Cassino to the Alps - US Army Center Of Military History

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gade was at the same time to continue
its advance southwest of Argenta.
General der Panzertruppen Gerhard
Graf von Schwerin, new commander of
the LXXVI Panzer Corps, had in the
meantime pressed deployment of the
29th Panzer Grenadier Division in the
Argenta Gap; but it was too late. Because
the northward advance of the
British 78th Division was threatening
collapse of the central sector, held by
the 362d Division, which would uncover
the 29th Panzer Grenadier Division's right
flank, von Schwerin formed survivors
of the 42d Jaeger and 362d Divisions into
two battle groups with orders to hold
until early on the 16th. Although
forced to yield Bastia village on the
15th, the 42d Jaeger by its stubborn
defense gave the 29th Panzer Grenadiers
some time to dig in north of the
Marina Canal, about a mile and a half
south of Argenta. To enable von
Schwerin to extricate remaining units of
his LXXVI Panzer Corps still south of the
Reno, the panzer grenadiers had to hold
that line for at least twenty-four hours,
for once Allied forces took the Argenta
Gap, they would be in a position to
move rapidly northwestward along the
Reno's north bank, turn successive river
lines, and expedite the advance of those
divisions attacking astride Highway 9.
By the evening of 16 April the
British 78th Division struck the line of
the Marina Canal on the 29th Panzer
Grenadier Division's right flank. Although
the panzer grenadiers fought
gamely, the leading British battalion
managed early on the 17th to secure a
small bridgehead. The Marina Canal
line had not held quite as long as von
Schwerin had hoped it would, but the
rear guard action nevertheless enabled
CASSINO TO THE ALPS
him to straighten out his front south of
the Reno preparatory to withdrawing to
the Reno itself.
While supporting artillery guided by
wide-ranging observation aircraft
pinned down those troops still deployed
along the Marina Canal line, tactical
aircraft of the DAF again took to the
air at dawn on the 17th to strike at
anything that dared move north of
Argenta. During the morning the 78th
Division burst out of the bridgehead
and passed east of Argenta, while a
brigade of the British 56th Division,
mounted in Fantails, moved up on the
right across the flooded lowlands to the
near bank of the Marina Canal southeast
of Argenta. To the 78th Division's
left the 2d Commando Brigade, also in
Fantails, crossed a flooded area west of
the Reno to pull abreast of the center.
Those advances so stretched the enemy's
defenses that two fresh battalions
of the 78th Division reached Argenta
without difficulty, one bypassing it on
the right, the other moving directly into
the town. While the lead battalion
cleared the last German from Argenta,
a second brigade of the 78th Division
came forward, and early afternoon of
the 18th found two of the division's
brigades advancing northwest of Argenta
along Highway 16. As Vietinghoff
had warned OKW four days
earlier, a breakthrough of the Argenta
Gap threatened to turn the line of the
Reno.
OKW's reply to Vietinghoffs message
of the 14th warning of that threat
arrived at Army Group C headquarters
on the 17th even as the threat became a
reality. Although the reply bore Generaloberst
Alfred JodI's signature, the
order was Hitler's: