Ancona Railyard

The port of Ancona was selected as the next, best means with which to extend Allied supply lines during the advance into Northern Italy. With forces and equipment reallocated to support the invasion of Normandy in June 1944, maintaining a secure logistics chain became critical to keep momentum. When Polish forces arrived to liberate the city and its port, it was almost entirely abandoned of civilians; heavy bombing since 1943 had kept the port in a constant state of disrepair, denying Axis forces the means to maintain their fleets, but also forced over 30,000 people into homelessness.