Breaching the Gothic Line

In the autumn of 1944, while Eisenhower's forces drew close to the German border, Allied soldiers in Italy began their assault on the Gothic Line. On August 26, with the support of Allied aircraft, the British Eighth Army launched an assault against Kesselring's left flank. P-40 Kittyhawks, P-5l Mustangs, and other fighter aircraft attacked German tanks, troops, and guns. Medium bombers pounded fortifications between Pesaro and Rimini and hit marshaling yards at Cesena, Budrio, and Rimini. Supporting the U.S. Fifth Army's upcoming attack, Allied medium and heavy bombers struck north of the Gothic Line near the Po River. By September 5, all crossings from Turin to the Adriatic were blocked. To further isolate the Germans, Allied bombers attacked industrial areas in north west Italy and destroyed every rail bridge over the Ticino River between Lake Maggiore and the Po. Meanwhile, fighter-bombers cut roads and rail lines leading to the Gothic Line. 

When the Fifth Army's assault began on September 9, medium bombers shifted their attacks to rail lines leading directly into Bologna. Along with fighter-bombers, they began blasting a path through the enemy line. On September 21, while the MAAF knocked out hastily repaired bridges over the Po River and struck marshaling yards, crossroads, military camps, trucks, rolling stock, and track, the Eighth Army captured the city of Rimini on the Adriatic Sea. Meanwhile, Allied airmen further isolated the Gothic Line by blocking transit through the Brenner Pass on the border between Germany and Italy and cutting enemy lines of communication along the Brenta, Piave, and Tagliamento Rivers in northeastern Italy. This air and ground onslaught devastated Kesselring's defenders, and the Gothic Line finally cracked.

The day after Christmas, the German Fourteenth Army turned and struck the Americans outside Bologna, but within two days they pulled back to new defensive positions. In mid-January 1945, the MAAF renewed attacks on the enemy's transportation system in northeastern Italy and further disrupted their withdrawal. Despite these efforts, however, fighting dragged on along a static front until April, when the final offensive began against remaining German forces in Italy.