Senior Allied commanders had big plans: smash through the Gothic Line, cross the Apennines to the Po River, then on to Southern France or the Balkans. It didn’t quite work out that way. Strategic priorities changed, and both Allied and Axis formations were siphoned off to other theatres like Operation Dragoon, the East, and Greece.
The campaign began with Eighth Army’s Canadian I Corps, Polish II Corps, and British V Corps’ Commonwealth formations, their tank and infantry divisions attacking up the Adriatic coast capturing hilltop towns and villages; but progress slowed on the Romagna Plain as German resistance strengthened under heavy rain in terrain crossed by raised flood banks and flooded fields.
In the centre US V Army’s II Corps with attached British XIII Corps’ South African and Indian divisions fought for mountaintops and passes in small infantry battles. US IV Corps’ 92nd African-American Division, 10th Mountain Division and Brazilian 1st FEB Division near the west coast, fighting German units and Italian 4th Mountain Division, were last to pierce the Gothic Line. Axis forces, including fallschirmjager, panzergrenadiers, mountain troops, Turcoman soldiers, and 26 Panzer Division fought a fighting withdrawal to successive river defence lines.