Cassino to the Alps - US Army Center Of Military History

A DIVERSIONARY OPERATION
high ground in the vicinity of Castel del
Rio, there remained to the enemy only
Monte Capello, two miles west of
Monte Battaglia.
The surprising ease with which the
2d Battalion, 350th Infantry, had occupied
Monte Battaglia quickly proved
deceptive. Hardly had Williamson's battalion
consolidated its positions than the
Germans, supported by mortar and
artillery fire, launched two successive
counterattacks. By dark both were repulsed,
but through the night enemy
artillery fire continued to pick at the
American positions.
The gains of the past two days had
extended the gap between the 350th
Infantry and the adjacent unit of the
British 1 st Division. Dismounted tank
crews of the 760th Tank Battalion,
which since the 21st had been engaged
in covering the II Corps right flank,
tried unsuccessfully to close the gap,
which by nightfall on the 27th had
grown to almost 5 miles. To close it and
assure the integrity of the 350th Infantry's
supply lines, General Keyes had to
draw upon two armored infantry battalions
of the 1 st Armored Division's
CCA, made available from the Fifth
Army reserve.
However vulnerable the open flank,
the Germans were unable to take advantage
of it. Except for Monte Capello;
the Americans at that point held
all the dominating heights around the
Castel del Rio road junction, and from
Monte Battaglia northward the ground
descended as the Santerno threaded its
way to the Po Valley. In the German
rear, partisan units, such as the one that
had led the way to Monte Battaglia,
increased the tempo of their harassment
with each passing day, briefly
349
knocking out communications between
the parachute corps and Fourteenth Army
headquarters. Everything seemed to favor
the notion that the admittedly diversionary
operation might produce an
Allied breakthrough to the Po Valley, a
view widely held at Clark's headquarters.
20
Meanwhile, the main effQrt of the II
Corps had made gratifying, though less
dramatic, progress. There the 34th,
85th, and 91st Divisions had gained an
average of six miles to close with the
high ground flanking the Radicosa
Pass. To the east of the II Corps sector,
the British 13 Corps' 1 st Division, 8th
Indian Division, and British 6th Armoured
Division, all echeloned to the
southeast of the I I Corps, pressed on at
a somewhat slower pace toward Castel
Bolognese and Faenza, four and nine
miles respectively southeast of Imola. 21
Like the Eighth Army, the Fifth
Army seemed again to be on the
threshold of a breakthrough, but the
change in the weather that had brought
the Eighth Army to a halt was to have a
similar effect on the Fifth Army. For
several days rain and fog grounded
virtually all Allied aircraft, especially the
ubiquitous artillery spotter planes, and
sharply limited the effectiveness of Allied
artillery fire. The I Parachute Corps
and Fourteenth Army commanders, as
had their colleagues on the Adriatic
flank, quickly took advantage of the
fortuitous break in the weather to reinforce
their front. 22
2°Clark Diary, 21 Sep 44.
"Ibid.
22AOK 14, Ia KTB AnI. 5, 28 Sep 44, AOK 14,
Doc. 622411 I.