Italian Front
Situation Report April 29th 1944 Turn 44
Army Group C
At his HQ in Rome General Zeitzler now realises that the current defence line will not hold out through the summer months, not without substantial reinforcements and with only two new divisions being made available to his Command those numbers will not be enough, the only option was to take units away from key strategic defensive sites and form a second defence line ready for when The Allies breakthrough.
15th Panzer Division guarding the beaches South of Rome is ordered to take up positions behind the main defence line and prepare fortifications, the new line from Grazzanise in the South to a position forward of the town of Vasto and the Trigno River known as The Barbara Line.
The 15th Panzer along with the 162 Turkomen,92nd and 719th Infintry divisions will dig in, 90th Pz Gren Div will also move to this new line.
Zeitzler's plan is for our forces to hold as long as possible until there is a breach at which the whole line will fall back on a shorter defensive position hopefully freeing up more troops as reserves.
- Army Group C 44b.jpg (598.62 KiB) Viewed 393 times
The Allies begin there assaults on our defences though not on the scale of last week with there attacks being centred on the three main objectives Grazzanise on the Coast and Capua airbase, in the centre the Allies attack from Campobasso towards the rail centre of Isernia, on the Adriatic side the enemy launches flanking attacks and a direct attack against the coastal town of Termoli, heavy fighting in all three sectors with all sides taking large losses but our forces hold however the HG Panzer division is severely depleted and forced to withdraw from the line.
- Battles IF 44.jpg (129.35 KiB) Viewed 393 times
- Battles IF 44a.jpg (144.56 KiB) Viewed 393 times
- Battles IF 44b.jpg (132.99 KiB) Viewed 393 times
