 With Ortona and Villa Grande captured , it looked as if it would require Eighth Army only to <unk> itself and strike one more concentrated blow at Orsogna to complete the breaching of the Gustav Line 's main Adriatic <unk> . However , on 31 December , as V Corps <unk> along the coastal plain towards Pescara , a <unk> enveloped the battlefield . Drifting snow , <unk> and biting winds <unk> movement and communications on the ground while cloud ceiling and visibility fell to nil and grounded the <unk> . Montgomery — realising the Eighth Army no longer had the strength or conditions to force its way to Pescara and the Via Valeria to Rome — recommended to General Alexander that the Eighth Army offensive should be halted . Alexander agreed but ordered him to maintain aggressive patrolling in order to pin the units of the LXXVI Panzer Corps in the Adriatic sector and prevent Kesselring moving them to reinforce the XIV Panzer Corps front opposite Mark Clark 's U.S. Fifth Army where the Allied offensive would continue . 
