German Prisoners of 442nd RCT
Tuscany, Summer 1944
Italy:   OofB   Sources   Sicily   Italy...Axis   Salerno-Naples   Naples-Rome   Rome-Florence   North Apennines   Po Valley
bigpigeon.us webpage WWII Germany  > The MTO > Italy > Rome To Florence, © 2024 by Robert A. Christiansen, updated by RAC 14 Jul 2024.
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​After the German withdrawal from Rome, the Allies advanced northward, liberating most of central Italy in the summer of 1944. 
This webpage covers the final part of the US Army's Rome - Arno Campaign, from early June 1944 to 9 September 1944. See Naples-Rome webpages for earlier stages of this campaign, from January to early June of 1944.

​The Italian Campaign Timeline, May - August 1944:
  • May 1944 - Allies break out of Gustav Line and Anzio Beachhead and advance northward.
  • 4 June 1944 - Germans abandon Rome.
  • 18 July 1944 - the Polish Corps captures the port city of Ancona on the Adriatic.
  • 19 July 1944 - The US 442nd Regimental Combat Team captures the port city of Leghorn (pronounced as Ligorno) on the Mediterranean.
  • 4 Aug 1944 - Germans abandon Florence and Florence is occupied by Allies.
The US Fifth Army Reorganization, June & July 1944
  • After the fall of Rome, British divisions which had participated in the Anzio Campaign reverted to British Eighth Army control.
  • The US VI Corps was replaced on the US Fifth Army's left wing by IV Corps (Willis Crittenberger), which entered combat on 11 June.
  • The US 3rd, 36th and 45th Infantry divisions left with VI Corps to prepare for the 15 August 1944 invasion of southern France.
  • In July, Fifth Army lost the French Expeditionary Corps of four divisions, also being transferred to participate in the southern France invasion.
​The Allies' Central Italy Campaign, Summer of 1944
After German forces abandoned Rome in early June 1944,  Allied forces comprising the US Fifth Army and British Eighth Army followed the retreating German army north through central Italy until early August 1944.
Upon several occasions, the German Army temporarily stopped the Allied advance at improvised defensive lines, the two most significant of which are shown on the accompanying map:
  • The Transimeno Line through Lake Transimento in late June.
  • The Arno Line through Florence in early August.
​The advance slows:
  • After destroying all bridges in Florence except for the Ponte Vecchio, the German army withdrew from the Florence area around 11 August as partisans in Florence began an uprising.
  • In early and mid August, portions of the British Eighth Army, especially the Canadian Corps, moved east towards the Adriatic Sea to prepare for Operation Olive, the Allied offensive against the Gothic Line.
Logistics issues:
Lengthening supply lines contributed to the slower than expected Allied advance through central Italy in the summer of 1944. Allied planners coveted the ports of Leghorn (Livorno) on the Mediterranean and Ancona on the Adriatic. Both were captured in mid-July, but the port of Leghorn had been devastated both by Allied bombing and German explosives.
The Allied Advance from Rome to Florence
The Allied Advance from Rome to Florence - Summer 1944

          ██  Pottawattamie Area WWII Dead - WWII Germany > The MTO > Italy > Rome to Florence  ██
  • Taken from the bigpigeon.us WWII Dead module.
02-02 - WWII Germany > The MTO > Italy > Rome to Florence: (two dead, updated 31 Dec 2022)
† O'Connell, John Francis, SN 20-706-814, US Army, Cass Co.​
  • first served w/ Co. M. (Red Oak), 168th Inf. Regt., 34th Inf. Div.; in 1944 transferred to Co. L, 133rd Inf. Regt., 34th Inf. Div., II Corps, Fifth Army; KIA 9 Jul 1944 near Castellina, S of Florence, Tuscany, Italy; The MTO > Italy > Rome to Florence.
† Schram, Edward Nicholas, SN 37-111-412, US Army, Shelby Co.
  • Co. B, 755th Tank Bn., Fifth Army; KIA 12 Jun 1944 near Latera, N of Rome & NW of Viterbo, Lazio, Italy, supporting French forces; The MTO > ​Italy > Rome to Florence.

                                              ██   Allied Order of Battle - Rome to Florence   ██
          ██  Sources for Big Pigeon's WWII Germany > The MTO > Italy > Rome to Florence webpage  ██
  • The webpage header image, Tuscany Summer 1944, shows German prisoners of the Japanese-American 442nd Regimental Combat Team during the drive from Rome to the Arno River at Florence.
  • Cassino to the Alps (scalable maps) (United States Army in World War II, Mediterranean Theater of Operations series, Ernest F. Fisher Jr., 1989, CMH #6-4) - http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-MTO-Cassino/index.html.
  • ​The Allied Advance from Rome to Florence - Summer 1944 map is courtesy of the US Army Center for Military History.