Development of Situation in Northern Italy. Note by the Sec.

the Pisa Rimini line, the Allies are struggling up a bottleneck without opportunity to manoeuvre their numerically superior forces. We believe, therefore, that before the Germans allow themselves to be forced back to and beyond the Pisa Rimini line much hard fighting will have taken place, and that the Germans will have yielded no good defensible territory except under strong Allied pressure. The fact that the Germans are moving two more divisions southwards to seal off our bridgehead at Nettuno shows the importance they attach to holding Rome and delaying action in Central Italy.