Battle of Garfagnana

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The Battle of Garfagnana (Italian: Battaglia della Garfagnana), known to the Germans as Operation Winter Storm (Unternehmen Wintergewitter) and nicknamed the "Christmas Offensive" (Italian: Offensiva di Natale), was a successful Axis offensive against American forces on the western sector of the Gothic Line during World War II. It took place in December 1944 in the north Tuscan Apennines, near Massa and Lucca. In late December 1944 the German 14th Army under General Kurt von Tippelskirch, using a mixed Italian-German force of some eight infantry battalions, launched a limited objectives attack on the left wing of the U.S. Fifth Army in the Serchio valley in front of Lucca to pin units there which might otherwise be switched to the central front. Anticipating some operation of this sort, the Allies had ordered two brigades from Indian 8th Infantry Division to be rapidly switched across the Apennines to reinforce the US 92nd Infantry Division. By the time they arrived, the Germans and Italians...

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