The FReeper Foxhole Revisits Anzio - The Bid for Rome - June 5th, 2004

see educational sources

[snippy_about_it]

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Grant them a safe and swift return...

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.

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The FReeper Foxhole Revisits

Anzio - The Bid for Rome
22 January-24 May 1944

During the early morning hours of 22 January 1944, troops of the Fifth Army swarmed ashore on a fifteen-mile stretch of Italian beach near the prewar resort towns of Anzio and Nettuno. The landings were carried out so flawlessly and German resistance was so light that British and American units gained their first day's objectives by noon, moving three to four miles inland by nightfall. The ease of the landing and the swift advance were noted by one paratrooper of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82d Airborne Division, who recalled that D-day at Anzio was sunny and warm, making it very hard to believe that a war was going on and that he was in the middle of it. The location of the Allied landings, thirty miles south of Rome and fifty-five miles northwest of the main line of resistance running from Minturno on the Tyrrhenian Sea to Ortona on the Adriatic, surprised local German commanders, who had been assured by their superiors that an amphibious assault would not take place during January or February. Thus when the landing occurred the Germans were unprepared to react offensively. Within a week, however, as Allied troops consolidated their positions and prepared to break out of the beachhead, the Germans gathered troops to eliminate what Adolf Hitler called the "Anzio abscess." The next four months would see some of the most savage fighting of World War II.

Strategic Setting

Following the successful Allied landings at Calabria, Taranto, and Salerno in early September 1943 and the unconditional surrender of Italy that same month, German forces had quickly disarmed their former allies and begun a slow, fighting withdrawal to the north. Defending two hastily prepared, fortified belts stretching from coast to coast, the Germans significantly slowed the Allied advance before settling into the Gustav Line, a third, more formidable and sophisticated defensive belt of interlocking positions on the high ground along the peninsula's narrowest point. The Germans intended to fight for every portion of this line, set in the rugged Apennine Mountains overlooking scores of rain-soaked valleys, marshes, and rivers. The terrain favored the defense and, as elsewhere in Italy, was not conducive to armored warfare. Luftwaffe Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, whom Hitler had appointed as commander of all German forces in Italy on 6 November 1943, promised to hold the Gustav Line for at least six months. As long as the line was maintained it prevented the Fifth Army from advancing into the Liri valley, the most logical and direct route to the major Allied objective of Rome. The validity of Kesselring's strategy was demonstrated repeatedly between October 1943 and January 1944 as the Allies launched numerous costly attacks against well-entrenched enemy forces.

The idea for an amphibious operation near Rome had originated in late October 1943 when it became obvious that the Germans were going to fight for the entire peninsula rather than withdraw to northern Italy. The Allied advance following the Salerno invasion was proving so arduous, due to poor weather, rough terrain, and stiffening resistance, that General Dwight D. Eisenhower pessimistically told the Anglo-American Combined Chiefs of Staff that there would be very hard and bitter fighting before the Allies could hope to reach Rome. As a result, Allied planners were looking for ways to break out of the costly struggle for each ridge and valley, which was consuming enormous numbers of men and scarce supplies.

Operation Shingle

The Anzio invasion began at 0200 on 22 January 1944 and achieved, General Lucas recalled, one of the most complete surprises in history. The Germans had already sent their regional reserves south to counter the Allied attacks on the Garigliano on 18 January, leaving one nine-mile stretch of beach at Anzio defended by a single company. The first Allied waves landed unopposed and moved rapidly inland. On the southern flank of the beachhead the 3d Division quickly seized its initial objectives, brushing aside a few dazed patrols, while unopposed British units achieved equal success in the center and north. Simultaneously, Rangers occupied Anzio, and the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion seized Nettuno. All VI Corps objectives were taken by noon as the Allied air forces completed 1,200 sorties against targets in and around the beachhead. On the beach itself, the U.S. 36th Engineer Combat Regiment bulldozed exits, laid corduroy roads, cleared mines, and readied the port of Anzio to receive its first landing ship, tank (LST), an amphibious assault and supply ship, by the afternoon of D-day. By midnight over 36,000 men and 3,200 vehicles, 90 percent of the invasion force, were ashore with casualties of 13 killed, 97 wounded, and 44 missing. During D-day Allied troops captured 227 German defenders.



Allied units continued to push inland over the next few days to a depth of seven miles against scattered but increasing German resistance. In the center of the beachhead, on 24 January, the British 1st Division began to move up the Anzio-Albano Road toward Campoleone and, with help from the 179th Infantry Regiment of the 45th Infantry Division, captured the town of Aprilia, known as "the Factory" because of its cluster of brick buildings, on 25 January. Within three days the continuing Anglo-American drive pushed the Germans a further 1.5 miles north of the Factory, created a huge bulge in enemy lines, but failed to break out of the beachhead. Probes by the 3d Division toward Cisterna and by the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment toward Littoria on 24-25 January made some progress but were also halted short of their goals by stubborn resistance. Renewed attacks on the next day brought the Americans within three miles of Cisterna and two miles beyond the west branch of the Mussolini Canal. But the 3d Division commander, Maj. Gen. Lucian K. Truscott, Jr., on orders of the corps commander, called a halt to the offensive, a pause that later lengthened into a general consolidation and reorganization of beachhead forces between 26 and 29 January.

Meanwhile, the Allied troop and materiel buildup had proceeded at a breakneck pace. Despite continuous German artillery and air harassment, a constant fact of life throughout the campaign, the Allies off-loaded twenty-one cargo ships and landed 6,350 tons of materiel on 29 January alone, and on 1 February the port of Anzio went into full operation. Improving air defenses downed ninety-seven attacking Luftwaffe aircraft prior to 1 February, but the Germans did succeed in sinking one destroyer and a hospital ship, as well as destroying significant stocks of supplies piled on the crowded beaches. Mindful of the need for reinforcements, Lucas ordered ashore the rest of the 45th Infantry Division and remaining portions of the 1st Armored Division allotted to the Anzio operation, raising the total number of Allied soldiers in the beachhead to 61,332.



The Germans had not been idle during the week after the Anzio landing. The German Armed Forces High Command (OKW) in Berlin was surprised at the location of the landing and the efficiency with which it was carried out. Although they had considered such an attack probable for some time and had made preliminary plans for meeting it, Kesselring and his local commanders were powerless to repel the invasion immediately because of the lack of adequate reserves. Nevertheless, German reaction to the Anzio landing was swift and ultimately would prove far more powerful than anything the Allies had anticipated.

Upon receiving word of the landings, Kesselring immediately dispatched elements of the 4th Parachute and Hermann Goering Divisions south from the Rome area to defend the roads leading north from the Alban Hills. Within the next twenty-four hours Hitler dispatched other units to Italy from Yugoslavia, France, and Germany to reinforce elements of the 3d Panzer Grenadier and 71st Infantry Divisions that were already moving into the Anzio area. By the end of D-day, thousands of German troops were converging on Anzio, despite delays caused by Allied air attacks.

OKW, Kesselring, and Brig. Gen. Siegfried Westphal, Kesselring's chief of staff, were astonished that the Anzio forces had not exploited their unopposed landing with an immediate thrust into the virtually undefended Alban Hills on 23-24 January. As Westphal later recounted, there were no significant German units between Anzio and Rome, and he speculated that an imaginative, bold strike by enterprising forces could easily have penetrated into the interior or sped straight up Highways 6 and 7 to Rome. Instead, Westphal recalled, the enemy forces lost time and hesitated. As the Germans later discovered, General Lucas was neither bold nor imaginative, and he erred repeatedly on the side of caution, to the increasing chagrin of both Alexander and Clark.



By 24 January Kesselring, confident that he had gathered sufficient forces to contain the beachhead, transferred the Fourteenth Army headquarters under General Eberhard von Mackensen from Verona in northern Italy to Anzio. Mackensen soon controlled elements of 8 divisions, totaling 40,000 troops, with 5 more divisions on the way. Seeking to prevent a permanent Allied foothold at Anzio, Kesselring ordered a counterattack for 28 January, but Mackensen requested and received a postponement until 1 February to await further reinforcements, especially armored units that were being held up by Allied air attacks. Two days before the scheduled offensive, the Fourteenth Army numbered about 70,000 combat troops, most already deployed in forward staging areas, with several thousand more on the way.

Racing against the expected German counterattack, both the Fifth and Eighth Armies prepared to renew their stalled offensives in the south. Lucas meanwhile planned a two-pronged attack for 30 January. While one force cut Highway 7 at Cisterna before moving east into the Alban Hills, a second was to advance northeast up the Albano Road, break through the Campoleone salient, and exploit the gap by moving to the west and southwest. A quick link-up with Fifth Army forces in the south was believed still possible even though German resistance all along the perimeter of the beachhead was becoming stronger.

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The 3d Division and the 1st, 3d, and 4th Ranger Battalions under Col. William O. Darby were responsible for the initial attack on Cisterna. The 1st and 3d Rangers were to spearhead the assault by infiltrating the German lines and seizing and holding Cisterna until the 4th Rangers and 15th Infantry, 3d Division, arrived via the Conca-Cisterna Road. Meanwhile, at 0200, 30 January, the 7th Infantry, 3d Division, was to push on the left to a point above Cisterna and cut Highway 7, while the 15th Infantry passed to the right of Cisterna and cut the highway south of town. As a diversion the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment would attack along the Mussolini Canal. Unknown to the Americans, their assault was aimed directly at the center of the area where thirty-six enemy battalions were massing for their 1 February counterattack.

The Rangers moved out at 0130 to the right of the Conca-Cisterna Road and by dawn were within 800 yards of Cisterna. But German soldiers of the 715th Motorized Infantry Division discovered the lightly armed Ranger force during the night and sprang a devastating ambush at first light. Heavy fighting broke out and the Rangers were pinned down quickly by an enemy superior in arms and numbers. Efforts by the 4th Rangers and 15th Infantry to rescue the beleaguered units failed, and by noon armored units of the Hermann Goering Division had forced the Rangers into the open. The Americans had only grenades and bazookas for antitank weapons, and as they attempted a fighting withdrawal in small and scattered groups they were cut down mercilessly. Of the 767 men in the two battalions, only 6 eventually returned to Allied lines.

In spite of the disaster that befell the Rangers, the 7th and 15th Infantry regiments continued their attacks toward Cisterna, one soldier recalling that the defenders clung stubbornly to their entrenched positions while launching locally heavy counterattacks. Sgt. Truman O. Olson, a light machine gunner with Company B. 7th Infantry, took part in one sixteen-hour assault on entrenched enemy positions in which one-third of his company became casualties. Having seized a toehold, the survivors dug in while Sergeant Olson and his crew took their one available machine gun and placed it forward of the line to bear the brunt of an expected enemy counterattack. Although he had been firing without respite all day, Olson stuck grimly to his post throughout the night while his gun crew was killed, one by one, by accurate and overwhelming enemy fire. Weary from over twenty-four hours of continuous battle and suffering from an arm wound, Olson manned his gun alone, meeting the full force of a 200-man enemy dawn assault supported by mortars and machine guns. After thirty minutes of fighting, Olson was severely wounded, but he refused evacuation. For an hour and a half after receiving a second and subsequently fatal wound, he continued to fire his machine gun, killing at least twenty of the enemy, wounding many more, and ultimately forcing the attackers to withdraw. For his actions Sergeant Olson was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

While some progress was made by 3d Division units in the face of noticeably stronger enemy resistance, by nightfall on 31 January the Americans were still one mile from the village, battling stubbornly forward but unable to break through. On the following day fighting was equally inconclusive, and by noon it had become obvious, after three days of costly attacks and counterattacks, that the Americans could not capture Cisterna, still 1,500 yards away. Heeding intelligence reports delivered on 2 February, which indicated the arrival of new German units in the Anzio area and an imminent enemy counterattack, Truscott, on the orders of Clark and Lucas, again told his command to dig in.

The other prong of the Allied attack launched by the British 1st Division and CCA, 1st Armored Division, toward Campoleone and the Alban Hills initially fared little better. Rain-soaked terrain, fierce enemy fire, and ubiquitous minefields slowed CCA's advance, and by nightfall on 30 January the unit was still struggling to reach its line of departure. The British succeeded in advancing two miles the first day, but they also failed to breach the German defenses. General Lucas changed plans for the second day of the attack and ordered the British to breach the enemy line along the Albano Road at Campoleone for exploitation by CCA. During the next two days the Allies reached Campoleone, penetrated the German main line, and opened a two-mile-wide gap. But the exhausted Allied troops were unable to exploit their success, and the drive ground to a halt.

The failure of the Allied breakout attempt, stymied by stiff resistance, convinced Alexander, Clark, and Lucas that an enemy counterattack must be in the offing. Reinforcements were rushed to Anzio, including 1,800 men of the American-Canadian 1st Special Service Force, elements of the British 56th Division, and additional antiaircraft and artillery units, raising the total number of Allied soldiers in the beachhead to 100,000.

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Today's Educational Sources and suggestions for further reading:

The FReeper Foxhole Remembers Anzio - 1944 - Jan. 23rd, 2003
www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-A-Anzio/

[snippy_about_it]

The German Counter-attack

Despite these additions, the Fourteenth Army outnumbered the Allies at Anzio by 4 February. But the German force was a hodgepodge of rapidly thrown together units. All were critically short of ammunition, training, qualified leaders, and reserves. Allied air attacks had disrupted communications, hampered troop and supply movements, and caused morale problems. From the outset Mackensen had doubted the available force could eliminate the Anzio beachhead, but he prepared a forceful counterattack nonetheless.

The 4th Parachute and 65th infantry Divisions of the I Parachute Corps were to pinch off the Campoleone salient and recapture the Factory at Aprilia. The same units would then break through to the sea along the Albano Road. Elsewhere the LXXVI Panzer Corps, consisting of the 3d Panzer Grenadier, 715th Motorized Infantry, 71st Infantry, Hermann Goering, and 26th Panzer Divisions would attack south of Cisterna along the Mussolini Canal and attempt to breach the Allied perimeter and advance on Nettuno and Anzio.



The counterattack opened with an artillery barrage on 3-4 February, followed by armored and infantry assaults which smashed into the partially prepared British 1st Division defenses in the Campoleone salient. The British held, despite suffering 1,400 casualties, but their dangerously exposed position prompted Lucas to order their withdrawal to one mile north of the Factory and Carroceto on the night of 4-5 February, a retreat of about 2.5 miles. Although the salient was eliminated, the Germans failed to break the Allied line or retake the Factory. The undulating and soggy Albano Road area was just as inhospitable to German armor and infantry as it had been to Allied forces the week before.

However, the critical situation the Germans created in the Allied center convinced Lucas to form a beachhead defense line running from the Moletta River in the north, through the fields of the central sector, to the Mussolini Canal in the south. He issued orders to all Allied troops that this was the final line of resistance to be held at all costs—the shallow beachhead precluded any further retreat.

The Germans renewed their attacks on 7 February in the weakened British 1st Division sector and, in two days of bitter fighting, pushed the British troops from the Factory and Carroceto. Although battered and exhausted, they managed to maintain a coherent line and were reinforced on 10 February by the 1st Armored Regiment, CCA, 1st Armored Division (itself at 50 percent strength), the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion, the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, and the 179th and 157th regiments of the U.S. 45th Infantry Division. Ordered to counterattack and retake Aprilia on 11 February, the 179th Infantry and 191st Tank Battalion began a two-pronged attack seeking to outflank the Germans holding the Factory. In two days of costly, hand-to-hand fighting, the Americans failed to retake the lost ground, but inflicted heavy losses on the enemy. Lucas still expected further attacks in the weakened central sector and removed the British 1st Division from the line, replacing it with the British 56th and U.S. 45th Infantry Divisions. As an added precaution, VI Corps artillery was strengthened and Allied tactical air attacks were stepped up.

Spurred by the elimination of the Campoleone salient, the Germans continued their counterattack on 16 February by moving down the Anzio-Albano Road on a four-mile front. The brunt of the assault hit the 45th Division sectors held by the 157th and 179th Infantry regiments. The initial attacks by the 3d Panzer Grenadier and 715th Motorized Infantry Divisions were beaten back with heavy losses, allowing only minor penetrations, while the 180th Infantry rebuffed lighter attacks. Just before midnight, however, enemy persistence paid off. A gap was created between the 179th and 157th Infantry, which was promptly exploited by three German regiments supported by sixty tanks. By dawn the Germans had driven a two-by-one-mile wedge in the center of the 45th Division and were poised to break the Allied line, threatening the entire beachhead. Compounding the already critical situation, the 179th Infantry attempted to withdraw in full view of the enemy the following afternoon and suffered heavy casualties. All through 16-17 February the Allies scrambled to plug the gap with hastily redeployed 90-mm. antiaircraft guns, naval gunfire, and units of the 1st Armored Division. The XII Tactical Air Command flew 730 ground support sorties and later claimed that the total weight of bombs dropped and the number of bombers employed was the greatest ever allotted up to that date in direct support of ground forces.



The Germans launched a more intense assault against the 45th Division at dawn on 18 February and destroyed one battalion of the 179th Infantry before pushing the remainder of the unit back a half mile farther to Lucas' final defensive line by midmorning. Fearing that the 179th Infantry was in danger of giving way, Lucas ordered Col. William O. Darby to take command of the unit and allow no further retreat. The regiment held, later counting 500 dead Germans in front of its positions. Elsewhere, the 180th and 157th regiments also held their positions in spite of heavy losses during three days of German attacks. By midday, Allied air and artillery superiority had turned the tide. When the Germans launched a final afternoon assault against the 180th and 179th regiments, it was halted by air strikes and massed mortar, machine gun, artillery, and tank fire. Subsequent enemy attacks on 19 and 20 February were noticeably weaker and were broken up by the same combination of Allied arms before ground contact was made The crisis had passed, and while harassing attacks continued until 22 February, VI Corps went over to the offensive locally and succeeded in retaking some lost ground.

The Germans could ill afford the loss of the 5,389 men killed, wounded, and missing during their five-day counterattack. Enemy troop morale plummeted, and many units lost their offensive capability. The 65th Infantry Division's combat strength had dropped to 673 effectives by 23 February, and one regiment of the 715th Motorized Infantry Division numbered fewer than 185 men. Allied casualties numbered some 3,496 killed, wounded, or missing in addition to 1,637 nonbattle casualties from trench foot, exposure, and combat exhaustion. Allied commanders at Anzio often claimed that losses would have been lower if soldiers were periodically rotated away from the lines, but replacements simply were not available. All 96,401 Allied soldiers were required to hold the 35-mile perimeter against an estimated ten German divisions in the Fourteenth Army, totaling 120,000 men by 12 February.



At midnight, 28 February, German artillery signaled the commencement of the new attack. But VI Corps and 3d Division artillery responded in mass, returning twenty shells for each one fired by the Germans, expending 66,000 rounds on 29 February alone. When the enemy infantry advanced at dawn at a half-dozen points along the 3d Division front, only one attack made any progress, penetrating 800 yards northeast of Carano before being halted with heavy losses. The other attacks fared less well amid a hail of American artillery and mortar fire. Attacking on too broad a front, the Germans lacked the overwhelming strength needed to break through anywhere, and by the end of the day they had barely dented the American line. Over the next several days, the well-entrenched Americans, supported by closely coordinated artillery, armor, and air support, shattered subsequent German attacks. Even though the 7th and 15th Infantry regiments and the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion often were hard pressed and suffered heavy losses between 1 and 4 March at the hands of the 715th and the 16th SS Panzer Grenadier Divisions, all three units held their positions and beat back successive enemy assaults. The Germans continued to seek a breakthrough, but their efforts gradually weakened. Mackensen realized that the Fourteenth Army had spent itself in a costly and futile offensive after a last German assault failed on 4 March.

The final five-day German counterattack cost 3,500 men killed, wounded, and missing, plus thirty tanks destroyed. It had failed to eliminate the beachhead, and 3d Division counterattacks quickly reclaimed all territory. From then, the Germans went over to the defensive, clearly incapable of mounting any further serious offensive action.

[snippy_about_it]

The Breakout

After six weeks of continuous bombing, shelling, and fighting, the men of the VI Corps were as exhausted as their German adversaries. Following the collapse of the final enemy drive on 4 March, a three-month lull began. During this time both armies limited their operations to defending the positions they held at the beginning of March, while they conducted limited counterattacks and raids and marked time until the renewal of offensive operations on the southern front. Although the reinforced Fourteenth Army, totaling 135,698 troops by 15 March, considered another offensive, plans were shelved in early April in favor of conserving troop strength to counter an expected Allied spring offensive.

During March, all of April, and the first part of May 1944, recalled one veteran, the Anzio beachhead resembled the Western Front during World War I. The vast majority of Allied casualties during this period were from air and artillery attacks, including fire from "Anzio Annie," a 280-mm. German railway gun which fired from the Alban Hills. During March, shrapnel caused 83 percent of all 3d Division casualties, and other units experienced similar rates. The Anzio beachhead became a honeycomb of wet and muddy trenches, foxholes, and dugouts. Yet the Allied troops made the best of a bad situation, and one soldier recalled that during these months the fighting was light and living was leisurely.



On the night of 11-12 May, the Fifth and Eighth Armies launched their long-awaited spring offensive against the Gustav Line. Stymied in attempts to break through at Cassino in February, March, and April, the Allies initially encountered little success in their new drive. Nonetheless, the Germans abandoned Monte Cassino after a week of heavy fighting by Polish forces, and the French Expeditionary Corps and U.S. II Corps succeeded in breaking the Gustav Line by 15 May. The II Corps continued its drive north toward Terracina, which fell on 23-24 May, and raced toward the Anzio beachhead against rapidly crumbling German resistance as enemy troops began withdrawing northeast toward Rome.

At 0545, 23 May, a 45-minute Allied artillery barrage opened on the Cisterna front, followed by armor and infantry attacks along the entire line from Carano to the Mussolini Canal. Although resistance was very stiff, by evening the 1st Special Service Force and 1st Armored Division had breached the enemy main line of resistance, while the XII Tactical Air Command completed the last of 722 sorties. The following day VI Corps forces cut Highway 7 above Cisterna and encircled the town, the scene of continued heavy fighting by desperate enemy forces. The town finally fell on 25 May at the cost of 476 Americans killed, 2,321 wounded, and 75 missing.

Earlier on 25 May, at 0730, troops of the 91st Reconnaissance Squadron, 85th Infantry Division, U.S. II Corps, racing north from Terracina across the Pontine Marshes, met soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 36th Engineer Combat Regiment, from the Anzio beachhead, effecting the long-planned and longer-awaited link-up between Fifth Army forces. With the physical juncture of the II and VI Corps, the beachhead ceased to exist and the formerly isolated soldiers became the left flank of the Fifth Army. Clark personally greeted the II Corps troops three hours later.

Meanwhile, the breakout west was proving costly to the VI Corps. The 1st Armored Division lost 100 armored vehicles in the first day alone, while the entire corps took over 4,000 casualties in the first five days of the offensive. Allied troops, however, counted 4,838 enemy prisoners, including 1,000 in Cisterna, and destroyed or damaged 2,700 enemy vehicles.



On the same day that the Fifth Army front merged with the Anzio beachhead, General Clark also split Truscott's forces into two parts, sending the 3d Division, the 1st Special Service Force, and elements of the 1st Armored Division toward Valmontone. This thrust, however, proved insufficient, and most of the Tenth Army escaped north to fight again. In the meantime the 45th and 34th Infantry Divisions, along with the rest of the Fifth Army, joined in the hot pursuit of German forces falling back on Rome, a scarce thirty miles distant. Americans liberated the Italian capital on 4 June 1944.

Analysis

During the four months of the Anzio Campaign the Allied VI Corps suffered over 29,200 combat casualties (4,400 killed, 18,000 wounded, 6,800 prisoners or missing) and 37,000 noncombat casualties. Two-thirds of these losses, amounting to 17 percent of VI Corps' effective strength, were inflicted between the initial landings and the end of the German counteroffensive on 4 March. Of the combat casualties, 16,200 were Americans (2,800 killed, 11,000 wounded, 2,400 prisoners or missing) as were 26,000 of the Allied noncombat casualties. German combat losses, suffered wholly by the Fourteenth Army, were estimated at 27,500 (5,500 killed, 17,500 wounded, and 4,500 prisoners or missing)—figures very similar to Allied losses.

The Anzio Campaign continues to be controversial, just as it was during its planning and implementation stages. The operation clearly failed in its immediate objectives of outflanking the Gustav Line, restoring mobility to the Italian campaign, and speeding the capture of Rome. Allied forces were quickly pinned down and contained within a small beachhead, and they were effectively rendered incapable of conducting any sort of major offensive action for four months pending the advance of Fifth Army forces to the south. Anzio failed to be the panacea the Allies sought. As General Lucas repeatedly stated before the landing, which he always considered a gamble, the paltry allotments of men and supplies were not commensurate with the high goals sought by British planners. He steadfastly maintained that under the circumstances the small Anzio force accomplished all that could have been realistically expected. Lucas' critics charge, however, that a more aggressive and imaginative commander, such as a Patton or Truscott, could have obtained the desired goals by an immediate, bold offensive from the beachhead. Lucas was overly cautious, spent valuable time digging in, and allowed the Germans to prepare countermeasures to ensure that an operation conceived as a daring Allied offensive behind enemy lines became a long, costly campaign of attrition.

Yet the campaign did accomplish several goals. The presence of a significant Allied force behind the German main line of resistance, uncomfortably close to Rome, represented a constant threat. The Germans could not ignore Anzio and were forced into a response, thereby surrendering the initiative in Italy to the Allies. The 135,000 troops of the Fourteenth Army surrounding Anzio could not be moved elsewhere, nor could they be used to make the already formidable Gustav Line virtually impregnable. The Anzio beachhead thus guaranteed that the already steady drain of scarce German troop reserves, equipment, and materiel would continue unabated, ultimately enabling the 15th Army Group to break through in the south. But the success was costly.

[snippy_about_it]

'We hoped to land a wildcat that would tear out the bowels of the Boche. Instead we have stranded a vast beached whale with its tail flopping about in the water.'

-- Winston Churchill
on Operation Shingle

[snippy_about_it]

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Good Night Snippy

Not one of the better war movies out there. Way too "Hollywood".

[snippy_about_it]

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Good mornin', snippy!!

"Right Cares 'Bout Liberty!!"
(To be sung to Neil Young's "Days That Used To Be")

Sheeple say, "Don't rock the boat...
Let Slick go on his way."
Justice usedta seem so Right...
Still, Bill Clinton hasn't paid!!
I wish Right would stalk RATS' fool...
House should RE-IMPEACH!!
'Cuz there's very few of us left, my FRiends,
Who still care 'bout Liberty!!

FReepin's such a noble thing...
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RATS' transgressions and obsessions...
Mask the Unborn's silent screams!!
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'Cuz DemRATS now're...
Traitors to our security!!
Bush should never have...
To make those deals...
Right still cares 'bout bein' FRee!!

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Live with it, my Lib'ral FRiends...
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Best be happy with...
Yer ignored rants...
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In oh-eight, we'll git Hillary!!
Left's just another impediemt to the FRee...
Right cares 'bout Liberty!!

Mudboy Slim (6/5/04)

[Valin]

On This Day In History


Birthdates which occurred on June 05:
1718 Thomas Chippendale England, furniture maker (baptized)
1723 Adam Smith Kirkcaldy Scot, economist (Wealth of Nations) (baptized)
1819 John Couch Adams co-discover (Neptune)
1823 George Thorndike Angell Mass, lawyer (ASPCA)
1825 Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry Georgia, educator (Rep-Ala, 1857-61)
1878 Francisco (Pancho) Villa Mexico, revolutionary/guerrilla leader
1883 John Maynard Keynes Cambridge England, economist/math/journalist
1887 Ruth Benedict US, anthropologist (Patterns of Culture)
1895 William Boyd Ohio, cowboy (Hopalong Cassidy)
1900 Dennis Gabor inventor (holography (3D laser photography))
1905 Art Donovan NFL defensive tackle (Balt, NY Yanks, Dallas)
1928 Robert Lansing SD Calif, actor (12 O'Clock High, Equalizer, Automan)
1934 Bill D Moyers Hugo Okla, news commentator (Bill Moyers' Journal)
1937 Waylon Jennings Littlefield Tx, country singer (Dukes of Hazzard)
1938 Marion Chapman smallest known premature baby to survive (280 g)
1939 Ken Follett spy author (Eye of the the Needle)
1946 Stefania Sandrelli Viareggio Italy, actress (The Key)
1959 Michael Winans gospel singer (The Winans)

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Deaths which occurred on June 05:
221 -BC- Chu Yuan China's poet drowns
755 St Boniface, apostle of Germany, murdered
1864 Gen William E "Grumble" Jones killed at Piedmont
1900 Stephen Crane, author (Red Badge of Courage), dies
1916 Horatio H Kitchener British General (Sudan), dies at 65
1988 Clarence M Pendleton chairman of comm on Civil Rights (1981-88) dies
1993 Conway Twitty, country singer (Linda on My Mind), dies at 59

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Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1967 HAINES COLLINS H.---MOORESTOWN NJ.
[03/04/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1967 IBANEZ DI REYES---SAN DIEGO CA.
1968 MC MANUS TRUMAN JOSEPH---MANSFIELD CT.
1971 CAVAIANI JON R.---MERCED CA.
[03/27/73 RELEASED BY PRG, ALIVE IN 98]
1971 JONES JOHN R.---EL PASO TX.
1972 KRANER DAVIS STANLEY---WENDEL CA.
1972 PAYNE KYLIS THEROD---BALTIMORE MD.

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

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On this day...
8239 -BC- presumed origin of Mayan Era of Creation
0070 Titus & his Roman legions breach the middle wall of Jerusalem
0754 Friezen murders bishop Boniface & over 50 companions
1661 Isaac Newton admitted as a student to Trinity College, Cambridge
1783 Joseph & Jacques Montgolfier make 1st public balloon flight
1794 Congress prohibits citizens from serving in foreign armed forces
1805 1st recorded tornado in "Tornado Alley" (Southern Illinois)
1806 1st trotter to break 3 minute mile (Yankee)
1833 Ada Lovelace (future 1st computer programmer) meets Charles Babbage
1849 Danish National Day-Denmark becomes a constitutional monarchy
1855 Anti-foreign anti-Roman Catholic Know-Nothing Party's 1st convention
1861 - Federal marshals seize arms & gunpower at Du Pont works DE
1863 CSS "Alabama" captures the "Tailsman" in the Mid Atlantic
1863 Battle of Franklin's Crossing, VA (Deep Run)
1864 Battle of Piedmont, VA (Augusta City)
1872 Republican National Convention meets (Phila)
1876 Bananas become popular in US, at Centennial Exposition in Phila (I like bananas, because they have appeal)
1884 William Sherman refuses Republican presidential nomination saying "If nominated, I will not run. If elected I will not serve"
1885 J Palisa discovers asteroid #248 Lameia
1910 J Helffrich discovers asteroids #699 Hela & #700 Auravictrix
1912 US marines invade Cuba (3nd time)
1917 10 million US men begin registering for draft in WW I
1926 Indians triple-play Yankees & win 15-3
1933 US goes off gold standard
1934 1st formal meeting of The Baker Street Irregulars (NYC)
1937 A Bohrmann discovers asteroid #1455 Mitchella
1940 1st synthetic rubber tire exhibited Akron Oh
1940 Battle of France begins in WW II
1944 1st B-29 bombing raid; 1 plane lost due to engine failure
1945 USA, UK, USSR, France declare supreme authority over Germany
1946 Fire at LaSalle Hotel cocktail lounge kills 61 (Chicago Ill)
1947 Sec of State George C Marshall outlines "The Marshall Plan"
1950 US Supreme Court undermines legal foundations of segregation
1952 Jersey Joe Walcott beats Ezzard Charles for heavyweight boxing title
1956 Fed court rules racial segregation on Montgomery buses Unconstitutional
1957 NY narcotics investigator, Dr Herbert Berger, urges AMA to investigate use of stimulating drugs by athletes
1963 State of siege proclaimed in Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini arrested
1964 Davie Jones & King Bees debut "I Can't Help Thinking About Me", group disbands but Davie Jones goes on to success as David Bowie
1967 Murderer Richard Speck sentenced to death in the electric chair
1968 Sirhan Sirhan shoots Bobby Kennedy, who dies the next day
1969 Race riot in Hartford Connecticut
1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment opens in Stockholm
1975 Suez Canal reopens (after 6 Day War caused it to close)
1976 Teton Dam in Idaho burst causing $1 billion damage (14 die)

1977 1st personal computer, the Apple II, goes on sale

1977 Coup in Seychelles (National Day)
1980 Soyuz T-2 carries 2 cosmonauts to Salyut 6 space station
1981 Center of Disease Control reports of a pneumonia affecting gays (AIDS)
1984 Indira Gandhi orders attack on Sikh's holiest site (Golden Temple)
1986 Former National Security Agency employee Ronald Pelton was convicted in Baltimore of spying for the Soviet Union. The verdict came one day after former Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Jay Pollard pleaded guilty to espionage on behalf of Israel.
1987 "Nightline" presents it's 1st "Town Meeting" the subject is AIDS & the show runs until 3:47 AM
1988 Longest champagne cork flight is 177' 9" in NY
1988 Australian solo yacht sailor Kay Cottee sailed into Sydney Harbor to become the first woman to circle the globe alone and unassisted.
1989 Billy Smith, last original NY Islander, retires
1991 Space Shuttle STS 40 (Columbia 12) launched
1993 23 Pakistani members of the U.N. peacekeeping forces were killed in a series of attacks in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia.
1997 Harold J. Nicholson, the highest-ranking CIA officer ever caught spying against his own country, was sentenced to 23 years in prison for selling defense secrets to Russia after the Cold War.

---

Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Columbia : Thanksgiving Day
Denmark : Constitution Day (1849, 1953)
Massachusetts : Teachers' Day (Sunday)
Ireland : Bank Day (Monday)
Bahamas : Labour Day (Friday)
New Zealand : Queen's Birthday (Monday)
Western Australia : Foundation Day (1838) (Monday)
World : Meteorology Day
National Frozen Yogurt Week (Day 6)
National Iced Tea Month

---

Religious Observances
RC, Luth, Ang : Mem of St Boniface, bishop/martyr/apostle to Germany
Ang, RC : Ember Day
Christian] Feast of St Dorotheus of Tyre
Christian : Feast of St Sancho
Christian : Feast of St Tudno

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Religious History
1860 The Scandinavian Evangelical Lutheran Augsburg Synod in North America was founded in Wisconsin. In 1962, the Augsburg Synod became one of four branches in American Lutheranism that merged to form the Lutheran Church in America (LCA).
1944 German Lutheran theologian and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in a letter from prison: 'Certainly one must try everything, but only to become more certain what God's way is.'
1960 John XXIII published his motu proprio, 'Superno Dei Nutu,' which created the necessary committees and organizational structure for the upcoming Vatican II Ecumenical Council (1962-65).
1961 English apologist C.S. Lewis wrote in a letter: 'Any fixing of the mind on old evils beyond what is absolutely necessary for repenting of our own sins and forgiving those of others is...usually bad for us.'
1967 The Arab-Israeli Six-Day War began, during which Israel took control of the Sinai Desert, the city of Jerusalem and the west bank of the Jordan River. A cease-fire arranged by the U.N. ended the conflict on June 10th.

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

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Thought for the day :
"Always remember you're unique,...just like everyone else."

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Actual Newspaper Headlines...
Prosecutor Releases Probe into Undersheriff

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Why did the Chicken cross the Road...
Hippocrates: Because of an excess of light pink gooey stuff in its pancreas.

---

Dumb Laws...
Rhode Island:
Any marriage where either of the parties is an idiot or lunatic is null and void.

---

A Cowboy's Guide to Life...
Generally, you ain't learnin' nothing when your mouth's a-jawin'.

[Valin]

As the Germans later discovered, General Lucas was neither bold nor imaginative, and he erred repeatedly on the side of caution,


All I can say is George B. McClellan.

[Professional Engineer]

Good morning ladies. Flag-o-gram.

<>P> Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld congratulates a sailor who has just re-enlisted aboard amphibious assault ship USS Essex at Changi Naval Base, Singapore, June 4, 2004. Rumsfeld is in Singapore to attend the International Institute of Scientific Studies Conference, meet with regional leaders and visit with U.S. troops. Photo by Tech. Sgt.Jerry Morrison Jr., USAF

Sailors, Marines Take Re-enlistment Oath From Defense Secretary

[aomagrat]

USS ANZIO (CVE-57)

Displacement. 9,570 t.
Lenght. 512' 3"
Beam. 65' 2"
Extreme width. 108' 1"
Draft. 20'
Speed. 19.3 k.
Complement. 860
Armament. 1 5", 16 40-mm., 20 20-mm.

CASABLANCA class escort aircraft carrier

Auxiliary aircraft carrier ACV-57 was laid down on 12 December 1942 by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Co., Vancouver, Wash. under a Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 1094); named ALIKULA BAY on 22 January 1943; renamed CORAL SEA on 3 April 1943; launched on 1 May 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Frank J. Fletcher, wife of Vice Admiral Fletcher; redesignated CVE-57 on 15 July 1943; and commissioned at Astoria, Oreg., on 27 August 1943, Capt. Herbert W. Taylor in command.

On 24 September, CORAL SEA got underway for shakedown in Puget Sound. She arrived at San Diego, Calif., on 8 October to load aircraft and hold flight operations off the California coast. The carrier sailed for Hawaii on 25 October and, upon arrival at Pearl Harbor, joined sister ship LISCOME BAY (CVE-56) for exercises off Oahu. On 10 November, CORAL SEA steamed southwest to join the American forces about to invade the Gilbert Islands. She launched strikes on Makin Island from 20 through 28 November. When Tarawa had been captured, CORAL SEA headed for Pearl Harbor and arrived there on 5 December. She paused to embark passengers and load aircraft for transport to the United States and departed on 8 December. The carrier arrived at Alameda, Calif., on 14 December to take on new planes. She put to sea on 22 December and steamed back to Hawaii. On 28 December, CORAL SEA anchored at Pearl Harbor and began preparations for the impending assault on Kwajalein.

The escort carrier was underway on 3 January 1944 for a series of exercises in Hawaiian waters. After final fitting out, she sailed on 22 January in Task Group (TG) 52.9 and arrived in the vicinity of Kwajalein on 31 January, two days after planes of the Fast Carrier Task Force began pounding airfields on the atoll. CORAL SEA provided direct and indirect air support for the amphibious landings. On 24 February, the ship set course for Eniwetok, but was recalled to Hawaii and arrived at Pearl Harbor on 3 March.

After a brief respite, CORAL SEA got underway again on 11 March and proceeded to the Solomon Islands. She anchored at Tulagi on 21 March, topped off with fuel, and loaded stores. Sailing again on 30 March, the escort carrier headed for Emirau Island. From 1 to 11 April she launched planes in support of forces occupying Emirau and returned to Port Purvis on 15 April.

The next day, CORAL SEA left Tulagi to assist in the reconquest of New Guinea. On the 19th, she joined TG 78.2, which was formed to support Allied footholds at Hollandia and Aitape. Her planes joined in strikes on the 22d of April, and, on 26 April, the escort carrier sailed to Seeadler Harbor for replenishment and on 7 May, headed for Espiritu Santo for availability.

Her repair period completed, the ship got underway on 8 June for Kwajalein, the staging point for the invasion of the Marianas. The American forces sortied on 10 June, and CORAL SEA helped to provide air support for landings by the 2d Marine Division on Saipan. She endured numerous Japanese air attacks during the next few days but received only minor damage. The carrier had moved south to Guam on 17 June to begin softening-up operations against that island but returned to Saipan the next day to assist the bogged-down American forces. CORAL SEA and her escorts retired to Eniwetok on 28 June but returned to Saipan on 4 July. Her planes made further air strikes before she put into Eniwetok on 15 July for repairs to her engines. Ultimately, CORAL SEA was ordered back to the United States for a much needed overhaul, and the carrier sailed on 23 July. Two days later, she paused at Kwajalein to unload most of her aircraft and ammunition and then continued via Pearl Harbor for the naval base at San Diego. CORAL SEA received word that her name had been changed to ANZIO as of 15 September.

ANZIO held sea trials off the California coast and was ready to sail for the western Pacific on 16 September and entered the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard for a tender availability. On 8 October, the carrier began a series of training exercises; and, on the 16th, she set out for Eniwetok. There, ANZIO joined a hunter/killer group and carried out an antisubmarine warfare (ASW) mission while she was en route to Ulithi. ON 4 November, she was ordered to assist RENO (CL-96) which had been torpedoed in the Philippine Sea. When ANZIO was relieved by EXTRACTOR (ARS-15), she resumed her ASW patrols and worked at that task through mid-February 1945, when she steamed to Iwo Jima.

ANZIO resumed combat support operations on 16 February. Three days later, she launched a strike to the north on Chichi Jima in the Bonin Islands. From 19 February through 4 March, ANZIO followed a schedule of launching her first flight just before sunset and recovering her last just before dawn. During these nocturnal operations, she completed 106 sorties without a single accident. ANZIO departed the Iwo Jima area on 8 March and entered San Pedro Bay at Leyte on 12 March. After 10 days of upkeep, she sailed to join the invasion of Okinawa. After providing air cover for an Okinawa-bound amphibious group, the escort carrier joined other forces in the vicinity of Kerama Retto in seizing that island group to provide an advanced base for the Fleet. The Okinawa attack began on 1 April, and ANZIO remained on line until she retired to Ulithi on 30 April for repairs to her rudder bearings. On 21 May, the carrier resumed ASW operations in the Okinawa area. This role ended 17 June, when ANZIO sailed to San Pedro Bay, Leyte, for upkeep.

ANZIO left the Philippines on 6 July to begin what proved to be her last stint of combat duty. She joined TG 30.8 and positioned herself about 600 miles east of Tokyo. ANZIO made ASW patrols in support of Admiral Halsey's attacks on the Japanese home islands. She received word of the Japanese capitulation on 15 August and sailed for Guam on 19 August. After refitting and training new flight crews, the escort carrier headed for Okinawa. From that point, she was to provide air cover and ASW patrol services for transports carrying occupation troops to Korea. On 8 September, ANZIO anchored at Jinsen, Korea, whence she provided air support for the landings of the occupation force. The escort carrier left Korea on 13 September and returned to Okinawa. On 19 September, she broke her homeward-bound pennant, became a member of a "Magic-Carpet" group, and reached San Francisco on 30 September.

While at San Francisco, ANZIO was modified to provide maximum passenger accommodations. The carrier made two trips to the western Pacific and back, one to Pearl Harbor and one to Shanghai, China, to shuttle American troops home. ANZIO arrived at Seattle, Wash., on 23 December and ended the year at that port.

On 18 January 1946, ANZIO sailed for Norfolk, Va. She paused at San Francisco then continued southward to transit the Panama Canal before finally reaching the east coast. ANZIO was placed out of commission on 5 August 1946 and became a unit of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet berthed at Norfolk. The ship was redesignated CVHE-57 on 15 June 1955. ANZIO was struck from the Navy list on 1 March 1959 and sold to the Master Metals Co. on 24 November 1959.

ANZIO received six battle stars for service in World War II.

[The Mayor]

Every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. —John 15:2

Fruitbearing + Pruning = More Fruit

[Samwise]

Morning, PE. How's the little tyke?

[tomball]

 

Kudos Snippy & Sam for another Great thread. My Mother-In-Law tells stories of how she was able to sleep with allied bombs dropping around Naples when she was a young girl. A widow twice, both husbands fought in WW2, and did their part to help liberate Italy. She knows first hand what it is like  when the Germans and fascists knocked on her parents door looking for "men and boys" to help them fight the allies.  She is 78 years young, a  woman of great faith, a survivor of great losses, and is sharp as a tack.  She is a walking, living, breathing, bit of history, and is one of our country's greatest WW2 living treasures.


 

 

[Professional Engineer]

She's doing very well. She's back above her birth weight now, and has grown more than an inch.

[Professional Engineer]

Reagan speaks at the Normandy beachhead, Pointe du Hoc. He remembers the gallantry of military on that spot forty years earlier.