The Gothic Line

by Mark Zuehlke

  [ EPILOGUE ]

  The Gothic Line in Memory

  IT’S A WARM FALL DAY and I look out across the 1,940 white marble headstones of Commonwealth troops buried at Coriano Ridge War Cemetery. A breeze is rising and the leaves are shaking out of the trees in a gentle red, orange, yellow rain onto the graves of soldiers who have lain here under Italian soil for more than fifty-five years. Most were half that number of years in age before they fell during the Gothic Line Battle.

  As has proved the case at every Commonwealth cemetery visited over the last few years, Coriano is well tended. Pretty arrangements of flowers grow around and between the headstones. The sweeps of grass running between the orderly rows of graves and down the entrance concourse are freshly mowed to meticulous perfection.

  The tilling of the flowerbeds at times creates small hillocks around the gravestones, which obscure the lowest line of the inscriptions carved in the marble. For no particular reason, as I pass between the rows of headstones of Canadian dead that are concentrated on the cemetery’s southern flank, I scrape back the earth at the base of Captain George Richard Corkett’s grave. Later, I learn that the twenty-eight-year-old Corkett had the misfortune to rejoin the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry on September 22, 1944, the very last day of the Gothic Line Battle. An exploding German shell killed him. The inscription reads: “Beloved husband of Aileen. Father of Georgina Anne, born in England 1944.” And so I learn that Corkett had taken a bride in England and fathered a child in the same year he perished. Was he able to hold her in his arms after her birth? Or was he already bound for Italy? Or had he already perished on the banks of the Marecchia River?

  Here, walking from headstone to headstone and reading the names of the dead, their ages, their hometowns, the regiments in which they served, and the epitaphs that family have had etched in the marble, it is impossible to remain unmoved by the sacrifice these Canadians made. It is particularly poignant to see the head-stones of men with whose death I am familiar. There is Major Herbert William Paterson, the Seaforth Highlander officer that Corporal Charles Monroe Johnson thought an elderly English gentleman and who led his company towards San Martino on September 18 with a walking stick in his hand. Paterson was only forty-one and hailed from Kelowna, B.C.

  There is also Captain Jack Birnie Smith, who died at San Lorenzo in Strada’s church. He was thirty on September 6, 1944. Nearby is the grave of another Royal Canadian Regiment soldier who died that day—Private Lyall F. Douglas, aged twenty-two. The epitaph on his headstone reads: “To those at home in Winnipeg, he is just away until the daybreak.”

  I have come to Coriano this day with Oviglio Monti, whose home in Coriano was just a short distance south of this cemetery. He insists on being called Monti, rather than Oviglio or, heavens forbid, Signor Monti. I soon learn that even his children refer to him by his last name. Because it was Canadian troops who liberated Coriano and also gave Monti a job after, Monti has great affection for us. He has penned a short article, reprinted at one time in the Canadian Legion, on “Why I Am a Lucky Man.” His luck was in surviving the battle that rolled over Coriano and then having the opportunity to build a life after. Monti still is grateful for his liberation from the fascists and the German Nazis.

  He has a good life, too. The skills he learned working with the Royal Canadian Regiment sparked an interest in providing service to people, which resulted in his becoming a hotelier. Today, he owns two seaside hotels—one in Rimini, the other in Riccione. There is also a guesthouse in the country near Coriano.

  Monti has often had Canadian dignitaries stay at his hotel and has acted as host and interpreter for them. On several occasions, his hotel has been the base for the Canadian Staff College tours of the Gothic Line held every couple of years. For the Canadian military, the Gothic Line Battle has become a textbook case for the study of battlefield tactics and strategy. Usually, a few veterans have accompanied the tours as resource personnel.

  John Dougan and Henri Tellier have served in this role. Dougan was called on so often he eventually bowed out, having, he said, “gone back to the cemeteries of dead friends too many times.” In addition to Canadian veterans, staff college tour planners have drawn upon the expertise that German veterans bring to understanding the battle. One of the most regular former German officers so involved is Oberst Gerhard Muhm. A company commander in the 29th Panzer Grenadier Division during the battle, Muhm fought immediately opposite Tellier at Villa Belvedere and was caught in the artillery concentrations that Dougan called down on the Germans pulling off the ridge on September 20. Tellier and Muhm became friends, while Dougan’s relationship with his ex-enemy proved more guarded. There is respect, but there is also the barrier of dead Canadian friends who died in a war that was, in the final analysis, Germany’s making.

  Today, the Italians in the Rimini area have largely forgotten the war. Most were not even born when this land felt the blast of explosions and witnessed the struggle of thousands of soldiers for its mastery. Tourists are today’s invaders. They come by the tens of thousands to the longest-stretching beach resort in Europe, where they sit in beach chairs lined up in regimented rows ten to twenty deep in front of their hotels and bronze themselves under an Adriatic sun. Germans mostly, and this invasion is generally welcomed.

  There are still Italians who remember the battle, of course. One has even made it his lifetime calling. Amedeo Montemaggi, the once young journalist, is undoubtedly the world’s leading expert on the Gothic Line and author of several books in Italian on the subject. When I meet him, he is working to a publisher’s deadline and has the inevitable glazed look in his eye caused by too little sleep, too many pages yet to write, and too many questions that remain unresolved. He still takes time out to provide his analyses of the Canadian role in the great battle for the last German defensive line. Hoffmeister, he believes, demonstrated “a touch of genius” in seeing that he could bounce the Gothic Line. But there was a following inability of I Canadian Corps—due to its weakness—to exploit the breaches won through each defensive line quickly enough. So the breakout from the Rimini Line came too late to give Eighth Army the decisive victory required.

  Montemaggi’s summary seems accurate. It is doubtful, of course, that a breakout into the Po Valley two or three weeks earlier would have resulted in the great armoured blitzkrieg that the Allies sought. Travelling from Bologna to Ravenna and from there down the coastline to Rimini is a sobering experience. The canals, rivers, and ditches that must be crossed unfurl in an endless parade. Many are substantial enough to present major barriers to the attackers and provide fine antitank ditches from behind which a defender could offer stiff resistance. This proved the case for Eighth Army when it did move out into the plain, and it was not just the mud that slowed the advance to a crawl. The Germans fought with their normal defensive skill from behind these rivers and canals. In doing so, they frustrated Allied intentions in Italy. Ultimately, the goal of the campaign became more to keep German divisions pinned down there and grind them up—an operation in attrition—rather than seeking any major offensive breakout. Campaigns of attrition are costly for both sides. Certainly this was the case with the Italian campaign. It is estimated that the Allies suffered 320,955 casualties while inflicting 658,339 on the Germans prior to the surrender of all German forces in Italy on May 2, 1945.1

  By the time of the surrender, I Canadian Corps was gone from Italy. It had left at the end of March 1945 for northwestern Europe. In all, 92,757 Canadians saw service in Italy and more than a quarter became casualties. The total numbers of casualties has been set at 26,254. Of these, 5,399 were killed. About sixty per cent of the casualties occurred in five major operations, of which the Gothic Line Battle exacted the highest price.2

  It’s sunset when I visit Montecchio War Cemetery, the southernmost of the Commonwealth cemeteries where Gothic Line dead are buried. With 582 graves, it is comparatively small by the standards that guide the burying of war dead. Among the Canadian graves is an
uninterrupted row of a dozen men from the West Nova Scotia Regiment. They all died in the minefield on August 31, during that regiment’s failed attack on the Gothic Line proper.

  There is also the grave of a twenty-one-year-old Irish Regiment of Canada private, William Winslow. His wife, Patricia, had recently visited the cemetery. She noted in the register, “You are always in my heart.” As I walk from the cemetery, I carry with me the hope that Private Winslow and all the others who lie in graves scattered across Italy and Sicily shall always have a place deep in the heart of a nation’s memory.

  APPENDIX A: EIGHTH ARMY ORDER OF BATTLE AT THE GOTHIC LINE

  V BRITISH CORPS (Lieutenant General C. Keightley)

  1st British Armoured Division

  4th British Infantry Division

  4th Indian Infantry Division

  46th British Infantry Division

  56th British Armoured Brigade

  25th British Tank Brigade

  I CANADIAN CORPS (Lieutenant General E.L.M. Burns)

  5th Canadian Armoured Division

  1st Canadian Infantry Division

  21st British Tank Brigade

  II POLISH CORPS (Lieutenant General W. Anders)

  3rd Carpathian Infantry Division

  5th Kresowa Infantry Division

  2nd Polish Armoured Brigade

  Army Group Polish Artillery

  2nd New Zealand Armoured Division

  3rd Greek Mountain Brigade

  APPENDIX B: CANADIANS AT THE GOTHIC LINE (NOT ALL UNITS LISTED)

  I CANADIAN CORPS

  7th Anti-tank Regiment

  No. 1 Army Group, Royal Canadian Artillery:

  1st Survey Regiment

  11th Army Field Regiment

  1st Medium Regiment

  2nd Medium Regiment

  5th Medium Regiment

  1ST CANADIAN INFANTRY DIVISION

  1st Canadian Armoured Car Regiment (Royal Canadian Dragoons)

  The Royal Canadian Artillery:

  1st Field Regiment (Royal Canadian Horse Artillery)

  2nd Field Regiment

  3rd Field Regiment

  1st Anti-tank Regiment

  2nd Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment

  Corps of Royal Canadian Engineers:

  1st Field Company

  3rd Field Company

  4th Field Company

  2nd Field Park Company

  Brigade Support Group:

  The Saskatoon Light Infantry

  1st Canadian Infantry Brigade:

  The Royal Canadian Regiment (permanent force)

  The Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment

  48th Highlanders of Canada Regiment

  2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade:

  Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry Regiment

  (permanent force)

  Seaforth Highlanders of Canada Regiment

  Loyal Edmonton Regiment

  3rd Canadian Infantry Brigade:

  Royal 22e Regiment (permanent force)

  Carleton and York Regiment

  West Nova Scotia Regiment

  5TH CANADIAN ARMOURED DIVISION

  Reconnaissance Troops:

  3rd Canadian Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment

  (Governor General’s Horse Guards)

  Brigade Support Group:

  Princess Louise Fusiliers

  The Royal Canadian Artillery:

  17th Field Regiment

  8th Field Regiment (Self-Propelled)

  4th Anti-tank Regiment

  5th Light Anti-tank Regiment

  5th Canadian Armoured Brigade:

  2nd Canadian Armoured Regiment (Lord Strathcona’s Horse)

  (permanent force)

  5th Canadian Armoured Regiment (8th Princess Louise New

  Brunswick Hussars)

  9th Canadian Armoured Regiment (British Columbia Dragoons)

  11th Canadian Infantry Brigade:

  Perth Regiment

  Cape Breton Highlanders

  Irish Regiment of Canada

  12th Canadian Infantry Brigade:

  Westminster (Motorized) Regiment

  Princess Louise Dragoon Guards

  1st Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment (The Lanark and Renfrew

  Scottish Regiment)

  Corps of Royal Canadian Engineers:

  1st Field Squadron

  4th Field Park Squadron

  10th Field Squadron

  APPENDIX C: CANADIAN INFANTRY BATTALION (TYPICAL ORGANIZATION)

  HQ COMPANY:

  No. 1 Signals Platoon

  No. 2 Administrative Platoon

  SUPPORT COMPANY:

  No. 3 Mortar Platoon (3-inch)

  No. 4 Bren Carrier Platoon

  No. 5 Assault Pioneer Platoon

  No. 6 Antitank Platoon (6-pounder)

  A COMPANY:

  No. 7 Platoon

  No. 8 Platoon

  No. 9 Platoon

  B COMPANY:

  No. 10 Platoon

  No. 11 Platoon

  No. 12 Platoon

  C COMPANY:

  No. 13 Platoon

  No. 14 Platoon

  No. 15 Platoon

  D COMPANY:

  No. 16 Platoon

  No. 17 Platoon

  No. 18 Platoon

  APPENDIX D: CANADIAN MILITARY ORDER OF RANK (LOWEST TO HIGHEST)

  Private (Pte.)

  Gunner (artillery equivalent of private)

  Trooper (armoured equivalent of private)

  Lance Corporal (L/Cpl.)

  Corporal (Cpl.)

  Lance Sergeant (L/Sgt.)

  Sergeant (Sgt.)

  Company Sergeant Major ((CSM))

  Regimental Sergeant Major (RSM)

  Lieutenant (Lt. or Lieut.)

  Captain (Capt.)

  Major (Maj.)

  Lieutenant Colonel (Lt. Col.)

  Colonel (Col.)

  Brigadier (Brig.)

  Major General (Maj. Gen.)

  Lieutenant General (Lt. Gen.)

  General (Gen.)

  APPENDIX E: GERMAN MILITARY ORDER OF RANK (LOWEST TO HIGHEST)

  Because the German Army and the Luftwaffe ground forces had a ranking system where rank also usually indicated the specific type of unit in which one served, only basic ranks are given here. The translations are roughly based on the Canadian ranking system, although there is no Canadian equivalent for many German ranks.

  Schütze Private, infantry

  Grenadier Private, infantry

  Kanonier Gunner

  Panzerschütze Tank crew member

  Pionier Sapper

  Funker Signaller

  Gefreiter Lance Corporal

  Obergefreiter Corporal

  Unteroffizier Lance Sergeant

  Unterfeldwebel Sergeant

  Feldwebel Company Sergeant Major

  Oberfeldwebel Battalion Sergeant Major

  Leutnant Second Lieutenant

  Oberleutnant Lieutenant

  Hauptmann Captain

  Major Major

  Oberstleutnant Lieutenant Colonel

  Oberst Colonel

  Generalleutnant Lieutenant General

  Generalmajor Major General

  General der Artillerie General of Artillery

  General der Infanterie General of Infantry

  General der Kavallerie General of Cavalry

  General der Pioniere General of Engineers

  General der Panzertruppen General of Armoured Troops

  Generaloberst Colonel General

  Generalfeldmarschall General Field Marshal

  Oberbefehshaber Süd Commander-in-Chief South

  APPENDIX F: THE DECORATIONS

  Many military decorations were won by soldiers in the Gothic Line Battle. The decoration system that Canada used in World War II, like most other aspects of its military organization and tradition, derived from Britain. A class-based system, most military decorations can be awarded either to officers or to “other ranks,” but not both. The exce
ption is the highest award, the Victoria Cross, which can be won by a soldier of any rank.

  The decorations and qualifying ranks are:

  VICTORIA CROSS (VC): Awarded for gallantry in the presence of the enemy. Instituted in 1856. Open to all ranks. The only award that can be granted for action in which the recipient was killed, other than Mentioned in Despatches—a less formal honour whereby an act of bravery was given specific credit in a formal report.

  DISTINGUISHED SERVICE ORDER (DSO): Officers of all ranks, but more commonly awarded to officers with ranks of major or higher.

  MILITARY CROSS (MC): Officers with a rank below major and, rarely, warrant officers.

  DISTINGUISHED CONDUCT MEDAL: Warrant officers and all lower ranks.

  MILITARY MEDAL: Warrant officers and all lower ranks.

  GLOSSARY OF COMMON CANADIAN MILITARY TERMS AND WEAPONRY

  ANTITANK GUNS: Canadian forces used two antitank guns. The six-pounder was the main antitank gun attached directly to infantry battalions. Each battalion had its own antitank platoon. This gun had a range of one thousand yards and fired a six-pound shell. Also available were the seventeen-pounder antitank guns of the antitank regiments. This was basically an up-gunned version of the six-pounder, with greater range and greater hitting power because of the seventeen-pound shell.

  BATTALION: See Regiment

  BREN CARRIER: Also known as the universal carrier. A lightly armoured tracked vehicle capable of carrying four to six soldiers and their weapons. Provided no overhead protection, but was walled on all sides by armour. Top speed of thirty-five miles an hour. This was the Commonwealth forces battlefield workhorse. Its open design enabled it to be used for carrying just about any kind of military gear used by infantry. Some were converted into weapons carriers and played a combat role by being fitted with Vickers .303 medium machine guns, Bren light machine guns, or two-inch mortars, or were used as the towing vehicle for six-pounder antitank guns.