AN ACCOUNT OF THE OPERATIONS 12th BRITISH INFANTRY BRIGADE IN ITALY March November 1944

During the Second World War, except for a few brief periods of detachment, the brigade formed part of the 4th Infantry Division, as in the First World War. It was part of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and took part in the Battle of France and the subsequent Dunkirk evacuation in May-June 1940.The brigade remained in the United Kingdom for the next two years, preparing and training to repel Operation Sea Lion, the German invasion of England, although that never arrived. It moved to North Africa in February 1943 to participate in the Tunisian Campaign's later stages, where it saw action at the Battle of Oved Zara, the Battle of Medjez Plain and the Battle of Tunis. This accurate account covers the the Italian Campaign, from moving to Naples in February 1944 action against German Army Group C at the Fourth Battle of Monte Cassino (Operation Diadem). By October 1944, the 4th Division was taking part in the British Eighth Army's battle on the Gothic Line, the German and Italian defensive line that formed Field Marshal Albert Kesselring's last major line of defence along the summits of the northern part of the Apennine Mountains. Withdrawing in November to spend the rest of the war in Greece, as part of the Allied force tasked to prevent civil unrest as rival factions attempted to fill the political vacuum when the Germans withdrew from the country.