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(8) Apennine highlands

Alexander and his army commanders began detailed preparations for an offensive through the heart of the Apennine mountain range on the Florence-Bologna axis. in 1944 the roads followed narrow valleys before climbing to high mountain passes. To succeed in such a venture, the full weight of the 5th and 8th armies was required to push forward on all possible routes with enough divisions in reserve to exploit success. The great advantage of this plan was that a breakthrough here would force a retreat or create conditions for an encirclement of German troops on the coastal flanks. The weakness was the growing distrust and animosity between Clark and Leese which made co-operation between their armies increasingly difficult.