page_title: 6th Armoured Division (South Africa)
section_title: Gothic Line battles
hierarchical_section_title: 6th Armoured Division (South Africa) / Italy: Fifth Army / Gothic Line battles
caption_attribution_description: English: Rhodesian elements of 11th Armoured Brigade on Monte Vigese. 1944
context_page_description: The 6th South African Armoured Division was the second armoured division of the South African Army and was formed during World War II. Established in early 1943, it was based on a nucleus of men from the former 1st South African Infantry Division who had returned to South Africa after the Second Battle of El Alamein in late 1942. The division was initially transferred to Egypt for training, after which it served in the Allied campaign in Italy during 1944 and 1945. In Italy, the division was initially deployed as part of the British Eighth Army, under command of Lieutenant-General Oliver Leese, and was then transferred to the U.S. Fifth Army, under Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark, for the remainder of the Italian Campaign. The division operated as a strongly reinforced division and was frequently used to spearhead the advance of the Corps and Army to which it was attached. They returned home after the end of the war in Italy and were disbanded in 1946. The division was also briefly active after the war from 1 July 1948 to 1 November 1949.
context_section_description: The South African advance re-commenced with the division heading north on Route 64 with US II Corps to their right and U.S. 34th Infantry Division on the left.  Reports had been received that the 16th SS Panzer Grenadier Division had taken over from the German 362nd Infantry Division and that they were now defending the front ahead of the South African Division.  By 28 September, the division was advancing on three widely separated axis, retreating German forces were demolishing bridges, culverts and roads and this, with traffic congestion on limited roads made passage extremely slow.  It was then decided to hand over Route 66 to Task Force 92, as the South African Engineers were not able to maintain the three parallel routes simultaneously.  This permitted the Guards Brigade to re-unite with the 11th Armd Bde in protecting the US II Corps western flank.  Monte Vigese dominated the division's main line of advance. Two days of extended fighting in drenching rain against elements of the 36th SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment brought no break through and Poole then decided to pause and prepare a divisional attack on the mountain, to be led by 12th Mot Bde with 11th Armd and Guards Brigades in support. After an extremely heavy artillery bombardment of more than 10,000 shells, the attack succeeded.
  After this battle, the division was withdrawn for rest and maintenance. It was reassigned from U.S. IV Corps to direct command by the U.S. Fifth Army to enable the Army commander, Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark, to coordinate the division's advance more closely with that of U.S. II Corps.  In addition, the division was heavily reinforced with artillery and taking Combat Command B, an armoured brigade from U.S. 1st Armored Division, under command. The division's major task became that of thrusting north towards Bologna covering the flank of the U.S. 34th Division. Combat Command B was to advance on Route 64, the 24th Guards Brigade along the Setta Valley road, with 11th and 12th Bdes covering the high ground between the two.  Opposing the advance was the 16th SS Panzer Grenadier Division. By 25 October the division had waded the Setta Creek and taken Hill 501 below Mt. Sole, but the Guards Bde attack on Mt. Sole was halted by torrential rains.  The following day the continuing rains had turned to floods, isolating the division elements on Hill 501 and suspending all air support from U.S. XXII Tactical Air Command.  Mt. Sole was not attacked again and the division was returned to U.S. IV Corps command on 4 November.  As winter set in, the U.S. Fifth Army entered a period of static winter campaigning patrolling from fixed defensive positions until February 1945.
caption: Rhodesian elements of 11th Armoured Brigade on Monte Vigese. September 1944
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "400", "Image YResolution": "400", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "GIMP 2.6.11", "Image DateTime": "2010:10:15 23:41:58", "Image ExifOffset": "146", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "282", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "11655", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1902", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1808"}