Our next talk will be Operation Olive – Cracking the Gothic Line, Sept 1944. It will be presented on Tuesday, November 3, at 2pm.
Patrick Mercer will look at an operation that the Allies launched, hoping it would be the dagger in the heart of German resistance in northern Italy – the assault on the Gothic Line.
The US 5th Army would attack in the Apennines in the west while the British 8th Army would assault along the coastal plains in the east: it would be codenamed Operation Olive.
He will show how over-reaching ambition paired with tactical blindness caused 1st Armoured Division to be wrecked against steely German resistance.
Using first-hand accounts and detailed knowledge of the ground and those who fought there, he will unfold a story about which little has been heard before.
In addition to Patrick’s Zoom talk, we have organised an online quiz on The Italian Campaign in the Second World War. There are no prizes, it’s just for fun and is available on our website.
Places for the talk need to be booked. We will send out an email with joining instructions on the day.
The Zoom talk will open at 1.50pm and there will be time for questions afterwards. The duration of the meeting will be about an hour.
For those of you that are new to Zoom, contact us by emailing zoom@bmmhs.org and include your phone number. We will endeavour to help you – please allow at least two days before the talk.
Like many other organisations, the BMMHS can only survive in these difficult times with income from talks and donations to cover the costs of speakers, insurances, licence fees, the website etc as well as our continued contributions to military-related charities.
Therefore we are asking for a donation from everyone who attends the Zoom talks. This is £5 per talk, £20 for five talks and £40 for 10 talks.
Further details on BMMHS Zoom talks and the new Events Schedule for 2021 may be found on www.bmmhs.org/bmmhs-zoom-talks
