- Barbara Line
During
World War II , the Barbara Line was a series of Germanmilitary fortification s inItaly , some ten to twenty miles south of theGustav Line , and a similar distance north of theVolturno Line . Near the eastern coast, it ran along the line of the Trigno river. The line mostly consisted of fortified hilltop positions.Western breakthrough (U.S. 5th Army front)
General
Albert Kesselring , commander of the German forces in Italy, ordered his forces to retreat to the Barbara Line on12 October 1943 after the 5th Army crossed theVolturno River , breaching the Volturno defensive line.By the early November the Barbara Line on the
Tyrrhenian Sea side of theApennine Mountains had been breached byU.S. 5th Army , and the Germans fell back to theBernhardt Line .Eastern breakthrough (British 8th Army front)
On the Adriatic front
British 8th Army had broken the Viktor/Volturno Line defences on 6 October. However, they had had to pause at theTrigno to re-group and reorganise their logistics along the poor roads stretching back toBari andTaranto 120 and 170 miles respectively to the rear of the front.It therefore was not until the early hours of
November 2 that the V Corps on the right of the front on the coast andBritish XIII Corps on their left attacked across the Trigno river. On the V Corps front British 78th Infantry Division attacked along the coastal road whilst Indian 8th Infantry Division attacked some 10 miles inland. Fighting was fierce but on3 November 78th Division reached San Salvo, some three miles beyond the Trigno, at which point Major-GeneralRudolf Sieckenius , commandingGerman 16th Panzer Division decided to make a fighting withdrawal to theSangro river and the formidable Gustav defensive positions overlooking the river from the ridge tops on the far side. The Allied advance reached the Sangro on9 November . [Carver, p. 90]Bibliography
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*cite book | first=Col. Kenneth V.|last=Smith| url=http://www.army.mil/cmh/brochures/naples/72-17.htm |title=Naples-Foggia 9 September 1943-21 January 1944 | series=CMH Online bookshelves: World War II Campaigns |publisher=US Army Center of Military History|location=Washington| year=1990?| id=CMH Pub 72-17References
ee also
*
Allied invasion of Italy
*British Eighth Army
*US Fifth Army
*Volturno Line
*Bernhardt Line
*Battle of San Pietro Infine
*Gustav Line
*Gothic Line
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