Word: arno
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...they had been at El Alamein, Mareth, Enfidaville and Italy's Gustaf Line, the Germans were entrenched again. Now it was the Gothic Line, a complex of concrete pillboxes behind a maze of mine fields and barbed wire entanglements north of Italy's Arno River. Manning the positions were twelve divisions of stubborn Huns commanded by able Field Marshal Albert Kesselring. Their orders: to hold until the last day of summer...
...Paris had lost its Ile Saint-Louis and Place des Vosges, or Vienna its Hofburg and its Opera House on the Ringstrasse. For the mellow buildings near the Ponte Vecchio, on either side of the Arno, formed one of the most cherished views in the world. Most of that crowded, encrusted skyline is now gone. "Palace after palace, dating from the 14th to the 16th Century, are heaps of rubble. In the wreckage lie such things as the ancient manuscripts, books and art objects of the Societa Colombaria. . . ."* Total or heavy destruction included...
Field Marshal Albert Kesselring had been pushed back to the Arno virtually throughout its length. But at many points he had not been pushed beyond the river -an important distinction. Eighth Army positions were open to harassing mortar and artillery fire from isolated German pockets on the south bank and from the high ground of the Prato Magno in the great bend of the Arno, southeast of Florence. If the situation was bad for Kesselring, it was also uncomfortable for General Sir Harold Alexander...
...Allied Commander General Sir Harold R. L. G. Alexander might regroup, force the Arno as he did the Rapido. There would still lie ahead the mountains and pillboxes of the Gothic Line...
...masterly sculptures, including Michelangelo's celebrated marble David, Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise bronze doors to the Baptistery, the Bargello collection of pieces by Michelangelo, Donatello, Luca della Robbia, Benvenuto Cellini. However, while the retreating Germans had destroyed five of the six bridges over the Arno, they had left the oldest and most valued of all, the legendary Ponte Vecchio (see cut). Built in 1345, its roofed street was a promenade for Dante, Galileo and Leonardo da Vinci; in modern times, jewelry shops have succeeded its Renaissance goldsmiths. Over the bridge runs a covered passageway connecting the Uffizi...