Breaking the Trasimene Line on the forgotten front

British troops in close combat, Italy 1944

The Trasimene Line was a German defensive line during the Italian Campaign of World War II. The commander of German forces in Italy, Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, used the line to delay the Allied northward advance in Italy in mid June 1944 to buy time to withdraw troops to the Gothic Line and finalise the preparation of its defence.

After the Allied capture of Rome on 4 June 1944 following successful breakthrough at Cassino and Anzio during Operation Diadem in May 1944, the German Fourteenth and Tenth Armies fell back: the Fourteenth along the Tyrrhenian front and Tenth through central Italy and the Adriatic coast. There was a huge gap between the armies and with the Allies advancing some 10 km per day, the flanks of both armies were exposed and encirclement was threatened.

Two days after Rome fell, General Sir Harold Alexander, commander of Allied Armies in Italy, received orders from General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, the supreme Allied commander Allied forces Mediterranean theatre to push the Germans 170 miles north to a line running from Pisa to Rimini (i.e. the Gothic Line) as quickly as possible to prevent the establishment of any sort of coherent enemy defence in central Italy.

Between 4 June and 16 June, whilst maintaining contact with the advancing Allies, Albert Kesselring executed a remarkable and unorthodox manoeuvre with his depleted divisions, resulting in his two armies aligning and uniting their wings on the defensive positions on the Trasimene Line.

By the last week of June the Allies were facing the Trasimene positions. The toughest defences were around the lake itself with fierce fighting on 17 June at Città della Pieve and 21 June at San Fatucchio. But by 24 June, the Allies had worked their way round to the north shore and linked and the German defenders withdrew towards Arezzo.