Winter Line

This article is about the World War II defensive lines in Italy. For the Westworld episode, see The Winter Line. For the meteorological phenomenon where a 'second horizon' is formed, see Winterline.
German-prepared defensive lines south of Rome.

The Winter Line was a series of German and Italian military fortifications in Italy, constructed during World War II by Organisation Todt and commanded by Albert Kesselring. The series of three lines was designed to defend a western section of Italy, focused around the town of Monte Cassino, through which ran the important Highway 6 which led uninterrupted to Rome. The primary Gustav Line ran across Italy from just north of where the Garigliano River flows into the Tyrrhenian Sea in the west, through the Apennine Mountains to the mouth of the Sangro River on the Adriatic coast in the east. The two subsidiary lines, the Bernhardt Line and the Hitler Line, ran much shorter distances from the Tyrrehnian Sea to just northeast of Cassino where they would merge into the Gustav Line. Relative to the Gustav Line, the Hitler Line stood to the northwest and the Bernhardt Line to the southeast of the primary defenses.

Before being ultimately broken, the Gustav Line effectively slowed the Allied advance for months between December 1943 and June 1944. Major battles in the assault on the Winter Line at Monte Cassino and Anzio alone resulted in 98,000 Allied casualties and 60,000 Axis casualties.[1][2]

  1. ^ Axelrod, Alan (2008). Real History Of World War II: A New Look at the Past. New York: Sterling Publishing Co Inc. pp. 208. ISBN 978-1-4027-4090-9.
  2. ^ d'Este, Carlo (1991). Fatal Decision: Anzio and the Battle for Rome. New York: Harper. p. 490. ISBN 0-06-015890-5.