Cassino to the Alps - US Army Center Of Military History

BREAKTHROUCH ON THE FIFTH ARMY'S FRONT 479
The preliminary aerial and artillery
barrages had sent the Germans scurrying
deep into their bunkers, but as was
soon apparent to the attackers, they
quickly reoccupied their gun positions.
German fire, supplemented by mine
fields and the difficult terrain, limited
the 88th, 91 st, and 34th Divisions to
slow, costly advances, so familiar to the
veterans of the previous autumn's operations.
Only on the left flank could
Keyes report success: there the South
Africans, in a series of gallant assaults,
su pported by a devastating 35,000
rounds of artillery, before daylight on
the 16th captured Monte Sole.
On the second day, as the German
defenses west of Highway 65 began to
waver, the 88th Division finally drove
the last enemy from Monterumici. The
Germans continued nevertheless to
hold firm astride Highway 65. Only on
the third day did signs develop that the
enemy's defenses were about to crumble
there as we II, as the 91 st and 34th
Divisions cleared the high ground
flanking the highway. The IV Corps,
meanwhile, continued to widen its penetration
west of the Reno and Highway
64, and the Eighth Army's Polish corps
threatened Bologna from the southeast.
Isolation oJ the German sector south of
Bologna seemed imminent.
Sensing that a breakthrough was at
hand, General Truscott decided the
time had come to shift the weight of his
army's attack and the intercorps boundary
westward. By so doing he would
place the important Praduro road junction
and eventually Highway 64 and
the Reno River within the zone of
operations of the II Corps. The latter
was then to make the army's main drive
to the Po.
Anticipating the army commander's
decision, General Keyes had already
begun moving his divisions westward.
He first shifted the 88th Division to the
corps left flank between the 6th South
African Armoured Division and the
Reno River. Again the 88th was to leam
up with the 85th Division, which on the
16th had begun to move from reserve
positions on the Arno to an assembly
area in the vicinity of Vergato. There
the division prepared the next day to
relieve the I st Armored Division west
of the Reno. Although Truscott had
originally planned to assign the 85th
Division to Keyes, he gave it instead to
Crittenberger for use on the 10th
Mountain Division's right flank, where
the progress of the preceding four days
had suggested an important enemy
weakness.
As the 85th Division completed relief
of the I st Armored Division, the armor
moved to positions along the Panaro
River, ten miles to the west, where the
terrain was more favorable for armored
operations. The armor could also cover
the extended left flank of the 10th
Mountain Division, which was to become
the spearhead of the Fifth Army's
offensive. To fill the gap created by
shifting the 88th Division to the left:
flan k, the 91 st and 34th Divisions also
sideslipped westward. That move
served to widen the relatively inactive
sector of the Legnano Group and set
Highway 65 as the boundary between
the Italians and the 34th Division. The
regrouping completed, Truscott expected
that the next two days would
produce a break out fi'om the mountains
onto the Lombardy (Po) plain.
Breakthrough to the Plain
At 0930 on the 18th the 10th Mountain
and the 85th Divisions led off the