At the beginning of 1944, Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, commander of the German forces in Italy, could look back on the last four months of operations with some satisfaction. He had managed to slow down and even halt the advance of the Allies who
had landed on September 9, 1943; German troops held the Italian boot firmly from coast to coast and barred Rome to the 5th and 8th Allied Armies. The recent fall campaign had only been a curtain raiser. The real battle was yet to come, and it would take place on the ground he himself had chosen:on the previously reconnoitred and heavily fortified positions of the "Gustav Line" which dominated the Liri valley, leading directly to Rome. with Monte Cassino key to defense.
Since the Allies had landed in Sicily, no German unit had seen combat both as hard and as victorious as the 1st Div. Para of Major General Richard Heidrich. From Sicily to the "Gustav Line", Heidrich's men had illustrated the inherent paradox of the airborne that, although willing for battle, their best qualities were shown more in the defensive than in the attack. /P>
In 1943 Heidrich's paratroopers, at least those who had survived the terrible battles of Crete and Russia, were certainly among the world's best experts in the art of staying alive in order to continue to fight while inflicting maximum losses on the enemy, yielding the minimum of ground and generally counterbalancing the enemy's numerical and material superiority.