Landings at Anzio

With the Italian Campaign all but deadlocked, the path to capture Rome was far in the futures of the invading Allied forces. The Germans were not about to gift Italian ground to the British and the Americans and each yard was fought for in grueling bloody engagements.

British Prime Minister understood the goals quite well and devised a plan all his own - to land a large and active opposing force behind the entrenched enemy fronts and create havoc by disrupting supply and communication lines all the while encircling the remaining German forces within the Italian peninsula. Distractions would come in the form of Allied bombardments as well concentrated attacks along the stout Gustav Line - a defensive front developed by the Germans to include a line running from coast to coast, denying Allied entry into the upward regions of Italy. Surprise was of the essence.

The Allied force sailed on January 21st, 1943 and were ashore at Anzio and Nettuno by midnight. Little to no enemy resistance was encountered and Allied confidence grew. More and more men and machines made it ashore but Major-General John Lucas decides to concentrate all of the incoming forces at his beachhead instead of making way inland. By January 28th, some 70,000 men had come ashore.

The landings at Anzio were wholly unexpected by the defending Germans but the delay to action on the part of Lucas played well into a response from the defenders. The Germans built a defensive ring around the beachhead and were shelling it from far away positions within the week.

Subsequent pitched battles saw lines wavering for both sides and the Germans nearly cut the beachhead in two forces if not for a valiant repel. Worsening weather and the growing fact of a stalemate brought the Anzio landings to a lull - either side unwilling to give ground but paying a deadly price for holding it.

Winston Churchill wrote the supreme Allied commander over operations in Italy, Sir Harold Alexander, with the critical words "I expected to see a wild cat roaring into the mountains - and what do I find? A whale wallowing on the beaches!" Such was his unhappiness with the progression of the battle.

Were it not for the Allied breakthrough at the Gustav Line followed by the capture of Monte Cassino on May 17th, 1944, and the meeting up of Allied forces near Terracina, the Anzio landings would have proved a disastrous failure.

Once again the Germans were on the retreat and the Road to Rome itself was now open for the taking.