Ebook: At war on the Gothic Line: fighting in Italy, 1944-45

List of Maps -- Preface: Attacking Germans in Defensive Positions: "a most unpleasant and hazardous operation" -- Part One: Introduction -- The Road to the Gothic Line -- Beware of the Rabbit -- The Torturers of Via Tasso -- Part Two: Before the Line -- Italy: A Country Made for Defensive Warfare -- Nisei Soldiers and the Battle for Belvedere -- Indians on the Road to Florence -- Blood and Honor: Partisans and the SS on the Road North -- Best-Laid Plans: The SOE and OSS in Northern Italy -- Part Three: On the Line -- Dug-In Defense: The German Plan -- The Complexities of Command: Lieutenant General Leese and Operation Olive -- A Multinational Assault: Ten Armies on the Gothic Line -- With Infantry and Tanks: The Canadians on the Foglia River -- Green Devils on the Adriatic: The German Defense and the Fall of Rimini -- Mules, Bulldozers, and Bailey Bridges: The Indians on the Apennines -- Alienating the Italian Population: The Massacre at Marzabotto -- Fighting German Artillery and Jim Crow: The Buffalo Soldiers in Tuscany -- At the Point of the Line: The Attack on Seravezza -- Part Four: Behind the Line -- Behind the Enemy Lines: The SOE and OSS Missions in the North -- Regular and Irregular Forces: The Fall of Ravenna -- Christmas in the Serchio Valley -- East Wind: The Different Flavors of Communism -- Part Five: After the Line -- The Secret Surrender: Operation Sunrise -- The Last Battles: Colle Musatello and Chioggia -- The Last Day of Battle: Surrender in Italy and Operation Unthinkable -- Justice for the Germans -- Epilogue: What Became of the Characters in the Book? -- Acknowledgments -- Endnotes -- Index.;In the autumn of 1944, as Patton's army paraded through Paris, another Allied force was gathering in southern Italy. Spearheaded by over 100,000 American troops, this vast, international army was faced with a grim task{u2015}break The Gothic Line, a series of interconnected German fortifications that stretched across the mountains of northern Italy. Striving to reach Europe's vulnerable underbelly before the Red Army, these Allied soldiers fought uphill against entrenched enemies in some of the final and most brutal battles of the Second World War.