Mountain Marines

The weeks-long struggle for Massa on the coastal plains of northwest Italy brought to the forefront longstanding issues of ill trust and poor morale throughout the 92nd Infantry Division, the only African-American Infantry Division to see combat in World War II. After Massa, the 92nd was responsible for the 20-mile …

1944-11-16

ROMA4

The weeks-long struggle for Massa on the coastal plains of northwest Italy brought to the forefront longstanding issues of ill trust and poor morale throughout the 92nd Infantry Division, the only African-American Infantry Division to see combat in World War II. After Massa, the 92nd was responsible for the 20-mile wide line from the sea to Barga in Serchio Valley. The Buffalo Soldiers of the 370th Infantry Regiment conducted powerful patrols into the Tuscan hills, probing deeper into the Serchio. On 16 November, a reinforced company attacked fortified positions outside Eglio. This area of the Gothic Line was defended by Germans and German-trained Italians. Both the Monte Rosa Alpini Division and the San Marco Marine Infantry Division had been formed, equipped, and trained in Germany from ex-Italian military and northern Italian conscripts.

Eglio, Italy

The Gothic Line was a German defensive line of the Italian Campaign of World War II. It formed Field Marshal Albert Kesselring's last major line of defence along the summits of the northern part of the Apennine Mountains during the fighting retreat of the German forces in Italy against the Allied Armies in Italy, commanded by General Sir Harold Alexander. Adolf Hitler had concerns about the state of preparation of the Gothic Line: he feared the Allies would use amphibious landings to outflank its defences. To downgrade its importance in the eyes of both friend and foe, he ordered the name, with its historic connotations, changed, reasoning that if the Allies managed to break through they would not be able to use the more impressive name to magnify their victory claims. In response to this order, Kesselring renamed it the "Green Line" (Grüne Linie) in June 1944. Using more than 15,000 slave labourers, the Germans created more than 2,000 well-fortified machine gun nests, casemates, bunkers, observation posts and artillery fighting positions to repel any attempt to breach the Gothic Line. Initially this line was breached during Operation Olive (also sometimes known as the Battle of Rimini), but Kesselring's forces were consistently able to retire in good order. This continued to be the case up to March 1945, with the Gothic Line being breached but with no decisive breakthrough; this would not take place until April 1945 during the final Allied offensive of the Italian Campaign.

American

Italian / German

Scenario Type = Standard