The Final Offensive:
 Advance to the Po River

Beginning on the afternoon of April 9, 1945, and continuing over a two-day period, 1,673 heavy bombers saturated enemy target areas opposite British 5 Corps and Polish 2 Corps, and 624 medium bombers attacked German defenses and troop concentrations. As the bombers were leaving, fighter-bombers of the Desert Air Force and the XXII Tactical Air Command appeared overhead, strafing and bombing enemy command posts, gun positions, and strongpoints. Following the saturation attacks, New Zealand and Polish troops surged forward and, by the evening of April 11, reached the Santerno River.

Delayed by torrential downpours, the Fifth Army stepped off on April 14, heavily supported by the XXII Tactical Air Command. The Americans made rapid progress in their attack and soon captured Bologna. With the British Eighth Army on their right, they forced the Germans to withdraw to the Po River.

Driven from their carefully prepared positions, the Germans fled northward, but the bombing campaign's cumulative effects dogged them. When they reached the Po, the Germans lacked both the ability to stop the pursuing Allied forces and the means to make a rapid and orderly retreat. They were finished. Negotiations began on Apri129, and on May 2 the Germans signed terms of unconditional surrender. The war in Italy was over.