Into action at the Sangro River - the Italian campaign

Into action at the Sangro River

The 'Div' was soon in action at the end of November. The New Zealanders were assigned the task of joining the Allied effort to breach the Gustav Line by attacking its eastern margins and traversing the Sangro River with the hope of initiating an advance to Rome.

They made good initial progress, suffering about 150 casualties, but capturing several hundred Germans and skilfully using Bailey bridges to ford the Sangro—one of a seemingly endless succession of rivers they would traverse in their long advance up the Italian peninsula. On 2 December, the 'Div' had secured the village of Castelfrentano—a place name memorialised in a popular song of the Italian campaign. They moved on to attack the town of Orsogna and it even seemed possible that they would break the Gustav Line. Although New Zealand infantry actually entered the town on 3 December, they were repulsed by German reinforcements, bolstered by tanks. Despite repeated attacks in the succeeding weeks, the Germans proved immovable. With winter deepening, the whole Allied offensive ground to a halt and spirits were low amongst the New Zealanders when they were finally withdrawn from the stalled front line in January 1944 after suffering some 1600 casualties during their first two months of combat in Italy.