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[[File:Rome2Arno1944.jpg|thumb|right|290px|Allied advance from Rome to the Arno, 1944.]]
{{Campaignbox Italy}}

The '''Trasimene Line''' (so-named for [[Lake Trasimeno|Lake Trasimene]], the site of a major battle of the [[Second Punic War]] in 217 BC) was a [[Wehrmacht|German]] defensive line during the [[Italian Campaign (World War II)|Italian Campaign]] of [[World War II]]. It was sometimes known as the '''Albert Line'''. The German [[Commander-in-chief|Commander-in-Chief]] (C-in-C), ''[[Generalfeldmarschall]]'' [[Albert Kesselring]], used the line to delay the [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] northward advance in Italy in mid June 1944 to buy time to withdraw troops to the [[Gothic Line]] and finalise the preparation of its defenses.

==Background==
After the Allied capture of the Italian capital of [[Rome]] on 4 June 1944 following the successful [[Battle of Monte Cassino|breakthrough at Monte Cassino]] and [[Operation Shingle|Anzio]] during [[Operation Diadem]] in May 1944, the German [[14th Army (Wehrmacht)|14th]] and [[10th Army (Wehrmacht)|10th Armies]] fell back: the 14th along the Tyrrhenian front and the 10th through central Italy and the Adriatic coast. The 10th escaped because General [[Mark W. Clark]] ordered [[Lucian Truscott]] to choose ''Operation Turtle'' towards Rome rather than ''Operation Buffalo'' as ordered by [[Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis|Sir Harold R. L. G. Alexander]], which would have cut Route 6 at Valmonte. There was a huge gap between the armies and with the Allies advancing some 10 km per day, the flanks of both armies were exposed and encirclement was threatened.<ref name="Muhm">Muhm, ''German Tactics in the Italian Campaign''</ref>

Two days after Rome fell, General Alexander, [[Commander-in-chief|Commander-in-Chief]] (C-in-C) of the [[Allied Armies in Italy]] (AAI), received orders from his superior, General [[Henry Maitland Wilson|Sir Henry Maitland Wilson]], the [[Supreme Allied Commander|Allied Supreme Commander]] in the [[Mediterranean Theater of Operations]] (MTO), to push the retreating [[German Army (Wehrmacht)|German Army]] {{convert|170|mi}} north to a line running from [[Pisa]] to [[Rimini]] (i.e. the [[Gothic Line]]) as quickly as possible to prevent the establishment of any sort of coherent enemy defense in central Italy.

==Battle==
On [[Lieutenant general (United States)|Lieutenant General]] [[Mark W. Clark]]'s [[United States Army North|U.S. Fifth Army]] front, the [[VI Corps (United States)|U.S. VI Corps]], under [[Major general (United States)|Major General]] [[Lucian Truscott]], was pushed up the coast along highway 1 and [[II Corps (United States)|U.S. II Corps]], under Major General [[Geoffrey Keyes]], along highway 2 towards [[Viterbo]]. To their right the [[XIII Corps (United Kingdom)|XIII Corps]], under [[Lieutenant-general (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant General]] [[Sidney Kirkman]], part of the [[Eighth Army (United Kingdom)|British Eighth Army]] under Lieutenant General [[Oliver Leese|Sir Oliver Leese]], headed up highway 3 towards [[Terni]] and [[Perugia]]<ref>Carver p. 209</ref> whilst [[V Corps (United Kingdom)|V Corps]], under Lieutenant General [[Charles Walter Allfrey]], advanced up the Adriatic coast.

Between 4 June and 16 June, whilst maintaining contact with the advancing Allies, Kesselring executed a remarkable and unorthodox maneuver with his depleted divisions, resulting in his two armies aligning and uniting their wings on the defensive positions on the Trasimene Line.<ref name="Muhm"/> Remarkable though this was, he was probably helped by the confusion caused in the Allied advance by the relieving of the U.S. II and VI Corps (substituted by Major General [[Willis D. Crittenberger]]'s [[IV Corps (United States)|U.S. IV Corps]] and [[Lieutenant general|Lieutenant General]] [[Alphonse Juin]]'s [[French Expeditionary Corps (1943–44)|French Expeditionary Corps]]). The [[X Corps (United Kingdom)|British X Corps]], under Lieutenant General [[Richard McCreery]], had also been brought into the line on XIII Corps' right whilst V Corps had been relieved by the [[II Corps (Poland)|Polish II Corps]], under Lieutenant General [[Władysław Anders]].

By the last week of June the Allies were facing the Trasimene positions. [[Joachim Lemelsen]]'s 14th Army had [[Frido von Senger und Etterlin]]'s [[XIV Panzer Corps]] facing the U.S. IV Corps on the west coast and [[Alfred Schlemm|Alfred von Schlemm]]'s [[I Parachute Corps (Germany)|1st Parachute Corps]] facing the French Expeditionary Corps beside them. On 22 June, a U.S. armored attack near [[Massa Marittima]] was defeated by a German tank platoon under ''Oberfähnrich'' Oskar Röhrig from Heavy Tank Battalion 504. The German [[Tiger I]]'s knocked out 11 [[Sherman tank]]s, while the terrified American tank crews abandoned another 12. The Germans suffered no losses. Röhrig was awarded the [[Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross]] for this action.{{sfn|Schneider|2004|p=197}} Four Shermans were knocked out by two Tigers from [[508th Heavy Panzer Battalion]] on 12 July near [[Collesalvetti]].{{sfn|Schneider|2004|p=198}}

[[Heinrich von Vietinghoff]]'s 10th Army had [[Traugott Herr]]'s [[LXXVI Panzer Corps]] facing XIII and X Corps and [[Valentin Feurstein]]'s [[German LI Mountain Corps|LI Mountain Corps]] facing the Polish II Corps on the Adriatic. The toughest defenses were around the lake itself with XIII Corps' [[78th Infantry Division (United Kingdom)|British 78th Infantry Division]] experiencing fierce fighting on 17 June at [[Città della Pieve]] and 21 June at [[San Fatucchio]]. By 24 June they had worked their way round to the north shore and linked with X Corps' [[4th Infantry Division (India)|4th]] and [[10th Indian Infantry Division]]s as the German defenders withdrew towards [[Arezzo]].<ref>Carver, pp. 216-217</ref> On 8 July, the 2nd Company of the German [[508th Heavy Panzer Battalion]] knocked out four British Shermans near [[Tavarnelle Val di Pesa]] southwest of Florence.{{sfn|Schneider|2004|p=324}}

The U.S. IV Corps also found progress slow but by 1 July had crossed the river [[Cecina (river)|Cecina]] and were within {{convert|20|mi}} of [[Livorno]]. Meanwhile, the French Corps had been held up on the river [[Val d'Orcia|Orcia]] west of Lake Trasimene until the parachutist defenders withdrew on 27 June allowing them to enter [[Siena]] on 3 July.<ref>Carver, p. 217</ref>

==Footnotes==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==References==
* {{cite book | last=Carver| first=Field Marshal Lord|author-link=Michael Carver, Baron Carver| title=The Imperial War Museum Book of the War in Italy 1943-1945| publisher=Sidgwick & Jackson|location=London | year=2001 | isbn=0-330-48230-0}}
*{{cite book| last=Laurie| first=Clayton D.| url=http://www.history.army.mil/brochures/romar/72-20.htm| title=Rome-Arno 1944| publisher=[[United States Army Center of Military History]]| series=U.S. Army Campaigns of WWII| location=Washington| date=3 October 2003| orig-year=1994| id=CMH Pub 72-20| isbn=978-0-16-042085-6| access-date=2 July 2010| archive-date=20 April 2011| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110420065740/http://www.history.army.mil/brochures/romar/72-20.htm| url-status=dead}}
* {{cite web |first=Gerhard |last=Muhm |url=http://www.larchivio.org/xoom/gerhardmuhm2.htm |title=German Tactics in the Italian Campaign |access-date=2007-08-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927070658/http://www.larchivio.org/xoom/gerhardmuhm2.htm |archive-date=2007-09-27 |url-status=dead }}
* {{cite book |last=Schneider |first=W. |title=Tigers in Combat, Vol. 1 |publisher=Stackpole |year=2004 |isbn=978-0811731713 }}

==External links==
*[https://www.irishbrigade.co.uk/brigadier-narratives/irish-brigade-in-italy-by-brigadier-tpd-scott/battles-at-lake-trasimene/attack-on-sanfatucchio/ Battle of Lake Trasimeno. An account of the Irish Brigade attack on Sanfatucchio Ridge on 21-25 June 1944.]

{{coord missing|Italy}}
[[Category:German World War II defensive lines]]
[[Category:World War II sites in Italy]]
[[Category:Italian campaign (World War II)]]
[[Category:World War II operations and battles of the Italian Campaign]]

Trasimene Line - Revision history

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