World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseThe Allied forces landed in the southern portions of mainland Italy in Sep 1943, and the subsequent progress had been slow, largely due to a fairly well-executed delay action campaign conducted by the Germans, anchored on several prepared defensive lines. By Dec 1943, the Allies had reached, but could not penetrate, the Gustav Line situated south of the Italian capital city of Rome. To speed up the advance, Winston Churchill ordered the British commanders to present a plan for a two-division amphibious assault at Anzio, Italy behind the Gustav Line. As the plan developed, the Agro Pontino, an area of reclaimed marshland near Anzio and Nettuno, was chosen as the landing area. Major General John Lucas was selected as the commander of what was to be named Operation Shingle. Lucas felt that it was an extremely risky undertaking; he feared that the force assigned to him was not large enough, and thought that the invasion "has a strong odor of Gallipoli".

ww2dbaseOperation Shingle commenced on 22 Jan 1944, landing 36,000 men and 3,200 vehicles by the end of the day. Opposition was minimal on the first day, and Allied casualties were low; the Allies suffered 13 killed and 97 wounded, while 200 Germans were captured. British 1st Infantry Division had moved 2 miles inland, US 3rd Infantry Division had moved 3 miles inland, US 6615th Ranger Force had captured the port of Anzio, and US 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion had captured Nettuno. Having established a beachhead with relative ease, rather than advancing toward Rome to potentially force the Germans to divert forces from the Gustav Line or advancing toward Gustav Line itself to link up with the Allied forces in the Cassino area, Lucas chose to remain in place in order to strengthen the beachhead against a possible German counterattack.

ww2dbaseOn the German side, Field Marshal Albert Kesselring reacted quickly. At 0500 hours, he ordered mobile units from German 4th Parachute Division and Hermann Göring Panzer Division to rush to the area to cover the roads leading out of Anzio, while he requested his superiors in Germany to reinforce Italy with men from rear areas. Later in the same morning, he ordered General Eberhard von Mackensen of German 14th Army and General Heinrich von Vietinghoff of German 10th Army to dispatch their reserves to reinforce the Anzio region. By the end of the day, he had come to the realization that the Allies had no intentions of a quick breakout from the region. Through 24 Jan, Kesselring had gathered over 40,000 men in the area. Four days later, he gave the order to strike at the earliest possible moment. Despite of Lucas' initial lack of aggressiveness, however, he would be the one to attack first, launching a two-prong attack on 30 Jan; US 3rd Division advanced toward Cisterna and then the Alban Hills beyond, while British 1st Division advanced toward Campoleone; both would fail to achieve their objectives. In the afternoon of 3 Feb, the German offensive began with probing attacks, followed by a full attack at 2300 hours. By the following day, the Allied front lines were beginning to falter near Campoleone, with several units becoming surrounded by German troops. After several days of heavy artillery exchanges, at 2100 hours on 7 Feb, the Germans launched a new round of attacks. On 11 Feb, the Allies launched a counterattack, but it was met with failure as the Germans had intercepted the radio communications, and thus was able to prepare against it. On 16 Feb, the Germans launched Operation Fischfang, pushing the Allies dangerously close to the beach, but a carefully timed counterattack using forces held in reserve halted the German advance by 20 Feb; in these four days alone, the Allies suffered 3,500 casualties at Anzio and the Germans 5,400. On 22 Feb, Lucas, whose performance had disappointed Harold Alexander and Mark Clark thus far, was relieved, replaced by Lucian Truscott. Although Truscott was entrusted to launch the all-out offensive that Lucas failed to do, such an attack would not take place until many weeks later. In the mean time, the Germans reinforced the lines at Anzio with two Italian divisions fighting under the SS banner; on the other side, the Allies brought in US 34th Infantry Division and later US 36th Infantry Division and replaced British 5th Infantry Division with British 56th Infantry Division.

ww2dbaseBy mid-May 1944, Allied strength at the Anzio beachhead reached 150,000 men (two British divisions and five US divisions). At 0545 hours on 23 May, 1,500 Allied artillery pieces bombarded German lines for 40 minutes, thus commencing a new Allied attempt at breaking out of the Anzio beachhead. The main assault toward Campoleone, Velletri, and Cisterna was conducted by US 45th Infantry Division, US 1st Armored Division, and US 3rd Infantry Division, which were guarded by German 362nd Infantry Division and 715th Infantry Division; the first day of action was costly on both sides, but the 50% casualty rate suffered by the two German divisions would prove to be fatal. On the left flank of the main assault, British 5th Division and British 1st Division advanced up the coast, pinning down German 4th Parachute Division and German 65th Infantry Division. On 25 May, US 3rd Division captured Cisterna, nearly wiping out 362nd Infantry Division in the process, and advanced into the Velletri gap near Cori. Meanwhile, at Valmontone, US 1st Armored Division engaged German Herman Göring Division. At the end of the day on 25 May, Clark ordered Truscott to turn US 1st Armored Division north toward Rome, leaving only US 3rd Infantry Division and supporting units to continue the attack on Valmontone; Clark would not inform Alexander of this maneuver until the following morning. Truscott had doubts about this order, as he believed that if given more time he could have taken Valmontone and inflict very heavy casualties on the defending Germans, but he would obey his new orders. On 30 May, after seven German divisions successfully withdraw along Route 6 in Italy, Kesselring allowed his troops in the Velletri gap to slowly fall back from this area. On the same day, US 36th Infantry Division began penetrating the German Caesar C Line; it would be overrun by 2 Jun. Hitler saw no reason to hold on to Rome, and expressed such sentiment to Kesselring on 2 Jun, who agreed whole-heartily, preferring to move his surviving forces to reinforce defensive lines further north. Two days later, US troops marched into the Italian capital. Clark immediately held a press conference on the steps of the Town Hall on the Capitoline Hill in the same morning in an attempt to secure himself as the victorious general, purposefully understating British participation while doing so.

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13.  David Stubblebine says:
17 Dec 2016 05:42:01 PM

Jack Vest (above):
Army WWII casualty reports list PFC Irvin F. Vest, Jr., service number 356 57 821, as KIA. He is listed in the registry of Mercer County, West Virginia but there is no other information given in that listing. The best source of information on his service is his service record. Ordering a copy is easier than it sounds. See: https://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records

26.  David Stubblebine says:
27 May 2019 03:09:13 PM

Joan (above):
It stands for Purple Heart.