World Battlefronts: ITALIAN FRONT: Collapse & Cleanup

Suddenly the fight went out of the Nazi armies in Italy. Their lines had collapsed. Allied armor, spearing through masses of bewildered Germans, spread out over northern Italy, reached toward the Swiss border near Como, cut retreat lines and started the final mop-up.

Warplanes roamed the skies, found holes in the cloud banks to dive on milling Nazi columns and add the finishing touches to the job. A winter and spring of ceaseless air attack had left the Germans weak, immobile, unable either to fight or get away.

Now the Allies seemed to...