soc.history.war.world-war-ii

"Dave Smith" wrote:

> The wasn't much in the way of lines. The last big Allied offensive began
> with the British attack on Bologna followed by the Americans a few days
> later. The city fell within a few days and the Germans were pretty well
> in full retreat. German forces in Italy surrendered on May 2.

The last Allied offensive (started April 9th, 1945, after a preliminary
phase), though a safe bet, was not the piece of cake you seem to purport.
The Axis were clearly hopeless, chaos was spreading fast and organized
resistance couldn't last long, but Vietinghoff was under strict orders (from
Hitler, obviously) not to yield an inch of ground, and while some units
disintegrated, others fell back in an orderly retreat and others held out to
the last round.

Bologna didn't fall until April 21st, and some tough fighting took place
before that date and even between April 21st and 29th, when the Germans
finally signed the capitulation.

Haydn