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Author
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Topic: The Italian Campaign
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Gerry Chester
Member
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posted 01-29-2003 11:22 AM
  
As a newcomer to the Forum I would like to hear opinions on what I believe to be one of great strategic moves of World War Two. I refer to the secret transfer of the bulk of 8th Army assets from the Adriatic to the Cassino area during May, 1943.
At the time, 25th Army Tank Brigade (of which the North Irish Horse in which I served) was attached to 1st Canadian Infantry Corps. The subsequent breaking of the Hitler Line, on 23rd May, could well have brought the war in Italy to a swift conclusion if General Truscott had been allowed to trap Vietinghoff's 10th Army as originally planned.
It is of great personal pride that my Regiment, along with 51 RTR and 142 RAC, were honoured by General G.C.Vokes, DSO when he intimated that he would be pleased if all ranks of 25 ATB would wear a Maple Leaf emblem in recognition of the support given to 1 Canadian Infantry Brigade.
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Rich
Moderator
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posted 02-01-2003 10:40 AM
The initial operations where brilliantly conceived and executed, especially as compared to the muddle-headed thinking that had characterized the campaign to date. The breakout from Anzio, Buffalo, also involved quite a bit of deception, sneaking in the 34th and 36th Divisions. Unfortunately, I'm not sure exactly how "deceived" the Germans actually were, having only gotten partially into their intelligence reports at the time. But, in part at least all the complicated preparations did work, as the results showed.But the aftermath to Buffalo and Diadem was a travesty, at the least virtually all of XIV Panzer and LI Gebirgs Korps should have been destroyed. Instead, Mark Clark went for the "glory" of capturing Rome.
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