NEW PHASE OPENING IN ITALY

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 12, 9 October 1943, Page 5

NEW PHASE OPENING IN ITALY

Widening Allied Prospects

News that the. Germans are preparing to leave Rome indicates th a t t c phase of the advance of the Allied armies has ended. It is therefore appropriate to consider in a general wa y the natur of the operations in Italy. The Russian offensives and the Ang’o-Ameriean invasion have forced a fundamental change in Hitler’s policy. Once Hitler was lighting for the world; now he is n„htin» for his life. The strategical implications of the fighting in Italy carry with them a weight that was not so noticeable in the earlier battles that culminated in tins invasion. , . , - , , P The peculiar geographical layout Ot Italy, with the mountain ranges indicated in the accompanying map, sets the background to all our plans as well as those of the Germans. The ramparts of the Alps guard Italy in the north from France to Austria. An offshoot of tins mass sends its ranges from Genoa down the middle of Italy to the toe and heel. These ranges vary in height from 4Uwtt. to 6000 ft., with passes across them-at 2000 ft. and 3000 ft. The. line of peaks runs roughly some 40 miles from the Adriatic coast, and the western coast is therefore some 60 or 70 miles from the crests. The railways follow the coast with at least three connecting lines of importance from Genoa south to Naples. This curious mountain system locks up the Germans in Italy in the north. There are, in fact, only three passes leading out of northern Italy: the Mt. Cenis tunnel to France, the Simplon to Switzerland, and the Brenner Bass to Germany. Po Defence Line. The central mountain system starts below the valley of the Po. This remarkable river stretches across northern Italy for nearly 300 miles through the main industrial areas. The rivc-r itself provides the only good defensive line in Italy. It is 500 yards wide at the mouth, runs above the level of the countryside and is surrounded there by marshy country. Some 200 miles inland the river is 200 yards wide and Oft. deep. The Po has always been associated with battles, the invaders normally coining from the north, and today it is as formidable a defence line ag it ever was. There can be little doubt that the Germans intend to hold the line of the Po in strength. , Meanwhile our armies are fighting their way toward Rome. The first phase of the invasion has ended, the armies hav-

ing consolidated their bases and pressed deep into Italian territory. The geographic layout has forced the advance into two channels—via the west coast and via the east coast. The two armies are separated by mountains several thousand feet high, with occasional passes. It will be recalled that Hannibal selected the east coast route now being followed in the opposite direction from Cannae (near Foggia) by the Eighth Army. In the coast area the rivers are short, torrents rushing down from the nearby hilltops. In the west the rivers are larger and less torrential. The central mountains make it by no means simple for the Germans to throw in forces now at one coast and now at the other. Moreover, the canalized communications assist bombing attacks by the Allied air forces. The present, advance must not be considered more than a series of rearguard actions on the part of the enemy, some on a larger scale than others. The main forces have not engaged. It is difficult to imagine a large-scale engagement before Rome is reached. At this point the Tiber and its tributaries link with rivers running east to the Adriatic. Moreover, the Tiber in its lower reaches affords a formidable defensive line. It would thus appear that fighting very similar to the present must continue till the plains of the Po are reached. How far the Allied armies intend to go is a matter of grand strategy, and it is also a matter in which the Germans must be intensely interested. Their positions on the Po are strong tactically but weak strategically. A defensive position is only as strong as its lines of supply, and the three escape holes out of northern Italy are all narrow defiles, in every case tunnels and bridges susceptible to damage by bombing raids and sabotage. Indeed.' the Po is an ideal defensive line to repel invaders from the north but not from the south. Planes and Partisans. Ono hundred miles across the Adriatic the Yugoslav Partisan forces are gathering strength in the mountains that border the coast. Italy affords a satisfactory jumping-off place for landings along that coast. The Balkans are already outflanked. Furthermore, the airfields iii our hands at Foggia provide lauding grounds from which to attack enemy territory otherwise out of reach. From Foggia it is only 500 miles to Vienna, Fuchnrest and Athens. The strategical significance of the conquest of Italy will lie. very largely in the aerodromes acquired within close range of Germany. Indeed, with the capture of the valley of the Po it would be no exaggeration to say that Germany would lie at the at the mercy of the Allied bombers. Hand in hand with these factors must be considered the significant capture of Corsica and Sardinia. The Germans in Italy are already outflanked on the west as far north as Leghorn. Corsica and Sardinia provide unsinkable aircraft-car-riers from which the Allies can dominate all sen operations off tile western shores of I Inly.

Meanwhile, there seem to be many months of hard slogging lighting ahead.