VOLTURNO RIVER


Meaning of VOLTURNO RIVER in English

River, southern central Italy.

It flows southeast from the Abruzzese Apennines , then turns west to empty into the Gulf of Gaeta. It is 109 mi (175 km) long and has a dam for flood control and irrigation. During the wars for Italian unity, the Italian nationalist leader Giuseppe de Garibaldi defeated a Neapolitan army there in 1860. During World War II, German forces in southern Italy used it as their line of defense after the fall of Naples ; after severe fighting, the Allies crossed the river in October 1943.

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia.      Краткая энциклопедия Британика.