World Battlefronts: BATTLE OF ITALY: Rout

The Germans in Italy gave up all pretense of holding a continuous front. Along the last few roads open to the north they scuttled back in the worst rout of a German army on a western front since Tunisia. Allied forces raced up the peninsula after them, making up to 25 miles a day in near-bloodless pursuit. Town after town in Umbria, ancient land of the little-known Etruscans, fell virtually unharmed.

Occasionally the enemy turned, like a harried animal, to snap at his pursuers. On lateral Highway 74, from the Tyrrhenian coast to Lake Bolsena, the Germans held a line...

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