Operation Encore

Operatoin Encore
Date	18 February-5 March 1945 (15 days)
Location	Northern Italy
Belligerents
United States; Brazil;	Germany
Commanders and leaders
Major General George Price Hays	General Eccard Freiherr von Gablenz
Units involved
10th Mountain Division; Brazilian Expeditionary Force;	232nd Infantry Division; 114th Jäger Division;
Casualties and losses
US: 1580 casualties, 338 killed; Brazilian: 25 killed, 169 wounded	Over 200 killed,; 400+ taken prisoner

Operation Encore was the Allied offensive timed for February—March 1945, to break through the Gothic Line. This was initiated at the army instead of corps level. This comprised an assault of the 10th Mountain Division and the Brazilian Expeditionary Force to secure the high ground dominating Strada statale 64 Porrettana [it] where it crossed the Apennine Mountains (18 February—25 February 1945),^[1] followed by a limited offensive that ended with the capture of the crossroads at Castel d'Aiano (3 March—5 March 1945)^[2] Once these objectives were achieved, the Fifth Army could penetrate the northern Apennines to reach the Po valley as part of the Spring 1945 offensive in Italy.

^ Ernest F. Fisher Jr., The Mediterranean Theater of Operations: Cassino to the Alps (Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, 1977), p. 425f
^ Isserman, Maurice (2019), The Winter Army: The World War II Odyssey of the 10th Mountain Division, America's Elite Alpine Warriors, New York: HarperCollins, ISBN 978-0-358-41424-7, pp. 185-193