The Rapido River was the last natural barrier between General Mark W. Clark's Fifth U.S. Army and Rome. Ignoring intelligence reports that the Germans had significant forces protecting the opposite side of the river, Clark ordered the 36th Division to make a nighttime crossing on January 20,1944. The division, already coming through some of the heaviest fighting in Italy, knew they could not succeed. Soldiers died by the hundreds: of the 4,000 men who attempted the crossing, more than half did not return.

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