Goth position

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Development of the front between June and December 1944
Major military operations in Italy during World War II
Soldiers from the American 370th Infantry Regiment marching towards the mountains near Montignoso , April 9, 1945

Goth position in Italy during World War II was the German name of the fortified line ( English Gothic Line , Italian Linea Gotica ) that cut off the Italian peninsula at the height of Massa-Carrara and Pesaro . It extended over a length of 320 kilometers and reached a depth of up to 30 kilometers. To the north of this line stood German troops, while from the south the British and American troops with their allies tried to break through the positions. In mid-May 1944, the Gothic position was renamed "Green Line", apparently to avoid associations with the downfall of the Goths .

The Gothic position was a defensive position that consisted of a series of fortifications on the ridge of the Apennines . It was built under the supervision of Major General Hans Leyers by German soldiers, prisoners of war and civilian populations used for this purpose after the Allied landings in Sicily (July 9, 1943) to stop the Allied advance into the Po Valley.

In terms of crew and equipment, the gothic position was not as complex as the Siegfried Line . The system used the geomorphological conditions of the mountainous landscape; to seal off were minefields , wire fences, bunker for artillery and machine guns used and the like. The most fortified areas were those on the coasts and the zone around the Futapass .

In September 1944, the Goths were attacked several times by the Allies . Although these could break into the front lines in many places, they were unable to break through the position. The heavy losses, difficulties with the supply of ammunition and other supplies to continue the attacks as well as the adverse weather conditions forced the Allies to halt between autumn 1944 and spring 1945.

When the Gothic position was finally broken at the end of April 1945, it had served its purpose of delaying the Allied advance for as long as possible. It is estimated that the number of casualties in the fighting was around 75,000 on the German side (including those killed, wounded and missing) and around 65,000 on the Allied side.

Others

Field Marshal Albert Kesselring was appointed Commander-in-Chief Southwest and Commander-in-Chief of Army Group C on November 21, 1943 . He was also given executive power in the Italian operational areas. Kesselring was wounded on October 23, 1944 during one of his daily troop visits; On his behalf, Colonel General Heinrich von Vietinghoff took over the supreme command in Italy until mid-January 1945.

See also

literature

  • Gerhard Muhm: Linea gotica avamposto dei Balcani. Edited by Amedeo Montemaggi. Edizioni Civitas, Rome, 1993

Web links

Commons : Goths  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rainer Kipper: The Germanic myth in the German Empire. Forms and functions of historical self-thematization. Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 2002, ISBN 3-525-35570-X , p. 149.
  2. ^ Gianluca Falanga: Mussolini's outpost in Hitler's empire. Italy's Politics in Berlin 1933–1945. Christian Links, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-86153-493-8 , p. 282.
  3. ↑ Excerpt: Gerhard Muhm: La tattica tedesca nella campagna d'Italia: Linea gotica avamposto dei Balcani. In: larchivio.org. Archived from the original on October 22, 2017 (Italian).;