Moro River Campaign - Aftermath

Aftermath

With Ortona and Villa Grande captured, it looked as if it would require 8th Army only to regather itself and strike one more concentrated blow at Orsogna to complete the breaching of the Gustav Line's main Adriatic strongpoints. However, on 31 December, as V Corps probed along the coastal plain towards Pescara, a blizzard enveloped the battlefield. Drifting snow, sleet and biting winds paralysed movement and communications on the ground while cloud ceiling and visibility fell to nil and grounded the airforce. Montgomery—realising his Army no longer had the strength or conditions to force its way to Pescara and the Via Valeria to Rome—recommended to Alexander that the 8th Army offensive should be halted. Alexander agreed but ordered him to maintain aggressive patrolling in order to pin the units of the LXXVI Panzer Corps in the Adriatic sector and prevent Kesselring moving them to reinforce the XIV Panzer Corps front opposite U.S. 5th Army where the Allied offense would continue.

In spite of this, three attempts during the winter of 1943/44 by 5th Army to break through into the Liri valley at Cassino failed. As spring approached in 1944, Alexander concentrated his forces in great secrecy by thinning out the Adriatic front and bringing the bulk of 8th Army's striking power to the Cassino front. The combined attack of his two armies during the fourth and final Battle of Monte Cassino in early May took Kesselring by surprise and led to the Allied capture of Rome in early June.