Operation STRANGLE - Italy

Operation STRANGLE, from 19 March to 11 May 1944, was an independent air operation designed to force the withdrawal of the German armies from central Italy by denying them supply of all essential materiel. Air interdiction operations, south of a line from Pisa to Rimini, were flown by the United States of America's Fifteenth Air Force and Twelfth Air Force. Coastal shipping, marshaling yards, trains, road and rail bridges, and military logistic transport were all targeted and attacked.

The Mediterranean Allied Air Forces (M.A.A.F.) believed that the effects of STRANGLE would make the ground offensive unnecessary or turn it into a pursuit of the retreating German armies. This strategic aim to force a German withdrawal from the Gustav Line did not succeed but the interdiction operations did add difficulties to the German conduct of defensive operations and thereby contributed greatly to the success of Operation DIADEM when 38 (Irish) Brigade would attack the German's Gustav Line.

Lord Trenchard has said that all land battles are confusion and muddle, and the job of the Air is to accentuate that confusion and muddle in the enemy's Army to a point when it gets beyond the capacity of anyone to control. This is exactly what the Air did to the German Army in Italy during the critical last days of May and first days of June.
(Extract form a report by Air Marshal Sir Jack Slessor RAF, Commander-in-Chief RAF Mediterranean and Middle East).