The Italian Campaign continued.
'Maybe Joe needs a rest, he's talking in his sleep'
In an attempt to deceive the enemy, 15th Army Group made it appear that it was planning an amphibious landing near Rome and gave indications that it would not take place until June. Kesselring fell for the ruse and ordered his forces to complete their rest and refitting by the end of May, he also pulled three of his Panzer and Panzergrenadier divisions from the Gustav line placing two of them near to Rome. He also prepared a new line, the 'Hitler Line' about six miles behind the Gustav line.
Diadem started on May 11th with a 2,000 gun barrage, the allies outnumbered the Germans by about three to one in the vital Cassino sector and two to one north of the Liri Valley. The first day all units made some progress but by the second day the British XIII Corps advance had been limited to their newly won bridgehead into the Liri Valley and the Polish Corps had been held short of the elusive Point 593. In the Anzio sector the French attacked through seemingly impassable routes through the Aurunci Mountains and routed the defenders. Then the French Goumiers forged ahead to break through the Hitler line seven miles ahead. In the Cassino sector, a final desperate attack by the Polish finally took Point 593 on May 17th, the next day the triumphant Poles swarmed over the Monastery ruins and raised their flag over the rubble signalling the end of the Cassino battles. It was a Pyrrhic victory as the bulk of the Germans had withdrawn quitely then night before and the allies had suffered heavy casualties in the four battles to take the town and monastery.
The sacrifice had not been in vain however, now the British XIII Corps and the Canadian Corps were free to thrust up the valley towards Rome. Kesselring desperatly threw his three reserve divisions and one drawn form the Anzio area at the allies piecemeal, all he achieved was to put more troops into the trap that VI Corps was going to spring from Anzio. Although ordered to break out of Anzio and seize the town of Valmontone so as to trap the German Tenth Army, Clark wanted to seize Rome so he only sent one division towards Valmontone and sent four racing northwards towards Rome. The Fifth Army entered Rome on June 4th but the one division sent to take Valmontone was stopped cold by three German divisions. Clarks obssesion to take Rome had allowed most of the Tenth Army to escape the trap.
Because they couldn't hope to match the mobility of the allies on the flat rolling plains north of Rome, Kesselrings next defense line (the Gothic line) had to be built in the mountainsfurther north. Because the Gothic line was still under construction, Kesselring sacrificed has second rate units in a series of delaying actions across the plains, keeping his best units to man the line when it was finished. The allies surged northwards, punishing but not breaking the German formations, still trying to tie down as many German units as possible. As they advanced north, more quickly than ever before, the allies could visualise breaking into the Po Valley and then turning left into Southern France or right into Northern Yugoslavia to Vienna.
The allied advance halted on August 4th, after reaching Florence, an advance of 270 miles in just 64 days. Stiffening German resistance convinced Alexander to halt for a while and reorganize his weakened force, he intended to resume the advance around August 25th. The Eighth Army attacked at night on the 25th and the Polish, Canadian and V Corps troops caught the Germans in the midst of relieving two on-line divisions and the allied troops had little difficulty in advancing the twenty miles to the Gothic line. The V Corps attacked on the night of the 29th and after some tough fighting, sat atop the ridges overlooking the Foglia, the Gothic line had been unexpectedly pierced along a ten mile front, although now the advance slowed as Kesselring threw in seven divisions and the allies had to fight across a series of ridges. The picnic was over again, an advance of ten miles cost the allies 8,000 casualties. Clarks Fifth Army attacked through the lightly defended pass at Il Giorgo instead of through the heavily defended Futa pass as the Germans expected. Because of the seven divisions sent to the adriatic front and a further four sent to France to try to stem the allies advancing from Normandy, the Fifth closed to the Gothic line in three days.
By mid september the Gothic line had been penetrated in both sectors and the British had advanced fourteen miles beyond it. Kesselring was desperate, if the allies broke into the flat Po Valley, their armor would spell doom to the German army group. The Germans suffered many disadvantages, Italian partisans had been causing as many as 5,000 casualties a month and allied airpower prohibited movement by daylight. They were also outgunned by the allied artillery at any point on the front and the prospects of getting any reinforcements from Germany was non-existant. They had a few advantages however, they still held the easily defendable mountains and the rains would begin again in September, the allies too could not expect reinforcements as most were going to France, so it became a race against time for the allies to break out of the mountains before the rains began.
Fifth and Eighth Armies continued their slow, painful advance from ridge to ridge and by September 21st the Americans had advanced five more miles, the British had broken out of the mountains at Rimuni but were now in swampy ground and starting to get involved in the 'battle of the rivers'. On September 20th, the rains had begun and Kesselring had won the race with the weather.