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German prepared defensive lines south of Rome

The Bernhardt Line (or Reinhard Line) was a German defensive line in Italy during World War II. Unlike most of the other defensive lines it did not run all the way across Italy, but was merely a bulge in the Gustav Line in the area of Monte Cassino and Monte Camino, a massif enclosing the mountains of Monte Camino, Monte la Defensa, Monte la Remetanea and Monte Maggiore, in the territory of Rocca d'Evandro. However, in the bibliography the defenses of the Gustav Line on the Adriatic are often referred to as the Bernhardt Line. The Bernhardt line was not as strong as the Gustav Line, and was intended only to delay the Allies' arrival at the Gustav Line.

At the Adriatic end of the line British 8th Army attacked the Gustav / Bernhardt Line on November 28 1943 and were across the river Sangro in strength within a few days. However, conditions were foul and fighting fierce so that by the end of the year advances totalling only 18 miles had been made and 6,500 casualties suffered^[1]. The US Fifth Army on the opposite coast made some early attacks the Bernhardt Line on 5 November 1943 but its main offensives began at the beginning of December. It took the U.S. 5th Army until mid January 1944 to fight their way to the next line of defenses, the Gustav Line. The line was defended by XIV Panzer Corps, part of the German Tenth Army. Details on the fighting on the Bernhardt Line may be found by following the Winter Line and San Pietro links.

• Col. Kenneth V. Smith (1944). CMH Online bookshelves: WWII Campaigns, Naples-Foggia 9 September 1943-21 January 1944. Washington: US Army Center of Military History. CMH Pub 72-17. 
• Gerhard Muhm : German Tactics in the Italian Campaign , http://www.larchivio.org/xoom/gerhardmuhm2.htm
• Gerhard Muhm : La Tattica tedesca nella Campagna d'Italia, in Linea Gotica avanposto dei Balcani, (Hrsg.) Amedeo Montemaggi - Edizioni Civitas, Roma 1993
• LLoyd Clark (2006). Anzio: The Friction of War. Italy and the Battle for Rome 1944. Headline Publishing Group, London. ISBN 978 0 7553 1420 1. 

• Allied invasion of Italy
• Battle of San Pietro Infine
• Gustav Line
• US Fifth Army
• Barbara Line
• US 36th Infantry Division

• Map of the German defensive lines