Rapido River
Encyclopedia
The Rapido is a short river (c.40 km) which flows through the Ciociaria
Ciociaria
Ciociaria is the name of a traditional region of Central Italy without a defined border nor historical identity. The name was adopted by a fascist movement of Frosinone as an ethnical denomination for the province of Frosinone, when it was created in 1927....

 in the Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 province of Frosinone
Province of Frosinone
The Province of Frosinone is a province in the Lazio region of Italy, with 91 comuni . Its capital is the city of Frosinone. It has an area of 3,244 km², and a total population of 489,042 .The Province was established by Royal Decree on 6 December 1926 with territories belonging to Lazio...

.

Its source is close to border between Lazio and Molise
Molise
Molise is a region of Southern Italy, the second smallest of the regions. It was formerly part of the region of Abruzzi e Molise and now a separate entity...

 on the slopes of the Mainarde mountains. The river bathes the district of Sant'Elia Fiumerapido
Sant'Elia Fiumerapido
Sant'Elia Fiumerapido is a town and comune in the province of Frosinone, in the Lazio region of central Italy....

 after which it becomes known as the Gari and near Cassino it joins with the Liri
Liri
The Liri is one of the principal rivers of central Italy, flowing into the Tyrrhenian Sea a little below Minturno under the name Garigliano....

 to form the Garigliano.

Fed by numerous karstic springs, the river has a relatively high and reliable discharge
Discharge (hydrology)
In hydrology, discharge is the volume rate of water flow, including any suspended solids , dissolved chemical species and/or biologic material , which is transported through a given cross-sectional area...

: 25 m³/s on average and never dropping below 10 m³/s.

The Gari river (erroneously identified as the Rapido) was the site of a bloodily repulsed and ill-conceived assault by the U.S. 36th Infantry Division
U.S. 36th Infantry Division
-Pre 2 October 1941 Square Organization:*HHC, 36th Infantry Division, TXARNG**36th Military Police Platoon**36th Signal Company**111th Ordnance Company**111th Engineer Regiment , TXARNG**111th Medical Regiment**111th Quartermaster Regiment...

, led by General Walker from January 20–22, 1944 when the Allies were attempting to establish a bridgehead
Bridgehead
A bridgehead is a High Middle Ages military term, which antedating the invention of cannons was in the original meaning expressly a referent term to the military fortification that protects the end of a bridge...

 in the vicinity of the town of Sant' Angelo, to launch attacks on the Gustav Line near Monte Cassino
Battle of Monte Cassino
The Battle of Monte Cassino was a costly series of four battles during World War II, fought by the Allies against Germans and Italians with the intention of breaking through the Winter Line and seizing Rome.In the beginning of 1944, the western half of the Winter Line was being anchored by Germans...

. The assault was opposed by two battalions from the German 15th Panzer Grenadier Division under General-Lieutenant Rudolf Sperl.
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