Plaque commemorating the liberation of Arezzo by the 16th/5th Lancers.

http://www.ilpero.com/new.asp?n=11

During a previous trip to Arezzo, we came across a plaque commemorating the liberation of the town by the British armoured regiment 16^th/5^th Lancers of the 6^th Armoured Division, part of the British 8^th Army. Having an interest in military history, I did a little research

After defeating German and Italian forces in North Africa earlier in the year, British and US forces landed in Sicily in July 1943. By August, Sicily was liberated and Italy surrendered suddenly making Germany the occupying power. Allied forces made rapid progress until Winter when they were held at a series of German defensive positions constructed to stretch across the width of Italy, the most famous called the Gustav Line south of Rome pivoting through Monte Cassino, a historically important mountain monastery, which was on the strategically important Route 6 North-South highway.

Infamously, after months of stalemate, Monte Cassino was bombed flat by the Allies as it was deemed to be being used as an observation position enabling the Germans to direct accurate fire on Allied positions, but fortunately not before the Nazis had ‘liberated’ thousands of religious artefacts.

Italy is an inhospitable country for modern warfare as it is very mountainous and hilly and gave the German forces every advantage to hold back the Allies. At the same time, the Italian campaign was really a sideshow for the Allies as they prepared for an invasion of France scheduled for the Summer of 1944. So, while German troops were sucked out from France and Russia to defend against the liberating forces, the Allies shipped experienced men out of Italy in preparation of the Normandy Landings, weakening their forces in Italy. Nevertheless, in June 1944, the allies broke through and pushed the German forces back to their next defensive line beyond Rome, the Gothic Line, where they held the Allies until the Spring of 1945.

Before falling back to the Gothic Line, the German forces made an ultimately futile stand at Arezzo against 6^th Armoured Division in 15-16^th July 1944. British losses were severe and, as is customary, soldiers are buried where they fall and not transported back to Britain, so it was decided to create a military cemetery outside of Arezzo for casualties of this battle and action around the area before and after, which is now administered by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

I have visited a similar cemetery in Hong Kong and in common with this cemetery, whilst it is sad to see so many graves of so many young men, who died when mainly only aged between 18 and 25 years old, it is true to say that the design, the tranquillity, and the care that is taken to maintain these spaces is commendable.

There are 1267 graves, of which nearly 800 are British and nearly 400 from the Indian Army, many of whom were from the Gurkha regiments. There are also 37 unknown soldiers.

The pictures speak for themselves. (click on photo for full aspect and larger size)