However, the 1st Canadian Infantry Division took part in the Italian Campaign, participating in the Moro River Campaign and the Battle of Ortona in December 1943 as part of British V Corps and it was not until the fourth Battle of Monte Cassino ("Operation Diadem") in May 1944 that I Canadian Corps fought its first battle as a corps. The Eighth Army held the Corps in reserve until after the Gustav defences in the Liri valley had been broken and then brought it forward to assault successfully the next defensive line, the Hitler Line, shortly before the Allied capture of Rome in early June. Having taken part in the Allies' northward advance to Florence, the Corps then took part in "Operation Olive", the assault on the Gothic Line in September 1944 before being transported during January–February 1945 in Operation Goldflake to rejoin the rest of the First Canadian Army in Belgium and the Netherlands. There the Corps participated in the campaign to complete the liberation of the Netherlands. On May 6, 1945 at Wageningen, Lieutenant-General Foulkes received the final surrender by Colonel General Johannes Blaskowitz of all remaining German forces still active in the Netherlands. The Corps was deactivated on July 17, 1945 as part of general demobilization.