ROME FALLS
| Fieldmarshal Kesselring's Tenth and Fourteenth
Armies had been whipped on the southern approaches to Rome. To defend the city itself
would have been anti-climactic. And so, when the Germans pulled out of the Italian
capital, it was not only in the interests of the Pope and the survival of time-worn Roman
monuments, but more for the establishment of a hurried defense line to the north. The Eternal City burst forth in a blaze of glory Sunday,
June 5, 1944, just one day before another mighty army sailed against Normandy. Groggy
infantrymen, uplifted by the cheers of the hysterical Roman mob, marched in from the Alban
Hills, or rode tanks like ancient gladiators on chariots, past the Coliseum and the Forum
and on down the Corso Umberto.
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Weary infantrymen, riding tank destroyers, surge into the eternal
city past the ancient coliseum. |
This photograph, taken from captured enemy film, shows the German
garrison pulling out of Rome.
Afternoon of June 4, 36th Division men fought their way into the
suburbs, Sherman tank, in center, has just fired. |
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GERMANS MOVE
OUT, ALLIES IN
During the night Division troops mounted armor and
trucks, formed in a column and moved boldly through the silent, moonlit streets through
the heart of the city. At daybreak, the Tiber was crossed and the column headed out past
the Vatican into the open country to the north. Germans were in waiting five miles beyond.
While Rome cheered its liberation from dawn till dark of June 5th, 142nd infantrymen
fought to reduce the strong German delaying effort outside Rome. Wide-eyed veterans poured
through the prized objective all day. The enemy was on the run.
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ROMANS
REJOICE
If Rome was still bound by Fascist ties on June 5,
hurriedly those ties were tossed into the Tiber River. For on that day the Romans were a
mob, exultant and passionate, humble and reverently thankful.
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Crowd gathers in Piazza Venezia where stands Italy's ostentatious
monument to King Victor Emmanuel.
They laughed and cried, several generations of Italian citizenry
register approval of the American entry. |
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Bridge intact! Long convoys of troop transports cross the Tiber
River in pursuit of the fleeing Germans. |
| Some of the troops marched into Rome, others rode jeeps,
half-tracks and tanks. The crowd cheers. |
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