Cassino to the Alps - US Army Center Of Military History

RACE FOR THE PO
12,000-man Austrian-Piedmontese army
under Field Marshal Count Abersberg
von Traun fought to the draw a
15,000-man Spanish army under General
Don Juan, Count de Gages. 7 There
was no chance of a draw in the current
cam paign as the two American corps
swept almost unimpeded over the
broad Po Valley. If the corps could
maintain their rate of advance for the
next twenty-four hours, Generals Critten
berger and Keyes assured the army
commander, both would be drawn up
along the south bank of the Po by the
23d. 8
The 1st Armored Division, however,
advancing as a covering force along the
IV Corps left flank, encountered considerable
resistance, as the II Mountain
Carps began to swing back like a great
gate toward the northwest. After the
collapse of the panzer corps front, that
was the only course of action open to
General Lemelsen, the Fourteenth Army
commander. To the armored division's
right rear the Brazilian division, choosing
not to press the Germans too
closely, followed up the enemy withdrawal,
while the 34th Division temporarily
garrisoned Bologna. 9
At dawn on 22 April, after having
crossed the Panaro at Bomporto the
previous day, Task Force Duff, its tanks
and tank destroyers leading the way,
resumed the march northward. What
followed was typical of the enemy's
many small delaying actions that day,
although few others were as effective in
gaining time for the Germans. Since the
task force had run into little opposition
'See Spenser Wilkinson, The Defense of Piedmont,
1842-1848, A Prelude to the Study of Napoleon (Oxford,
1927), pp. 73-81, for details of that battle.
"IV & II Corps AAR, Apr-May 45.
"Ibid.; IV Corps History.
493
during the past twenty-four hours,
General Duff relaxed flank security in
order to accelerate a dash for the
crossing point at Ostiglia, some thirty
miles away. The task force was thus an
easy mark for an enemy ambush just
beyond Bomporto. Allowing half of the
column to pass, the Germans opened
fire on the tanks and tank destroyers in
the middle of the column with panzerfausts,
destroying and damaging several
vehicles. Infantry following in trucks
quickly dismounted and deployed. Although
the enemy detachment was dispersed
within an hour, that meant that
much more time for enemy forces to
escape across the PO.IO
Determined to reach the Po by nightfall,
General Duff roamed the column
like an anxious sheep dog, hurrying the
men and vehicles through occasional
small arms fire from isolated enemy
rear guards firing one last volley before
vanishing into a maze of roads, trails,
and villages. About an hour before
Task Force Duff reached San Benedetto,
the main crossing point in the
10th Mountain Division's sector, an antitank
mine exploded near General
Duffs jeep, seriously wounding him.
The division commander, General
Hays, came forward to take command
of the spearhead. By 1800 San Benedetto
was in hand, while the remainder
of the mountain division arrived during
the night and deployed along the south
bank of the Po in preparation for
crossing the next day. II
While Hays' division drew up to the
Po, Prichard's armored division, with
two combat commands forward, ad-
IOIV Corps History.
II 10th Mtn Div AAR, n.pr 45; IV Corps AAR,
Apr-May 45.