soc.history.war.world-war-ii

Haydn 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.

The OP asked where the front line were on VE day. I don't think that I was
purporting that it was a piece of cake. I said that the British had begun an
offensive and the American came into it a few days later. Apparently, their
offensive was delayed for various reasons.

I suppose that I could have detailed the exact dates that the British offensive
started, when the American forces joined in and when their key positions fell,.
but I would suggest that those strongholds made up the German lines at that
time, and when they fell, the Germans were in full retreat, There were
arrangements made for a ceasefire and the Germans surrendered before VE. Without
purporting anything about the strength of the previous German lines and
defences, or the time it took to take those positions, the fact remains that on
VE day, the time that the OP asked about, there were no German lines in Italy.
They had already surrendered.
.