Chapter 7 The Big Picture: A Short History of World War II | 151 |
way up and over mountains, hills, and ridges. When the Germans do withdraw they do so in an orderly manner there are no panicked mobs fleeing the front. Bridges are blown, mines sown, and booby traps rigged; the Germans do everything that can be done to slow the Allied advance.
On November 5 the Fifth Army begins attacking one of the Germans’ intermediate defensive lines. The XIV Panzer Corps makes a brilliant stand, using the terrain and bad weather to maximum advantage, stalling the American advance. Attacks and counterattacks rage in the mountains. Still, the Allies slowly grind their way forward.
Then, as experienced units are pulled out of the line and sent to England to prepare for Operation Overlord, the advance begins to slow. By the end of 1943, both Allied armies find themselves bogged down by determined German defense and winter rain.
Despite the Allied advances since the September landings and heavy losses on both sides, the Germans remain ready and able to fight. None of their forces have been mauled, the terrain favors the defender in Italy, and the Germans use the terrain very well.
Problems of Supply
Both the Allies and Germans labor under supply problems during the Normandy Campaign. However, the German problems are much more acute. One problem the Germans face is dividing men, machines, and materiel between three fronts Russia, Italy, and Normandy. Another is the system- atic destruction of the German industrial base by Allied bombing.
The most immediate problem in supplying the German forces in Normandy is Allied air superiority. Throughout the Normandy Campaign, columns of reinforce- ments and supplies are ravaged from the air; troop movements which should take one day stretch to three or four because of a lack of motor transport, damaged railroads, and constant air attacks.
On To Rome
The fighting in Italy plays an important strategic role in the European Theater; it holds down a large number of German forces forces that cannot be shifted to France. There are tactical lessons as well. The Allies learn more about amphibious landings. They learn more about German tactics: the use of strongpoints, infiltra- tion and counterattack and, in the face of a superior force, the fighting withdrawal. They also discover that, even in the most dire circumstances, the Germans never break and run.
With Field Marshal Albrecht Kesselring’s Tenth Army strongly entrenched behind the Gustav Line, the Allies face the prospect of attacking straight into the teeth of the German defense. There are changes in the Allied command structure as both Eisenhower and Montgomery leave to take their positions in Operation Overlord. Alexander takes overall command; his plan calls for the Fifth Army to smash through the German defenses into the River Liri valley and then move on Rome. The plan also calls for another landing this time near Anzio from which there will be a quick drive for Rome. With an Allied force behind them, Alexander believes the Germans will be compelled to fall back.
