Word: breakthrough
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...western front, where Allied spearheads had pierced the fatherland, the Germans fought in fierce gusts of frenzy, and with high military skill. The U.S. First Army held the spotlight on this front, as it widened and deepened its salient north of Aachen. The aim was for a breakthrough that would sweep the Germans back to the Rhine-but the pace was grinding and generally slow. For the time, at least, it was a painful battle of attrition. At several points west of the Rhine, the German counterattacks forced the Allies to back up, to grope for new footing...
...heartening days after the breakthrough at Saint-LÔat the breaking of the Siegfried Line might not be too hard a task. But experienced generals like leathery Courtney Hodges knew differently. By now even the lowliest of his slugging G.I.s, up against the enemy among his earthworks, his forests, his staggered rows of pillbox forts, knew that the job was probably one of the toughest since Dday...
...Fifth Army advance been slowed down to the same grudging ad vance of hill to hill - when a breakthrough of the Gothic Line has definitely been claimed? That is the question being heard from armchair strategists and also from front-line fighters who could not help but be amazed when they read: Fifth Army Cracks Gothic Line Defenses." Rivers & Rain. While the controversy stirred the rear, G.Ls in the front struggled patiently with the tenacious Ger mans. The Americans fell back before a counterattack, riposted to regain lost ground and more. By week's end, Raticosa Pass was captured...
...pick of Rommel's armor, guns and troops in front of them. Even after the capture of Caen, they were held down and unmercifully pounded by German 88s. Grimly they hung on, giving U.S. Lieut. General Omar Bradley time to take Cherbourg. Grimly, after the surprise U.S. breakthrough at Saint-Lô, they pushed down and held the north arm of the Falaise-Argentan pincer. Only when that was done could the Canadians themselves wheel and cross the Seine...
Although the Fifth Army's western push was no sideshow, its future lay in the deep valleys and high peaks of the Apennines. For the Eighth, the future was brighter; the breakthrough would not be complete until Rimini was passed, but beyond that was no natural defensive feature to help the Germans. Beyond, there was nothing but the plain of the Po, with its great industrial cities whose population could be counted on to give the Allies more help than they had received in any other section of Italy...