Latest / WW II Gothic Line ghosts haunt modern day Italy, Europe
The Gothic Line Offensive launched after 100,000 British Eigth Army troops moved 100 miles to the Adriatic coast in one of the most daring, difficult logistical operations in WW II
By Joe Kirwin
After U.S. Fifth Army General Mark Clark deviated from an Allied Force plan in early June 1944 to trap retreating Germans in central Italy and instead moved his troops to liberate Rome, the controversial decision outraged British commanders, especially Lt. General Oliver Leese. As a result, Leese rejected the original Gothic Line offensive plan for a joint American-British attack up the center of Italy in the Apennine mountains to liberate Bologna from Nazi and Italian Fascist occupation.
Instead, Leese launched one of the most complex and dangerous logistical exercises in WW II…
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