Allied strategy has been at work in Italy since February 18th in all-out movement to cut off all means of transporting supplies to the Germans on the Anzio and Nettuno Fronts. The Mediterranean Allied Air Forces, using B-29 and B-25 medium bombers, has succeeded in winding an impenetrable noose around central Italy, choking off all German access to reinforcements and supplies. The Air Plan, nicknamed “Operation Strangle”, consisted mainly of (1) smashing marshalling yards in Central Italy in order to shove all marshalling activity north of the Pisa-Rimini Line; (2) Using medium and fighter-bombers to cut bridges south of the Pisa-Rimini line, thus forcing the Hun to use motor transport; (3) hitting the freight-jammed marshalling yards in Northern Italy with heavy bombers; and (4) using light bombers and fighter-bombers to strafe motor transport and road bridges in Central Italy. The plan’s success was obvious when, by March 24, no through rail line led to Rome; the closest approach without trans-shipping was only to within 125 miles of the city. Allied pressure on the besieged German forces reached a climax on May 13 when American tanks smashed into Castelforte, southern anchor of the Gustav Line. At teh same time, Allied troops along the front cracked through the enemy’s outer defenses, capturing nine strategic hills and four towns. The Allies’ intense instruction in precision bombing has served them in good stead in the campaign against German supply facilities. After a Marauder May Day raid on these yards in Florence, German transportation received a taste of precision bombing which it would not soon forget. In the foreground, shattered cars lie on the tracks, smashed almost beyond repair. “Operation Strangle” scored another victory, Italy, May 1944.

Sheet: 8 7/8 x 6 15/16

Wire photographs were originally transmitted over phonelines, then later, by satellite. They were first used in the early 1920s. Associated Press became a leader with this. After pigment touch-ups, etc., the print is put into a drum (like a drum scanner). The image gets converted into audio tones that are transmitted. The tones are received and beamed onto photo-sensitive paper. Wire photographs are copies without originals---they are hybrid, transmitted objects. (Britt Salvesen, Curator and Department Head, Photography Department, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, March 30-31, 2022)

This object has the following keywords:

• Aerial bombardments
• Aerial photography
• Anzio
• B-25s
• B-29s
• European Theater
• Florence
• Germany
• Gustav Line
• Marshaling yards
• Mediterranean Allied Air Forces
• Nettuno
• Operation Strangle
• Pisa-Rimini Line
• Railroads
• Reinforcements
• Rome
• Rubble
• Supply lines
• World War II

• Image Dimensions: 8 1/4 x 6 1/2 in. (20.96 x 16.51 cm)

This object is a member of the following portfolios: