The interim commander of Army Group C was the capable Col. Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, commander of Army Group C, had been involved in a serious auto accident in October 1944 and was unable to return to his post until January. The situation for German Army Group C was growing more desperate, even though its troops occupied strong defensive positions in the remaining mountains under their control and along the Senio River. In fact, ammunition dumps were filled to capacity and another 20,000 tons remained some distance away at the port city of Naples. On the positive side, an acute shortage of artillery shells had been alleviated. Commanders, perhaps somewhat disillusioned themselves, maintained a vigil against sagging morale. The prospect of more mountains, more mud, and more Germans, compounded by the absence of a clearly defined objective such as the capture of Rome had been the previous year, was worrisome. The Attrition Losses of German Army Group CĮxposure to the elements still took its toll. The advance of both the Fifth and Eighth Armies in wide converging arcs might cut off the escape of thousands of German soldiers and push the enemy out of Bologna in the process. Large-scale offensive operations were set to resume in April 1945, but the capture of the city of Bologna, its strategic importance as a communications center diminished, would not be the primary objective. For the Allied armies in Italy, the final winter of World War II was one of planning, replenishment, and the continuing effort to make existence in a war-ravaged land in the midst of snow and ice as bearable as possible.
0 kommentar(er)
