A photograph taken in 2022 near the 2/5 Leicesters start line for Operaon OLIVE, it
highlights the diculty of ghng in this terrain.
On August 28
th
the Allied armies began their advance, Bill and the Leicesters were
inland of the Adriac coast, ghng among the hills and river valleys. The landscape was a
defender’s paradise, every movement would have been observed by the enemy on the high
ground. The men would have to ght their way across rivers, then up the slopes to drive the
Germans back. And when they reached the top of one hill, all that greeted them was
another river valley with another hill defended by a tenacious enemy.
Aer three weeks of ghng, the Leicesters had lost nearly a third of their men
either killed, wounded or captured. By this me they were near San Marino and were given
a couple of days to rest, to the east the bale of Rimini was in full swing and leading
elements of 8
th
Army had taken the ground to the south of the Marecchia river which ows
west out of the city. The 2/5 Leicesters and 5
th
baalion of the Sherwood Foresters were
tasked with crossing the river and taking the high ground beyond, the Foresters would be on
the le, their objecve the village of Poggio Berni. The Leicesters were to cross the river and
take the last spur of high ground before the coast, upon which stood the Palazzo Marcosan,
a 14
th
-century castle that looked out across the Marecchia plain all the way to the coast.
L i f e s t o r y P 4