September Allfrey's V Corps HQ landed, taking the 1st Airborne Division, Major General Dudley Russell's 8th Indian Infantry Division and the 78th Division, along with Brigadier John Currie's 4th Armoured Brigade, under command, and made quick progress in Italy, capturing the Foggia Airfield Complex on 27 September. After facing resistance on the River Biferno, which was outflanked by British Commandos (see Operation Devon), V Corps, now minus the 1st Airborne Division, found itself on the River Sangro by 9 November. The fighting over the next few weeks involved both the 8th Indian and British 78th Divisions. With the onset of severe winter weather and indomitable German resistance, the fighting involved some of the bitterest encountered by the Allies thus far in the Italian campaign and casualties were very heavy on both sides. The line of the Sangro was breached in late November, but Lieutenant General Miles Dempsey's XIII Corps was brought into the battle. The fighting raged on for the next month until the 1st Canadian Division under Major General Chris Vokes (replacing the 78th Division, now under Major General Charles Keightley, which transferred to Dempsey's XIII Corps) captured the town of Ortona in late December, enabling engineers to erect bridges over the River Sangro, although these were soon washed away. However, the worsening weather, combined with the stiffness of the German resistance, which brought the advance to almost a complete halt, along with the heavy Allied casualties, forced Montgomery, the Eighth Army commander, to call off the offensive until weather conditions improved. In mid-January 1944 the 5th Canadian Armoured Division, under Major General E. L. M. Burns, was placed under V Corps. Shortly afterwards the division, which had never before been in action, was grievously repulsed during an attack on the town of Arielli, despite support from no less than fifteen artillery regiments. After this Allfrey's V Corps passed into 15th Army Group reserve, the sector of the front passing to the command of Lieutenant General Harry Crerar's I Canadian Corps. V Corps returned to the Adriatic in March, taking over two new divisions, both from the Indian Army; the 4th, now under Major General Alexander Galloway, in dire need of rest after suffering over 3,000 casualties in the Battle of Monte Cassino, and the 10th, under Major General Denys Reid, which had just arrived in Italy, and had seen no action. V Corps role was limited, as most