The Italian Campaign

	Italian D-Days.
	This page: river crossings and mountains.

2^nd Indian CCS south of Cassino, G Wooler

The first major factor in the Italian Campaign is the topography of the country, which is ideally suited to the defender. The central 'spine' of mountains, rising to over 6,000 feet, proved an insurmountable barrier, forcing the attacking forces to remain either side of the feature and requiring the Allies to cross well-fortified rivers in frequently difficult weather conditions. The strong opposition was ordered to deny Allied forces access to the Balkans, the oilfields of Rumania and the south of France. The defence of each river and mountain produced conditions reminiscent of the Western Front in 1915-17. For the troops, morale was affected by the realisation that each mountain and river crossing was seemingly followed by yet another on the horizon.

The second major factor is that of strong Allied differences of opinion in both deciding whether the Campaign should be waged at all and how it should be conducted. The American view was that all resources should be directed towards a landing in France. The British regarded a campaign in N.W. Europe as not something for consideration in 1943, since manpower and resources would not be available in sufficient quantities. The landings in Sicily, Salerno and Anzio proved no walk-over; instead they marked the start of a long and arduous fight for the Italian Peninsula.

After finally breaking out of the Salerno bridgehead the Allies faced a lengthy slog up the west coast of Italy against stiff German resistance. The first important feature was the Gustav Line at the point of the rivers Garigliano and Rapido and river Sangro in the north. At the river Rapido the Benedictine monastery dominated the town of Cassino. Major J M Gibson-Horrocks of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, spoke of the monastery's strategic importance during his tape-recorded interview:

This was one of the great advantages for the Germans against our morale, because every single soldier who served in Cassino was conscious of being overlooked from this monastery at all times.

A Cassino propaganda leaflet

Any movement during the day would bring down an immediate 'stonking of mortars from the opposition' so that all essential operations including food and ammunition replenishment and repairing of the signal lines would have to be carried out at night. Major Gibson-Horrocks entrusted a copy of his hand-over document, dated 21 April 1944, which he received from the OC 3^rd Battalion Welsh Guards, to the Centre, giving guidance as to the conditions in Cassino and the German troops they would be facing:

He seems to be good troops, rarely shows himself and is good with the mortar. He had the incredible cheek yesterday, on Hitler's birthday, to hang Nazi flags in the windows of some houses. His Rifle Grenade is extremely accurate, the b. . .

Nicholas Mosley MC of the London Irish Rifles, reiterated the difficulty troops faced in the Cassino area:

We took over from some French troops and that was hair raising because we were right at the top of this ridge and one couldn't dig a trench because it was rock, and you couldn't move in the daytime because you were under observation, so one made little stone shelters where one literally crouched and lay for hours and that was very nasty.

On Mosley's arrival, in the winter of 1943/44, his platoon had not yet received any winter clothing and were still in tropical kit, despite 'snow literally up to one's waist'. Mosley narrowly escaped capture after 'an attack on our position in the mountain by German Alpine troops, all dressed in white and they wore snow shoes or skis, and they came roaring down through the trees'.

S Macza's interview on behalf of the Centre makes the valid point that Polish forces played a very important role:

At Monte Cassino we had to prove that we were fighting for a free Poland and we really attacked ferociously and in spite of the great losses we took it.

His sister too, served in Italy in a transport company, delivering supplies by lorry from Taranto to just behind the lines. Capt Donald Kerr MC conducted an interview with Richard Campbell Begg in 1998, in which he recalled witnessing the American bomber raids on the monastery while serving in an Armoured Division of the New Zealand Army.

The diary of Jack Cassidy, a driver with the RASC, graphically illustrates the shelling, incidences of booby traps and casualties caused by mines. His diary entry for 1 June 1944 records his impressions after the Cassino battles:

Past through Cassino. Nothing left of it. It's gutted with shellholes. Not a wall standing and dead Germans under rubble but too risky to move them for mines and Booby traps. They'll be finding them next year at this time.

FSU examining German dugouts, Gustav Line. G Wooler

German Blockhouses. G Wooler

The casualty rates for those fighting to push through the defensive lines and cross the rivers were very high. As G R Tribe recalled:

At the Infantry Reinforcements Training Depot there were six of us Hampshires sharing a tent, and we all went up at the same time for the battle of the Gothic Line. Of the six, only one walked out on his own feet.

Capt Peter J de A Moore MC of the 2/5^th Leicestershire Regiment also fought at the Gothic Line, in a sector where 'we were soon to become depressingly accustomed to battling for one hill only to find that there was another one beyond that, and beyond that, almost, it seemed, ad infinitum.' Peter's vivid description of the assault on the small hill town of Mondaino, a strong defensive position, exemplifies the battles fought throughout the campaign:

As we were groping our way forward up the hill, we heard the rattle of Tommy guns, Brens and rifle fire just ahead and the shouts of our troops. Trotty and I came across Company Sergeant Major Unwin, of A company. He was in a state of fury. "They've shot Major Capron and Captain Rawson" he told us "We are going to sort those buggers out". . .The Germans had Panther tanks and self propelled guns in support of their defending troops and there was a deafening din of shellfire, mortars, hand grenades and small arms fire as the furious troops of A and C companies fought their way into Mondaino and engaged the Germans in savage hand to hand fighting. The deaths of the two company commanders had inspired their companies to an heroic performance and by dawn most of the town was in our hands.

News of Allied progress in N. W. Europe provided a boost to morale. L H Collier, a Doctor in the RAMC, wrote home in September 1944:

I had the great pleasure of being able to tell our latest prisoners that the Americans were in Germany, which, as you may imagine, shook them considerably. One young officer said "Well, I suppose it's nearly over now. After this war, Britain, America and Germany must ally themselves and fight against World Bolshevism". Planning the next war already! You'd have thought that they'd have had enough, by now.

In the course of Professor Collier's tape-recorded interview he gave an insight into the medical assistance required:

In the Battle of the Gothic Line we had quite large numbers of casualties coming in and the main job there was to triage them, that it to say, to split them into walking wounded, people who needed immediate resuscitation and people who needed immediate surgery. We had no facilities of course, for transfusions or anything like that, we just got them back as quickly as we possibly could. Some of the injuries were pretty horrendous and the ones that I really hated were those caused by land mines. . . Everybody got sorted out in order of their medical priority and that was the only fact that ever counted, and if a German needed treatment before a British person, he got it.

In September 1944, H Bretherick, a Grenadier Guardsman, was involved in the crossing of the River Setta:

The water would be almost up to our armpits, one held on for dear life to the man in front and behind. We were nearly across when we heard one of our company lads shout, he had lost his footing and was swept away downstream.

Lt General Sir David House, a captain in the 1^st Battalion King's Royal Rifle Corps, witnessed the first attempted crossing of the River Ronco in late October 1944. He recalled the hazardous nature of the crossing, which proved disastrous for the infantry. The lack of armoured support was due to the river being in spate:

Inevitably almost they were counter-attacked by enemy infantry and armour and most of them were taken prisoner.

The continual rain during the crossing took its toll:

We were there for two or three nights and that slit trench contained water over one's boots and it was very cold, very nasty, a very unpleasant experience.

Major N J Warry, of the same Regiment was seriously injured during the crossing and was one of those taken prisoner:

I luckily had some grenades and I crawled up and managed to lob two grenades into the German ditch. It was when I was crawling back that I got shot in the back.

CSM 661 REME in mud. G Wooler

The effects of the bombardments on towns and villages throughout Italy and the attendant civilian casualties must also be remembered. Professor Michele Bassi wrote of the suffering of the population of Cotignola and a translated version of the book was entrusted to the Centre by Mr A E Gladstone. Having lived under a virtual state of siege for more than four months, Bassi wrote:

The front line was static along the Senio River and not one ray of hope brightened the horizon, to give the imminent notice of a return to a life of peace and civilian rebirth . . .Every day that passed saw new houses destroyed, new families forced to become refugees. . . Water was running short and what was available was of dubious quality; clothes and linen could no longer be washed and dried outside; food was scarce and inadequate to nourish emaciated bodies and provide indispensable vitamins.

The plight of the civilian population did not go unnoticed among the Allied troops. In a tape-recorded interview, Lt Barclay Hankin, of 11 L of C Signals, recalled:

Always, if we stopped for a sandwich or a brew-up, little children would appear, rather sweet little children in rags, in the south of Italy, they would stand twenty feet away and very politely they used to say "Chocolate piece for me?" The villages were very poor.

Later, having travelled through Rome in convoy, Hankin took twenty servicemen to view the main attractions of the City; visits to the cultural sites of Italy being a common theme of memoirs and recollections.

By Spring 1945, the end of the campaign was in sight, as reflected in the diary entry for 14^th April of Tom Roe, a Gunner and Signaller in the Royal Artillery:

Supported 10^th Mountain Div in artillery barrage for the break-out. Things moved fast and we were the first troops across the River Po. Once across, the chase began and we liberated towns and villages too numerous to list. Flowers and vino in abundance from happy Italians.

John Waterfield, too, of 1^st Battalion KRRC, recalled the difference in attitude towards the end of the war:

At this stage was our first encounter with jubilant Italian villagers and peasants who, I distinctly recollect, surrounded us as we drove, cheering and waving flags but not kissing us, or at least not me. On our long flog up the spine of Italy and the Ravenna plains, I do not remember seeing civilians except in our very occasional billets in farmhouses, and those we saw were cowed and unenthusiastic. After the Po I remember sunshine, flowers and especially the young girls! A great contrast to earlier winter frosts, mud, rains, snow and grey skies.

In the immediate post-war period, a number of servicemen were involved in reburial of Allied casualties, including Honorary Alderman Joe Kitchen who was attached to Number 5 Graves Registration Unit:

I was transferred to this unit where there was a Major, a Captain and a Corporal and myself, who was a Lance Sergeant, and approximately another eight soldiers. We were involved in going out, locating, removing and bringing back the bodies of troops who had lost their lives, to the cemetery for burial. . . Our job also was to clear the area for the people who had lived at Cassino to enable them to return home and at that time some houses were being erected to accommodate them. It was around this time that I met my wife who was Italian and a partisan.

	Italian D-Days.
	This page: river crossings and mountains.