BATTLE OF ITALY: Next, the Gothic Line

The Allied offensive in Italy rolled up toward the next phase of the campaign. Within 24 hours two of the best ports in northern Italy—Leghorn and Ancona—were captured. Five days later the Allies were at the Arno River, had fought in the streets of Pisa, stood only twelve miles from Florence. Only these two cities remained before the last grand assault of the Battle of Italy could be begun—the attack on the German Gothic Line in the high Appenines.

Leghorn, Italy's third largest port, was outflanked. Lieut. General Mark W. Clark's Fifth Army sidestepped fantastically thick mine fields on the Tyrrhenian coast by swinging in its shock troops, including Hawaiian-Japanese (see ARMY & NAVY) from the east, forced the Germans to pull out.

Into the desolate ruins of Leghorn wormed the 34th Division. Engineers found 900 mines along one mile of road, gave up digging and began blowing them up. Maps prepared by Italian Partisans in the footsteps of the methodical Germans indicated that Leghorn was the most thorough mining job ever attempted.

Guide on the Hood. Gangling Mark Clark dropped in for a look, transferred from his Piper Cub to a jeep, toured for three hours, a Partisan guide roosting on the hood. He found weeds growing in the boulevards, only a tenth of the peacetime population of 125,000 still pottering through the dismal embers left by Allied bombings, German demolitions. The 60 docks, 35 cranes, 21 warehouses were an addled mess. Across the harbor entrance lay three sunken ships. It was plain that Leghorn would be little help to Allied supply problems for weeks to come.

To the east, 140 miles away, shaven-headed Lieut. General Wladyslaw Anders' durable Poles were still in the running on the Adriatic flank. In three weeks they had advanced 30 miles up the coast. Last week they snatched Ancona from two German divisions. Ancona's port—handy for Yugoslavia—was stoppered, like Leghorn, with wrecked ships. Among them: the Ida, 498-ton pride of passionate yachtsman ex-King Vittorio Emanuele III.

North of Mark Clark there was still Pisa, of the tower that "leans like a lily in the wind . . . strange as the horn of a unicorn," and north of Lieut. General Sir Oliver Leese's Eighth Army there was still Florence, repository of Renaissance art, which the Germans had declared an open city. When they were captured, the Arno would cease to be a barrier. General Sir Harold R.L.G. Alexander would be ready to regroup his forces, and the ultimate thrust would get under way.