| 5 June 1944 Allied Capture of Rome |
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| Just five days after the capture of Monte Cassino
the three beleaguered Allied divisions at Anzio finally succeeded in breaking through the German
defenses there. Kesselring set about trying to establish a new defensive position—the Caesar Line—just
south of Rome, but the German commander realized that this would not hold for long. On 2 June he
asked and received permission from Hitler to give up Rome to the advancing Allies. The U.S. Fifth
Army entered the Italian capital on 5 June, while the Germans retreated further north. Operations
in Italy since the fall of 1943 had been extremely costly—roughly 40,000 Allied casualties, compared
to 25,000 Germans—but they had succeeded in keeping a substantial part of the German army while
a much larger Allied force was heading for Normandy. Indeed, Operation Overlord—the invasion of
France—took place the very next day.
History: Personal Accounts: Photograph: |
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