INFANTRY ADVANCING OVER THE HILLS in the area of Il Giogo Pass on 18 September, the day the pass was taken. The fight for the area started on the morning of 12 September. The mountains on each side of Il Giogo Pass are too steep to require antitank defenses other than road blocks, but other defenses such as underground fortresses were numerous and well prepared. Barbed wire and antipersonnel mine fields guarded approaches. Many of the hills were covered with pine woods which made it difficult to locate enemy defenses by the use of aerial photographs. Some information was obtained from partisans who had worked on the Gothic Line.]
ITALY
PACK MULE TRAIN approaching the Gothic Line in the area of Il Giogo Pass. For the difficult task of supplying their troops through the mountains the Allied forces had 9 Italian Army mule pack companies, each containing 260 mules. (2½-ton U. S. truck overturned.)
ITALY
HIGHWAY 65 AT FUTA PASS. This pass, at an altitude of 2,962 feet, is one of the lowest through the northern Apennines. Highway 65, the most direct route to Bologna and the Po Valley, became the main supply route and a principal axis of advance in the Fifth Army area, although the breach in the Gothic Line was not made here. Futa Pass fell on 22 September.
ITALY
