"To Destroy the German Armies"

Why had the Allies chosen to strike now in Italy? To capture Rome? To wipe out the Cassino disgrace? It was much more than that. Said General Sir Harold R. L. G. Alexander in his order of the day: "We are going to destroy the German armies in Italy." There were undoubtedly other factors which General Alexander did not mention.

So long as Nazi Field Marshal Albert Kesselring's 20-odd divisions were tied up in Italy, the Nazis would have to divert supplies to them which might otherwise go to the invasion coast. Likewise, Kesselring must be prepared for amphibious landings in the north. (Berlin radio fran tically forecast that Allied troops were poised in Corsica and Sardinia for such a purpose.) In the Anzio sector, stiff Prussian Colonel General Eberhard von Mackensen planned to meet another Fifth Army attack on the Germans' flank.

Favorable. The moment General Alexander chose for attacking was probably as favorable as he would ever have. Italy's severest winter in many years had melted into warm, hazy springtime.

The Allies had complete naval supremacy, which enabled them to bring in the thousands of tons of supplies which any day's battle requires. They had air supremacy too. Major General John ("Uncle Joe") Cannon, tactical air commander in Italy, boasted that his planes had knocked out rail communication so completely that no through trains had moved from the Po Valley to the Gustav line since March 24; the Germans had to rely on truck transport, chiefly at night, over Highway No. 7 --the Via Appia--and Highway No. 6--Via Casilina.

Three days after the battle's beginning, picked U.S. bombardiers blew a 4O-ft. hole in the Avisio rail viaduct on the Brenner Pass line. Presumably the 75 daily trainloads of supplies which the Nazis had been sending into Italy over this key route would be stopped, at least temporarily.

Unfavorable. Regardless of these advantages, General Alexander's polyglot troops faced the stern necessity of climbing mountains over land mines, through entrenched machine-gun fire, delivered by crack, desperately determined troops. For this stern task Alexander drew upon the men who in the final analysis must win all wars: the infantry.

His best hope of destroying the German armies lay in forcing Hitler's men to consume their accumulated stocks of supplies, their large store of ammunition. In the battle's early stages Alexander could hardly hope to kill one entrenched German for each of his own men killed. His infantry men narrowed their lips and started climbing.

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