Cassino to the Alps - US Army Center Of Military History

CHAPTER XX
A Diversionary Operation
Having breached the Gothic Line,
Allied commanders were confident that
they would soon sweep a broken and
defeated enemy into the Po Valley.
They were soon to learn that, to the
contrary, heavy fighting still lay ahead.
Even before the Fifth Army had begun
its assault on II Giogo Pass, the Eighth
Army got its first bitter taste of what lay
ahead as the army attempted to exploit
its penetration of the Gothic Line on
the Adriatic flank.
Since the start of the Eighth Army's
phase of the offensive on 25 August,
the Germans, skillfully defending along
a series of ridges extending in a northeasterly
direction from the Apennines,
had exacted for each ridge a
heavy toll in Allied personnel and materiel.
Yet General Leese still had a
reserve of uncommitted units: the British
4th and the 2d New Zealand Divisions
and the 3d Greek Mountain and
British 25th Tank Brigades. He also
had ample reserve stocks with which to
replenish materiel losses.
The Eighth Army nevertheless continued
to be plagued by the superior
armor and firepower of German tanks.
Even the introduction of ammunition
that increased the firepower of the
British tanks failed to compensate for
their deficiencies vis-a-vis the heavier
armor and more powerful guns of the
German Panther. During the lull after
the futile attempt to take the Coriano
Ridge, Eighth Army logistical staffs had
made strenuous efforts to bring forward
new heavy British Churchill tanks,
which were just beginning to arrive in
Italy. At the same time, new 76-mm.
U.S. Sherman tanks and I05-mm. self·
propelled guns were arriving from the
United States. Although U.S. units had
priority on deliveries, the British 1'Cceived
some of the new equipment.
However, it would take considerable
time to f()rward replacements to units
still in dose contact with the enemy.
When the heavy rains of the first
week in September and a determined
enemy had brought the Eighth Army
to a halt before the Coria no Ridge, the
army was still eight miles short of the
Marecchia River, which marks the
southern boundary of the Romagna
Plain for which the British were striving.
Ahead of the army lay three more
of the northeastward extending ridges
or spurs that had been serving the
Germans as alternate lines of defense:
the Ripabianca, a mile north of the
Coriano Ridge, covering the crossings
of the Formica Creek; the San Patrignano,
from which the enemy could
dominate the crossings of the Marano,
two miles beyond the Formica; and two
miles farther, the San Fortunato Ridge
overlooking the Ausa River. Eighth
Army aerial reconnaissance indicated
that the enemy had developed fieldworks
only on the latter ridge and thus