Chapter 41: Jun 1944 Allies Enter Rome

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”

― Ronald Reagan

The long, hard slog up the boot of the Italian countryside was hard on both men and equipment. Eventually, the allies found themselves at the very gate of Rome ready to push the retreating German army out of Italy once and for all.

The taking of Rome was not supposed to happen if General Mark Clark had followed the orders of the British commander in charge of the overall operation. Instead, he took the initiative to head straight to the capitol city and push the Germans out with a show of force with Armor and Artillery that overwhelmed the small force left to defend the city. He has been criticized by many historians for the decision because it allowed the German Wehrmacht to regroup and establish defensive positions further north along the “Gothic” line outside of Florence.

The decision was costly in terms of casualties and loss of time.

However, it was just what the doctor ordered in the sense of morale both in the front lines and back at home in London and Washington, D.C. and up in Canada where the loyal Canadian forces had made the final sacrifice in places like Anzio, Salerno and Monte Cassino. It was at this point that Rommel realized and reported to Supreme Headquarters that without air superiority, retreat was the only option left open to the German Army unless they wanted to be captured by the allies just like General Paulus in Stalingrad. Of course, the Fuhrer was incensed at the truth but he allowed the troops to be withdrawn back into Old Europe to establish a perimeter to protect the fatherland.

The loss of Rome happened only days before the invasion across the English Channel in a location that the Nazis had determined was totally out of the question for any beach landing. Even after the landings had started, the German defense still thought it was only a feint to draw their attention away from the Calais area where they thought the main attack would take place.

In effect, the operations in Italy were on the back burner in the allies planning at that moment and all of their attention was focused on the beaches at Normandy.

The Germans retreated in good order and established their defensive posture in the Florence area putting up stiff resistance to the allied advance. With most of the world’s attention on the Normandy beach area, the Italian campaign cooled off into a stalemate of positions with the German Wehrmacht in the uncomfortable position of maintaining a proper defense but with the burning desire to withdraw to France to put up a solid defense of the fatherland.

Meanwhile, the Italian populace was ecstatic about the liberation of Rome and the Vatican City-State. Most of the population was not onboard with the Nazi regime and they were happy to be quit of the stigma of being on the wrong side in the war. The Italian underground resistance movement created havoc in the rear areas of the German occupying force and they made logistical supply lines and lines of communication difficult for the German army. It was fortunate for them that General Rommel had disarmed the bulk of the Italian Army before they were either sent home or to Germany for slave labor against their will. It was a repeat of the rape of the French population by sending “volunteers” to Germany to work on the farms and in the factories in exchange for the captured French army prisoners of war in German Stalags kept as pawns to force the Petain government to cooperate with the occupying forces. Still, it was a far better existence than the poor souls sent to the concentration camps for eventual liquidation.

The next chapter will move quickly into the landings on “D”day on the shores of Normandy and we can visualize the tightening noose around the Fuhrer’s neck as he hides in his underground bunker in Berlin watching his thousand year Reich fall apart around him.

In the course of the Italian campaign, more than 20 divisions of the German Wehrmacht were tied down in their defensive posture and eventual retreat. The entire North African and Italian/Balkan region could almost be considered a Third Front for the Wehrmacht that drew almost a full third of their available manpower right up to the opening of the Second Front on the Sixth of June 1944.

Earlier in the war, the Fuhrer was able to squander his resources because he was always on the offensive and did not have to worry about shortage of manpower or equipment. Now, his situation was reversed and with the losses he had suffered in the East and in in North Africa, he realized that he was basically in it alone without any assistance from his Italian or Japanese partners. The little corporal gave lip service to the policy of “never retreat” but his generals were quick to seize any opportunity to fall back before losing their men to the allies due to a sense of mistaken pride. Suddenly, the Wehrmacht was being slowly decimated by their enemies all around them closing in for the final kill. Desertions increased and most of the populace in the fatherland began to plan to avoid capture by the Russians preferring to surrender to the American or the British or even the French if necessary. In any event, the Italian debacle was drawing to a close despite a last ditch effort by the Wehrmacht to postpone their inevitable defeat.

The battle-hardened soldiers in full retreat found that they were being reinforced by underage teens with insufficient training but with a loyalty to the Nazi cause that the regular army had lost soon after Stalingrad. There was no shortage of bravery in the youngsters but they were only cannon fodder to the efficient allied artillery and the constant bombing by allies with complete air superiority in the sky above.