Operation Herring: Italian Campaign (World War II), Gothic Line, Po (river), Apennine Mountains, Northern Italy, Paratrooper, Richard McCreery

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Operation Herring (Herring 1) was the last World War II airborne combat drop in Europe. The April 1945 Allied offensive on the Italian front, which was to end the Italian campaign and the war in Italy, was to decisively break through the German Gothic Line, the defensive line along the Apennines and the River Po plain to the Adriatic Sea and swiftly drive north to occupy Northern Italy and get to the Austrian and Yugoslav borders as quickly as possible. However, German strongpoints, as well as bridge, road, levee and dike blasting, and any occasional determined resistance in the Po Valley plain might slow the planned sweep down. Allied planners felt that dropping paratroops onto some key areas and locales south of the River Po could help wreak havoc in the German rear area, attack German communications and vehicle columns, further disrupting the German retreat, and prevent German engineers from blowing up key structures before Allied spearheads could exploit them.