The Allies did not halt after taking Rome, but their northward progress was soon slowed by skillful delaying tactics of the retreating enemy and by the fact that all the French and some of the American divisions were being withdrawn from the U. S. Fifth Army for the operation in southern France. The Germans speeded construction of the Gothic Line in the north Apennines, and early in August 1944 the Allies paused for reorganization on a line running approximately from ten miles north of Ancona on the east through Pisa to the west coast. The Fifth Army held the territory south of the Arno River from the sea to a few miles east of Florence; the British Eighth Army was north of Ancona on the Adriatic.
During August preparations were made by the Allied armies in northern Italy to penetrate the heavily fortified Gothic Line. This defensive system of the enemy extended in general from southeast of La Spezia through the mountains to Rimini. After regrouping and building up supplies, the Allied armies started their offensive on 26 August. They succeeded in breaching the Gothic Line in the center and along the coast, but fierce enemy resistance, bad weather, and a shortage of ammunition and replacements halted the offensive south of the Po River plain by the late fall of 1944. The winter of 1944–45 was spent in the mountains overlooking the Po Valley.
The spring drive by the Allied armies started on 9 April 1945. Bologna fell on 20 April, and armor and infantry overran the plain and divided the German forces. On 2 May 1945 the enemy in Italy surrendered unconditionally.
ITALY
SOLDIER LOADING WING GUNS OF A FIGHTER with .50-caliber ammunition. In Italy these tough and maneuverable fighters were used for a variety of purposes, particularly after other fighter planes with a higher speed and longer range were available for escorting and protecting bombers. The P-47’s became fighter-bombers, and were also equipped to use rockets. (4.5-inch 3-tube AC rocket launcher M15 of a P-47.)
CORSICA
FRENCH COMMANDOS AND SENEGALESE TROOPS on an LCI in a Corsican harbor prior to the attack on the island of Elba. The troops were taken to Elba on 17 June 1944 in U. S. landing craft and in two days the island had been secured.
CORSICA