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April 9th dawned fine and warm by the banks of the Senio with the ground hard underfoot and a cloudless sky. It was ideal weather for the air forces to begin that process ominously known as “softening up”.

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The morning passed in comparative peace except at each headquarters, where telephones rang incessantly and paper continued to pour from the machinery of planning and fall into every lap “for action” or “for information”; liaison officers came and went and generally came again: on the river bank, it was unusually quiet.

At 1350 hours, the first rumblings of attack began with medium and heavy bombers passing overhead on their way to drop a “carpet” of small fragmentation bombs in the enemy’s rear areas. Ten minutes later, the first “cabrank” appeared; Spitfires circling high up in the sky, ready to pounce on targets chosen by the ground forces.

At 1520 hours, the overture began in earnest; first guns and mortars, then the air, then guns again, then both; there was no mistaking this, the prelude of the assault.

The bombardment was planned and carried out in five phases. Each phase opened with an intense gun attack, employing every available gun and mortar on the Corps front. Then followed a ten minute period during which the guns were silent and fighter bombers strafed the river banks with cannon. Next, the aircraft switched to the area behind the river and attacked with bombs, while the guns and mortars also lifted from the floodbank and laid down concentrations beyond it.

This cycle of destruction revolved five times between 1520 and 1920 hours, the time planned for the ground assault, this time known as ‘H’.

The artillery and mortar bombardment for the fifth phase of the attack ended at 1920 hours precisely; the fighter bombers came down to strafe the river bank; but the attack was a feint. As the aircraft swooped, ‘Wasp’ and ‘Crocodile’ flamethrowers all along the river bank opened their jets and the enemy’s posts were subjected to intense saturation of flame on an unprecedented scale. This was the climax of the “preparation”.

At ‘H’, the leading infantry assaulted across the river and the opening barrage began.

For two hours, the fog of war lay thickly over the front and conflicting news confounded efforts to paint a military picture with china graph on talc. By 2115 hours, however it was clear that substantial bridgeheads had been gained in the initial assault and progress seemed, on the whole, to be good.

During the night, and all next day, the Indians on the right and the New Zealanders on the left continued to make steady and substantial progress. By dawn on April 11th, they were approaching the second major obstacle in the way of the advance – the Santerno river. By nightfall on the same date, the Santerno had been crossed and each of the two leading divisions had a foothold on the far bank. The work of 78th Division was about to begin.

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