Anzio, italy January 1944

1. Anzio, italyJanuary 1944 Operation: Shingle

2. Background Allied Invasion of Italy-Sept 1943 The Allies were bogged down by the Gustav Line and making no progress Winston Churchill needed a way to break the German line, conceived idea of second landing in December of 1943 Plan repeatedly cancelled

3. Purpose Initially the plan was to land a division at Anzio to draw out Germans so that the Allies could pass the Gustav Line This plan was later altered to call for the Allied troops to advance rapidly towards Rome, hopefully capturing it, and if not at least diverting Axis forces.

4. The Beach

5. The beach Prior to the 1930’s the area between the beach and mountains had been a marsh, providing an impassable area of swamp and malaria-carrying mosquitos to protect advances towards Rome throughout history. Mussolini had the land drained and turned into cultivatable land.

6. Problems With Planning Winston Churchill wanted to attack in order to break lines General Clark felt that unless the enemy lines were broken within a week, it would be a death trap

7. More problems Initial Orders from Clark to Major Lucas 1) Seize and secure a beachhead in the vicinity of Anzio 2) Advance and secure Colli Laziali (the Alban Hills) 3) Be prepared to Advance to Rome In the end, the 3rd order was omitted when given to Major Lucas, the ground commander

8. Forces Initially had problems with obtaining LST’s for invasion due to them being reserved for D-Day Ultimately 5 Cruisers 24 Destroyers 238 Landing Vehicles 40,000+ Men * 3rd Division trained under USMC guidelines 5,000 Vehicles

9. Battlefield

10. Initial Landing January 22nd, 1944-Unopposed Landing! By Midnight 36,000 men and 2,600 vehicles had been successfully landed

11. Hesitancy in the leadership General Lucas did not advance towards Rome, despite the Italian Resistance offering guides and the expectations of his superiors Often critiqued by historians and tacticians as the cause of the operations failure But in his defense, it was not explicit in the orders for him to advance to Rome, and it may have caused an even more rapid defeat at the hands of the vast German Army

12. German Defense German Commander Kesselring had just ordered troops to reinforce Gustav line By Jan 23rd a division at Anzio By Jan 26th had 3 divisions, Allies surrounded Had the Allies acted faster, they would have outnumbered Germans

13. Allied offensive On January 30th, Lucas launched a 2-pronged attack, one end towards Route 7 and Alban Hills, another along Via Anziate towards CampoleoneAllies-69,000 troops Axis- 71,000 troops Allied offensive was a failure, and many Americans were killed or captured 1st and 3rd Ranger Battalions- 6 out of 767 men made it back

15. German Counterattack February 3rd Axis- 100,000 troops Allies- 76,400 troops Axis pushed to take a salient, and gradually wore down the British defense, by February 10th both sides had taken 20,000 casualties overall. Additionally, Axis flooded fields, making Anzio a marsh once again.

16. Lucas ReplaceD Churchill and the US command were disappointed by his lack of initiative Replaced him with General Truscott

17. Standoff After these battles, both Allies and Axis waited for Spring to conduct any more large operations General Truscott planned meticulously for a cooperative operation with Allied forces south of the Gustav line, near Cassino in order for one of them to break through. Allies- 150,000 troops ashore at Anzio

18. Operation: Diadem

19. Operation Diadem Germans divided over whether the Allies would go up Via Anziate or Route 6 towards Alban Hills On May 23rd, 1944 the Allies began with massive artillery bombardment, then began bloody advance 3rd Inf. Battalion lost 955 men, highest for a battalion in all of WWII Truscott had an opportunity to demolish 10th Army retreating from Cassino, but was ordered to avoid them and march on Rome- very frustrated

20. Victory On June 2nd the Caesar Line collapsed, and Hitler fearing the Soviets decided to give up on Italy- German troops withdrew.

21. Was Lucas Wrong? No- He only had 2 divisions, and while he may have made a good early advance, he would have been crushed by the Germans before he reached Rome-additionally he DID hold the beach, even though it was costly Yes- A faster advance would have avoided the long wait from January to May

22. Levels of War Strategic- To Defeat the Nazi’s in Europe Operational-To seize Rome, and thus Italy, opening a new, mobile front to advance on Germany Tactical-To break through and disrupt the Gustav line in order to move to Rome

23. Amphibious themes The landing was not the problem They landed unopposed, but due to inaction were surrounded by Germans within a few days Amphibious Operation-means to an end The end was unclear to Lucas, whether he was supposed to advance immediately in almost certain death, or attempt to gain strength before launching an attack

24. Type of Operation Interestingly, it was both an Amphibious Assault, and a Demonstration Intended to either draw German forces to allow breakthrough along Gustav Line OR for the troops under Lucas to advance on Rome if troops were not diverted from Gustav Line This ambiguity may have been part of the reason for the early failure

25. Offensive Fundamentals General Lucas DID NOT Maintain Momentum Be aggressive Act Quickly Exploit Success Or in any way neutralize the enemy’s ability to react Instead he sat on the shore, and waited for the enemy to make a move- basically evaporating his chances at success.

27. Works Cited Isely, Jeter Allen., and Philip A. Crowl. The U.S. Marines and Amphibious War; Its Theory, and Its Practice in the Pacific,. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1951. Print. Kappes, Irwin J. "Anzio: Allies Biggest Mistake." Military History Online. 23 June 2003. Web. 13 Mar. 2011. <http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/wwii/italy/articles/anzio.aspx>. Woodruff, William. "The Battle for Anzio." JFQ. Summer 1995. Web. 13 Mar. 2011.