Bernhardt Line - 5th Army Bernhardt Line Offensive

5th Army Bernhardt Line Offensive

It had taken U.S. 5th Army, in deteriorating weather as the torrential autumn rains broke, from the middle of October to early November to fight their way across difficult terrain and through skillful and determined rearguard defences from the Volturno Line positions to the Bernhardt Line.

In the centre of the 5th Army front lay the Mignano Gap, which because of the marshy conditions on the coastal plain represented the only realistic path to the mouth of the Liri valley.

Flanking and overlooking Route 6 through the Mignano Gap and its villages (San Pietro Infine, San Vittore Del Lazio and Cervaro) are, successively Monte Camino, Monte Lungo, Monte Porchia and Monte Trocchio on the left and Monte San Croce, Monte Corno, Monte Sambúcaro and Monte Maio on the right. Monte Sambúcaro normally appears as Monte Sammucro on Allied maps of the time. On reaching the Bernhardt positions, an immediate attack was launched by British X Corps on Monte Camino on 6 November, which was beaten back by 15th Panzergrenadier Division (15. Panzergrenadierdivision). By mid-November, it was clear that after having sustained 10,000 combat casualties since the Volturno Line offensive, 5th Army needed to pause, reorganise and re-gather its strength.

U.S. 5th Army resumed its attack on 1 December. The first attack—Operation Raincoat—was delivered, after an intensive artillery and air bombardment, by British X Corps on the left (comprising British 46th and 56th Infantry Divisions) and elements of U.S. II Corps, including 1st Special Service Force, on the right against the formidable Camino hill mass. The dominating peak on Monte Camino, Hill 963, is crowned by a monastery. Two slightly lower peaks, Monte la Defensa, Monte la Difensa(Hill 960) as it appeared on the military maps during the war, and Monte la Remetanea (Hill 907), lie less than 2 mi (3.2 km) north of Camino. At the upper end of the Camino feature are the numerous peaks of Monte Maggiore. The entire hill mass is about 6 mi (9.7 km) long and four miles (6.5 km) wide. On the east and northeast the slopes rise steeply to the heights, then fall away gradually to the west toward the Garigliano River. It took until 9 December before the Camino mass was secured from the 15th Panzer Grenadiers.

Meanwhile, on the 5th Army's right flank, U.S. VI Corps (comprising U.S. 34th and 45th Infantry Divisions) had attacked into the mountains but made little progress until reinforced by the mountain troops of the French Expeditionary Corps, recently arrived in Italy; they attacked again on 15 December.

On 8 December U.S. 3rd, 36th Infantry Divisions and 1st Special Service Force of U.S. II Corps launched the attack on Monte Sambúcaro and into the Mignano Gap. By the night of 10 December, the peaks were taken, threatening the German positions in the gap. However, the German positions at San Pietro in the valley held firm until 16 December, when an attack launched from the Camino mass took Monte Lungo. The Germans could no longer expect to hold San Pietro when the dominating ground on both flanks, Monte Lungo and the Sambúcaro peaks, was in II Corps' possession. Under the cover of a counterattack German forces withdrew to positions about 1 mi (1.6 km) to their rear, in front of San Vittore. Several attacks were made in the next days, and Morello Hill—overlooking the San Vittore positions from the north—was captured on 26 December.

On the VI Corps front, progress was made but proved very difficult over the mountainous terrain as the weather deteriorated further with the onset of winter. During the month of December, U.S. 5th Army suffered 5,020 wounded but total admissions to hospital totaled 22,816 with jaundice, fevers and trench foot prevalent.

At the end of December, U.S. 5th Army had to pause once again to reorganise, replace its losses and gather itself for a final push to reach the Gustav Line defences. U.S. VI Corps was taken into reserve to train and prepare for the Anzio landings with the French troops, by this time at corps strength, taking over their front.

U.S. II Corps returned to the attack on 4 January 1944, with attacks parallel to Route 6 north and south of it. The northern attack took San Vittore, and by 7 January the overlooking height of La Chiaia. On the south side, the attack was made from Monte Lungo and captured Monte Porchia. Meanwhile on their left, British X Corps had attacked from positions on the Camino mass to take on 8 January the Cedro hill which with Monte Chiaia and Monte Porchia had formed a strong defensive line in front of Monte Trocchio.

The last offensive to clear the enemy in front of the Gustav defences started on 10 January. Cervaro was taken on 12 January and the overlooking hills to the north on 13 January. This opened up the northern flank of Monte Trocchio, and a heavy assault was planned for 15 January. However, the German XIV Panzer Corps considered the position to be untenable and withdrew across the Rapido. When II Corps moved forward on 15 January, they encountered no resistance.