A new major offensive was planned for the spring of 1945, when improving weather would allow the Allies to take advantage of their superior airpower and armoured and motorized ground forces.

Formations and units involved in the battle: As a preliminary to the main operation, a commando assault (Operation Roast) was launched across Lake Comacchio on 1 April to secure the right flank of the Eighth Army for the coming battle to seize "the Spit", the narrow isthmus between the eastern shore of Lake Comacchio and the Adriatic Sea.

This would secure the eastern flank of the Eighth Army and also allow trials to be carried out in secret of the suitability of using newly arrived LVT tracked landing craft for subsequent larger operations in the muddy and difficult conditions of Lake Comacchio.

Two nights later further actions by the Special Boat Service (SBS) supported by Italian Partisans of the 28th Garibaldi Brigade captured islands in the middle of the lake.

Danish national, Major Anders Lassen a patrol commander of the Special Boat Service (SBS) was killed in a subsequent fighting reconnaissance and was awarded a Victoria Cross posthumously.

[4] On the night of 10/11 April, British V Corps launched Operation Impact Plain to widen and deepen its bridgehead in the Wedge: 40th (Royal Marine) Commando advanced along the raised causeway bordering the lake while, from 56th (London) Division, 169th (Queen's) Brigade advanced on the commando's left across the flooded margins of the lake with two battalions in LVTs.

[5] The commando column met stiff resistance at the bridge north east of Menate and took heavy casualties but were able to take the objective with the assistance of air support.

[5] 42nd Jaeger Division seems to have been taken by surprise by their opponents' amphibious capacity and seemed somewhat unnerved by the LVTs emerging from the water so that by daylight on 12 April all three columns had made some 4 miles (6.4 km) headway, linking up in the Menate-Longastrino area.

The 2nd Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers were able to hold on to a small bridgehead under heavy fire and counterattack while engineers positioned ARK armoured mobile bridges to allow supporting tanks to cross the canal.

Meanwhile, a mobile force under the command of 2nd Armoured Brigade Headquarters comprising one infantry battalion, a tank regiment, a regiment of armoured personnel carriers and supporting self-propelled guns and assault engineers (the "Kangaroo Army") was brought forward and, bypassing Consonaldo, secured a bridgehead over the Fossa Benvignante 1 mile (1.6 km)north of the town.

Effective Allied bombing of the crossings of the Po and shortage of fuel left much of the German Army Group's strength and almost all its heavy equipment and armament stranded south of the river, sealing its fate.