Topic summary
Gustav Line
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Winter Line.
Gustav Line
The Gustav Line stretched across the Italian Peninsula and barred the way to Rome for the two Allied armies in Italy: the U.S. Fifth Army in the west and the British Eighth Army in the east. The Allies' grand strategy in the autumn of 1943 was for the Eighth Army to advance through the Sangro River defences, then hook south at Avezzano and enter Rome from the rear while the Fifth Army approached from the south.