Allies Break Through the German Gothic Line | World War 2 Documentary | 1963

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This 1963 documentary film – originally titled as "The Climb to Glory" – is a two-part episode of the U.S. Army's "The Big Picture" television series. (I combined the two parts into a single movie.)

The film recounts the story of the US Army's 10th Mountain Division in Italy during World War 2 (from summer 1944 to spring 1945). It covers the Allied campaign in northern Italy along the jagged Apennine Mountains chain and documents the Allied breakthrough at the German Gothic Line, the last major defensive line in Italy touted as invincible by the German leaders.

Part 1 details the 10th Mountain Division's arrival in Italy, moving to the front and the capture of Riva Ridge and Mt. Belvedere. Part 2 (from 28:47) covers the period from right after the division conquered Mt. Belvedere to when the campaign ended at Lake Garda pushing the Axis forces back into the Po valley.

The film contains interviews with American and German veterans, and local Italian partisans telling their own stories and experiences.


HISTORICAL BACKGROUND / CONTEXT

The Gothic Line (German: Gotenstellung; Italian: Linea Gotica), renamed Green Line (German: Grüne Linie) in June 1944, was a German defensive line of the Italian Campaign of World War 2 (1943-1945). It formed Field Marshal Albert Kesselring's last major line of defense along the summits of the northern part of the Apennine Mountains during the fighting retreat of the German forces in Italy against the Allied Armies in Italy, commanded by General Sir Harold Alexander.

The tactics of retreating to organized lines of defense prepared along prominent terrain features up the Italian "boot" (such as the Gustav Line at Cassino) was successfully followed by the German Army throughout the Italian Campaign. The German command had started to study the idea of fortifying the Central Apennines already in August 1943, when the Allies were still fighting in Sicily. The construction however started only during the spring of 1944.

The Gothic Line was not a continuous line of fortification, but rather a series of strong-points arranged in depth, exploiting the natural terrain features which favored the defender. Traversing the Italian mainland from the Tyrrhenian coast North of Viareggio to the Adriatic at Pesaro, the line extended for more than 190 miles. It included more than 2,000 well-fortified machine gun nests, casemates and bunkers made of steel-girded concrete. Long antitank ditches, extended mine fields and barbed wire emplacements completed the picture. Luckily for the Allies, construction work was still incomplete when the advancing Allied armies approached the Central Apennines.

By August 1944, the Germans in Italy were plagued with increased Italian partisan activity behind the front lines, while the Allies commanders in Italy were frustrated by their superiors transferring forces under their control for the new front in France; by the first week of August, strength of British 8th Army had fallen from the height of 249,000 men to about 153,000, for example.

Although France now became the main front for the Allies to break into the heart of Germany, the Italian campaign was not cancelled, as it had political value. If the American and British forces were able to take northern Italy, they would have a chance to advance further north into Austria and Hungary to lessen post-war Soviet influence in that region.

Initially the Gothic Line was breached during Operation Olive (also sometimes known as the Battle of Rimini), but Kesselring's forces were consistently able to retire in good order. This continued to be the case up to March 1945, with the Gothic Line being breached but with no decisive breakthrough; this would not take place until April 1945 during the final Allied offensive of the Italian Campaign.

As April came to an end, the Axis forces in Italy, retreating on all fronts and having lost most of its fighting strength, was left with little option but surrender. General Heinrich von Vietinghoff, who had taken command after Kesselring had been transferred to become Commander-in-Chief of the Western Front in March 1945, signed the instrument of surrender on behalf of the German armies in Italy on 29 April.


Allies Break Through the German Gothic Line | World War 2 Documentary | 1963

TBFA_0153 (DM_0078)


NOTE: THE VIDEO DOCUMENTS HISTORICAL EVENTS. SINCE IT WAS PRODUCED DECADES AGO, IT HAS HISTORICAL VALUES AND CAN BE CONSIDERED AS A VALUABLE HISTORICAL DOCUMENT. THE VIDEO HAS BEEN UPLOADED WITH EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES. ITS TOPIC IS REPRESENTED WITHIN HISTORICAL CONTEXT. THE VIDEO DOES NOT CONTAIN SENSITIVE SCENES AT ALL!