San Marino had declared its neutrality earlier in the war, and had remained broadly unaffected by events in Europe until 1944, when Allied forces had advanced a sizable distance up the Italian Peninsula. A major German defensive position, the Gothic Line, ran across the peninsula a short distance south of the Sammarinese border, and in late June, the country was bombed by the Royal Air Force, killing 35 people, in the belief that the German Army had taken up positions on its territory. In Operation Olive, launched in late August, a strong Allied force attacked at the very eastern end of the line, aiming to pass through Rimini—just east of San Marino—and break out onto the plains north of the city.