Why was it called the Gustav line?

Answer 1

Answer

"Gustav" was a common German name and does not refer to any specific person. For example, the G Model of the Messerschmidt Bf-109 was called the "Gustav"; the E Model was the "Emil".

The defense lines were given names that were typical German. The GUSTAV Line was the main defense line for the approach to Cassino. It crossed the peninsula at its narrowest and most mountainous region. It ran along the mountains on the right bank of the Minturno-Garigliano-Rapido Rivers, the Aurunci Mountains, Mount Cairo, Le Mainarde and along the Sangro river to the outlet at the Adriatic Sea.

This defense line had a couple of "branches" or fall-back positions with their own names: DORA Line and HITLER Line.

There were many defensive lines established in Italy. Some were simple natural barriers such as rivers that were defended by machine guns and others were elaborate defensive strutures that took months to build. Here is a list of the defense lines in Italy----name from SOUTH to NORTH as the Allies would have contacted them during their advance:

'O' Line - crossed Italy starting at Salerno

Viktor Line

Barabara Line

Advanced Sangro Line

Bernhardt Line that included Gustav, Dora and Hitler Lines

Foro Line

Caesar Line

Dora Line

Line E

Albert Line & Anton Line

Olga & Lydia & Paula Lines -- short defensive positions south of Arno.

Heinrich Line & Georg Line (Allies called the Arno Line)

Green I Line -- aka GOTHIC Line

Green II Line

Defensive Positions on Adriatic Coast,

These were along natural river positions and were succeeding fall-back positions.

Rimini Line

Erika Line

Gudrun Line

Augsberger Line

Irmgard Line

Genghis Khan Line

Venetian Line

and a couple of more un-named positions.

The Po River acted as a defensive position as it was a wide river and most of the bridges were destroyed. This book does not list it as a defensive position.

Defensive Positions in Sicily

Hauptkampflinie

Etna Line - at Mount Etna volcano

New Hube Line

When the Allies began attacking the HITLER Line, Hitler ordered that the name be changed. He didn't want the negative publicity that his defensive position was captured. I thought it was renamed the Green Line and the Green I Line, above, was actually known as the GOTHIC Line.

If you are interested in learning more of these defensive positions, the small Osprey booklet describes these in detail. It describes the weapons used in these positions form the buried tank turrent, the 88-cannon, the Nebel-werfer, and the MG Panzernest. The Panzernest was a small 2-man concrete machine gun bunker that was rolled into position on wheels and flipped over into a pit and buried.

Source: Osprey booklet "German Defences in Italy in WW2"by Neil Short.