The Southern Front (The Third Reich)
Language: English
Pages: 192
ISBN: 0809470160
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
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reduced to two-fifths of normal strength, and Messe, whose six Italian divisions had been rendered virtually useless for combat. With only the pride of the old Afrikakorps to sustain them, the Germans stubbornly defended the hills and yielded ground grudgingly, at a high cost to their foes. It could not go on forever. The surrender took place during the second week of May, unit by unit. A British officer recalled watching the "white flags go up: first in small clusters, turning into larger groups
anticipate and sink Axis convoys in the Mediterranean that were bound for Rommel's army. A major impediment to Axis shipping was the British crown colony of Malta, which lies between Sicily and the Libyan and Tunisian ports ation, British naval directly athwart the Axis air forces supply routes to Africa. Planes belonging to the 150 1 I RAF, along with British ships and submarines, were launched from Malta Soon three-quarters of the equipment and reinforcements sent to Rommel were being
Kesselring interpreted the Allied movements as a prelude to another amphibious invasion. "The hard fighting of recent months had convinced me that the Allies' reckless expenditure of troops must conceal some ulterior objective/' he wrote. "I did not believe that Alexander could be satisfied for much longer with the slow and costly way the Allied front was edging forward. Sooner or later he must surely end it by a landing." The questions were when and where? To counter the threat, Kesselring
debated controversies of the war the bombing of Monte Cassino abbey. Both combatants were ostensibly committed to protecting Italy's cultural and historical monuments. The Allies permitted exceptions only for "military necessity." In the eyes of many Allied troops, the abbey was a threat that had to be destroyed. As one officer explained: "Wherever you went, there was the monastery, looking at you." Major General F. S. Tuker, whose Indian 4th Division had replaced the battle-weary 34th Division,
Messina, Sicily: 55, 68, 77, 79, 82, 83, 84 Metauro River: 173 Mignano Gap: 127, 128 Milan, Italy: reaction to Mussolini's resignation, 81; SS guarding Italian prisoners in, 181 Minturno, Italy: 146, 164 Monte Belvedere: 152 •Monte Cassino: 117, 146; abbey at, 130-131, 144; Allied bombing of abbey, 134-135, 137, Caesar Line, 168, 170; at Cassino front, 165; Cassino front, orders evacuation of, Gustav Line, 117, 128, 129, 143-144, 145, and withdrawal to defensive position 118, 122, 128, 138,
