The Battle of Anzio took place in Italy 75 years ago on January 22, 1944. My Dad was eighteen and in the Atlas Mountains of North Africa at that time, getting training in mountain warfare and the dangerous art of explosives. The boys in the 88th Infantry didn't know yet where they would be sent to fight, but Italy was a good guess.
The Battle of Anzio (Operation Shingle) took place on a beachfront near the small town of Anzio, thirty miles south of Rome. 36,000 British and American troops made an amphibious landing under Major General Lucas. The landing surprised the Germans and the Allies took the beachhead. Unfortunately MG Lucas delayed his advance. Reacting quickly, within days, Field Marshall Kesselring, the German commander in Italy, moved every available unit in a defensive ring around the beachhead. The Allies were trapped. Once again, as was the case for many battles in Italy, the Germans held the high ground.
For weeks the Germans rained shells on the beach, marsh and harbor. Disappointed with Lucas, Lieutenant General Mark Clark, leader of the US 5th Army in Italy, sent Lucas home and Major General Lucian Truscott took over. After fierce fighting, in May the Allies broke free. Clark ordered Truscott to move northwest towards Rome. The Allies took Rome on June 4, 1944. Clark thought this would bring him fame and recognition, but it was overshadowed by D-Day, the Battle of Normandy, two days later.
The decision by Clark to move Truscott's troops towards Rome was a controversial one because it allowed the Germans fighting near Cassino to withdrawal and head north. They marched to the Gothic line, a line of German fortifications stretching across the middle of Italy from Pisa to Pesano. Kesselring used slave labor, Italians and prisoners, to build bunkers in the north Apennine mountains. This would give the Germans a big advantage in many battles to come in Italy.