
main German defenses were on a ridge
II AOK 14, la KTB Nr. 4, 25 Aug 44, AOK 14 Doc.
6224111; AOK 10, la KTB Ani. 8, 27 Aug 44, AOK
10 Doc. 6143711: Pretzell, Battle of Rimini, MS in
CMH.
12 AOK 10, la KTB Ani. 8, 28-2Y Aug 44, AOK 10
Doc. 61437/1.