During the war, Ancona had become a home base for the allied armies that were fighting in the Marches. General Kesselring was chief of the german armies holding positions in that area.
Here, it's about the stratagem of general Alexander during the battle for the Gothic Line, when he had decided to attack this position from the mountains, alleged to be impassable. To this end, he used two armies:
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During that time and to divert their attention, the germans were led to believe that the major offensive would be launched in the vicinity of Ancone by the Polish and the Canadians:
[P.510] ...The Germans were led to believe in a considerable concentration of troops (a decoy) behind the Polish; the latter were to give that impression, by their own movements, helped in that by the circulation and activity of the liaison and transmissions detachments, as well as reconnaissance troops of the Canadian army corps and the 1st british armored division...
The stratagem of the allies succeeded and all this activity was reported to the german general. Kesselring's dilemna was the following: would the main attack of the allies come from the mountain, or would they concentrate in the region of Ancone? After pondering on the question, he concluded he must protect the region of Ancona:
[P.513] ...However, because of all those merchant ships and warships gathered in the Mediterranean prior to the landing of the allies about to occur in the south of France, Kesselring feared [par effrayeur] his own coasts were about to suffer an attack....[le chef s'en examine] Thus, he decided he had to deploy in depth his Adriatic troops... Great was his surprise when he learned that the allies were hurtling down the mountains at the rythm of 300 vehicles by the hour. But this ignorance manifested by the enemy could not subsist in the view of these clouds of dust and the noise made by the thousands of vehicles coming down the mountains from Ombria to the Marches.
[Translation - Les Canadiens en Italie Lt. Colonel G.W.L. Nicholson]