Kudos from Kesselring

Field Marshal Albert Kesselring--who was certainly in a position to know--gave his officers an estimate of the Allied offensive in Italy. In the scramble for retreat a copy was captured by the Fifth Army.

Wrote the German commander in chief:

P: The Allied offensive was "launched and conducted with absolute coordination. .. . The enemy was prepared and equipped for this attack in the smallest detail."

P: The initial artillery barrage was "of unprecedented intensity."

P: The Allies often penetrated "mountainous terrain which previously had been considered impassable."

P: Air observation aided artillery to the point where "the enemy was able to kill off strong point after strong point."

P: "The performance of enemy tanks and motor vehicles was astoundingly good."

More of Same. There was no evidence last week that Kesselring had any reason to change his opinion of Allied tactics. By now the Germans had lost 32,000 prisoners from 24 different divisions. Two-thirds of Italy was now in Allied hands and the hot, dusty retreat was approaching the "Gothic Line" of prepared defense works.

On the Tyrrhenian coast the shallow port of Piombino was taken; less than a week later Cecina, 25 miles farther north, was captured. Leghorn was only 17 miles beyond. Siena, a medieval jewel, which had been carefully spared Allied artillery fire, fell virtually unharmed to French and Americans.

In the center a German line around Lake Trasimeno was breached and the terraced town of Cortona, ancient headquarters of the Etruscans, was in Allied gun sights. On the Adriatic coast British advances resumed after heavy fighting, reached to within nine miles of the port of Ancona.

Berlin was realistic. It formally announced that Florence, home of the Medici, birthplace of Dante, storehouse of some of the finest art in the world, was an open city. General Sir Harold Alexander, Allied commander in chief, was quietly optimistic. Said he: "I think I can hear the bell ringing for the last lap."

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