Evening star., 1943-10-22
The Long Road to Rome


songs of the last war was: "It's a
long, long way to Tipperary!" Per-
haps this soldier ditty might be
applied to the Allied advance up
the Italian peninsula with Rome
as its first major objective. Unless
some unheralded development radi-
cally changes the strategic picture,
it looks as though much time and
blood must be spent before the
Eternal City is in Allied hands.
The Allies are having tough going
in their Italian campaign, and the
prospects are that it will get tougher
still, Their advance has brought
them to the narrowest part of the
Italian peninsula. Some seven crack
German divisions are defending
front of barely IS miles from sea to
sea. This narrow point OF the
peninsula is tangled mass of hills
and mountains with virtually no
coastal plain on either side, and
with series of short rivers cascad-
ing from the mountains and swollen
just now by heavy autumn rains
On the Tyrrhenian Sea side, General
Clarke's Fifth Army has been held
up for nearly fortnight by the
VolUurnO River. That water barrier
has at length been crossed, with
heavy losses, but an even more
formidable barrier awaits them at
the Garigliano River, some twenty
miles to the northward, with a
backing of coastal heights further
to aid the German defense.
On the Adriatic coast the British
Eighth Army has reached the end
of the Apulian coastal loWlands and
is confronted with similar terrain.
Perhaps the hardest going of all is
in the intervening mountains. One
highroad does traverse the heart of
this rugged region, about midway
up the peninsula, but it winds
through narrow valleys dominated
by craggy heights which must be
wrested from the Germans before
each section Of the highway can be
used by the Allies.
From the Fifth Army's present
front just north of the Volturno it
is still nearly 100 miles to Rome. The
first 40 miles should be the hardest,
over mountainous terrain right to
the seaboard. After that our troops
will emerge into the Campagna, a
wide coastal plain which merges
into the broad valley of the lower
Tiber and leads to Rome itself.
There is parallel inland highway,
the Via Casalina, which threads the
valleys lying between the coastal
mountains and the main inland Ap-
ennlne range. though this is mostly
dominated by heights which must
be taken piecemeal. Both the coastal
and Casaline routes should logically
be followed simultaneously to pre-
vent German f1anking operations on
Allied communication lines. The
British Eighth Army moving up the
Adrlatic coast and along the eastern
slopes of the Apennines has no one
strategic objective, because there
are no important towns or harbors
on that side of the peninsula short
Of the Pc Valley far to the north
ward. The Eighth Army's job will
be chiefly to keep pace with the
Fifth Army and maintain a reason
ably straight transpeninsular front.
The one factor which could ap-
parently hasten this slow north
ward advance against a stubborn
and skillful German defense would
be major "leapfrog" tactic which
could land large Allied force up
the coast at some point we'll behind
the German front. This would pre-
Sumably be on the western or
Tyrrhenian side of the peninsula,
where the Allies not only command
the sea but also the air since their
conquests of Corsica and Sardinia
which give them nearby air bases
for fighter as we'll as bombing
planes. The German high command
is doubtless we'll aware of this
potential threat and has presumably
taken all possible steps to oppose it.