Chapter Nine
Mussolini made one last futile effort at the end of 1944. Carried out largely by Italians, the counterattack was launched in the Senio valley on 26 December. Some of the RSI’s remaining tanks may have taken part.The 8th Army, although exhausted and short of ammunition, easily stopped this attack.
On the west coast the Germans launched an attack in the Serchio valley, north of Lucca, and broke through to threaten the US 5th Army’s lines of communication with its base at Leghorn.The Germans were blocked with the assistance of a division detached from the British 8th Army.This delayed 5th Army’s planned attack towards Bologna and in turn brought the British 8th Army to a halt, because it had to conserve ammunition until the Americans were ready.
The requirements of the crumbling Eastern Front saw the departure of the 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division from Italy in the New Year. Kesselring was appointed Supreme Commander West in March 1945 and replaced in Italy by General von Vietinghoff. German forces on the Italian front amounted to twenty-three divisions, with two others partly formed, and six Italian divisions.The 10th and 14th Armies, holding the left and right flanks respectively, each still had a nominal panzer corps.
By the spring of 1945 neither of the German armies had any reserves, although the battered 29th and 90th Panzergrenadier Divisions remained in von Vietinghoff’s Army Group Reserve.These units, plus the 26th Panzer Division, continued to fight tenaciously as they were slowly pushed northwards.
The Allied armoured divisions were involved in one last offensive against the Germans, dubbed Operation Grapeshot.This was launched with the aim of breaking out into the Lombardy plains. The 8th Army element of the attack was called Operation Buckland, and the US 5th Army’s contribution was Operation Craftsman.
Preparation for Grapeshot commenced on 6 April 1945 when the Germans’ Senio defences were subjected to heavy artillery bombardment. Three days later 825 heavy bombers attacked fixed positions beyond the Senio river; these were then followed by medium bombers and fighter-bombers. The latter struck at anything that moved, especially exposed armoured fighting vehicles and motor transport. The air attacks heralded the ground assault against the shell-shocked defenders, which rolled forwards at dusk that day. In support of the New Zealand 2nd Infantry Division were twenty-eight Churchill Crocodile flamethrowers and 127 Carrier Wasp flamethrowers. These scorched everything in their path and by nightfall of 10 April the New Zealanders had reached the Santerno, which they crossed the following day.
The American assault, also preceded by a massive bombardment of enemy positions by heavy bombers and artillery, opened on 14 April with the US 1st Armored Division supporting the US 4th Corps. The following night the US 2nd Corps, which included the South African 6th Armoured Division, attacked towards Bologna between Highways 64 and 65.
The 8th Army had forced the Argenta Gap by 19 April and the British 6th Armoured Division swung left to drive northwestwards along the Reno river to Bondeno, link up with the US 5th Army and encircle the Germans defending Bologna. Bondeno fell on 23 April and the 6th Armoured duly linked up with the Americans at Finale to the north the following day.
Despite Hitler’s instructions to stand fast, the Germans had no option but to fall back beyond the River Po.They finally sustained a deathblow trying to escape across the river, losing eighty tanks, 1,000 motor vehicles and 300 pieces of artillery. By this stage continuing the fight in Italy had become pointless. The official unconditional surrender in Italy was signed on 2 May 1945.The remaining panzers and Italian tanks were turned over to the Allies.The Italian campaign was over.
The Allies’ 1945 spring offensive included the deployment of twenty-eight Churchill Crocodile flamethrowers (seen here) and 127 Carrier Wasp flamethrowers in support of the New Zealand 2nd Infantry Division.These weapons were devastating against enemy pillboxes and bunkers.
Judging from the fuel trailer, this is another Churchill Crocodile flamethrower, photographed near the Senio river on 9 April 1945.
A Sherman tank passing a wrecked Tiger on the Senio river on 10 April 1945. New Zealand infantry knocked out the Tiger using a PIAT anti-tank weapon at very close range!
Another knocked-out panzer, this time a Panther destroyed by the New Zealand 2nd Infantry Division during the attack on the Sillaro river in mid-April 1945.
British stretcher-bearers passing M4A4 Shermans in the town of Portomaggiore, north of Argenta and between Lake Comacchi and Route 16. It was captured by the 8th Army on 19 April 1945. Over 1,600 M4A4s were supplied to the 8th Army in Italy in 1943, and in total 7,499 examples were produced during the war. It was known as the Sherman V to the British Army.
(Above and opposite, top): Although work to develop a new light tank to replace the M3 and M5 started in March 1943, the M24 Chaffee was not standardised until mid-1944. The second photograph shows a Chaffee of the US 1st Armored Division on the streets of Milan in late April 1945.
To the south of Milan the Brazilian Division accepted the surrender of the commander of the 148th Infantry Division, General Otto Fretter-Pico, on 28 April 1945.
General Mark Clark, commander of 15th Army Group, takes the surrender of Lieutenant General von Senger und Etterlin, commander of the 14th Panzer Corps, who was representing the German Commander-in-Chief South West, Colonel General von Vietinghoff, on 4 May 1945. Some 230,000 German troops in Italy and southern Austria laid down their arms, finally bringing the fighting in the Italian campaign to a close.
Abandoned German armoured fighting vehicles and transport vehicles on the road between Finale Emilia and Ferrara. Note the discarded Italian Semovente on the left.
German troops, having laid down their arms, march into captivity.
A soldier surveys the destruction wrought by the Italian campaign.