Anzio Beachhead

The words

1. Alban Hills

   This 3,100-foot (945 m) volcanic mass, about 20 miles (32 km) inland, guarded Rome’s southern approaches. Had the Allies seized it quickly, Generalfeldmarschall (general of the army) Albert Kesselring judged, holding the Gustav Line would probably have become impossible.

   Did you know?

   Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark’s order told VI Corps to “Advance on Colli Laziali,” an Italian name for the hills. The wording was deliberately ambiguous, the US Army history says: toward the hills, or to them?

   Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, ch. 17 (opens a new tab) · Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, ch. 22 (opens a new tab) · Anzio Beachhead, The Anzio Landing (opens a new tab) · Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, ch. 20 (opens a new tab) · Fisher, Cassino to the Alps, ranks table (opens a new tab)

2. Anzio Annie

   Allied troops’ name for an 11-inch (280 mm) German railroad gun. The Army’s 1947 study says these giant guns were first reported firing on March 24, 1944. The Annie preserved in America combines parts of two, “Robert” and “Leopold.”

   Did you know?

   In November 2010, after more than 65 years at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, the gun began moving to Fort Lee, Virginia. Its barrel is 70 feet (21 m) long, and an Army museums chief said only one other K5 existed.

   army.mil, Anzio Annie K5 comes to Fort Lee (opens a new tab) · Anzio Beachhead, The Breakthrough (opens a new tab) · Anzio Beachhead, Foreword (1947) (opens a new tab)

3. Anzio Express

   Sources differ: the Army’s 1947 study says one giant German railroad gun was “popularly known as the ‘Anzio Express,’ also as ‘Anzio Annie’”; a 2010 Army article says the Allies called two guns “Anzio Annie and Anzio Express.”

   Did you know?

   Troops in their dugouts tuned in to “Sally” on Axis radio; she mixed crude propaganda with the latest American popular music. The Army’s Anzio study says she was as well known to them as the “Anzio Express.”

   army.mil, Anzio Annie K5 comes to Fort Lee (opens a new tab) · Anzio Beachhead, The Breakthrough (opens a new tab) · Anzio Beachhead, Foreword (1947) (opens a new tab)

4. Axis Forces

   The German forces, joined by some Italian units, opposing the Allied beachhead.

   Did you know?

   The Germans showed little confidence in the Italian battalions that joined them at Anzio. The Army’s Anzio study says they mixed them in with German units down to alternate platoons and took over their positions at night.

   Anzio Beachhead, The Anzio Landing (opens a new tab) · Anzio Beachhead, The Breakthrough (opens a new tab) · Wikipedia: Battle of Anzio (opens a new tab)

5. Beach Assault

   At 2 a.m. on January 22, 1944, VI Corps began landing on three beaches: X-Ray, below Nettuno, for the US 3d Division; Yellow, beside Anzio harbor, for the Rangers and paratroopers; Peter, northwest of Anzio, for the British.

   Did you know?

   At 1:50 a.m., two British rocket craft, each loaded with 798 rockets, opened a 5-minute barrage on the beaches. “There was no reply,” the US Army history says. “The shore line was dark and silent.”

   Anzio Beachhead, The Anzio Landing (opens a new tab) · Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, ch. 20 (opens a new tab)

6. Campoleone

   The road and rail junction on the Albano road, objective of the British drive north in late January.

   Did you know?

   On January 31, 1944, British infantry crossing the railroad embankment at Campoleone met Germans dug into the roadside houses. Some of their tanks and self-propelled guns had been driven through the backs of buildings and were firing out the windows.

   Anzio Beachhead, The Anzio Landing (opens a new tab) · Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, ch. 22 (opens a new tab) · Anzio Beachhead, The Allied Offensive (opens a new tab)

7. Chaplains

   Division Chaplain Herbert E. MacCombie of the 36th Division reached Anzio in May 1944, before the VI Corps chaplains’ Memorial Day service. Three of his friends were killed in the battle for Velletri; he conducted their burials himself.

   Did you know?

   As a young infantry lieutenant, MacCombie had been taught that a frontal attack was “tactically a last resort.” On May 30, 1944, word that his division was to make one left him “heartsick,” until the plan was changed.

   TX Military Forces Museum, 36th Div chaplains (opens a new tab) · Fisher, Cassino to the Alps, ch. 10 (opens a new tab) · Anzio Beachhead, The Breakthrough (opens a new tab)

8. Darby

   Colonel William O. Darby’s Rangers landed beside Anzio harbor on January 22, 1944, and took the port almost intact. On February 18, 1944, during the main German offensive, he took over the battered 179th Infantry.

   Did you know?

   Darby’s immediate objective was a big white casino on the beach. He told naval planners he would “run right through the front door”; he missed it by only 10 or 20 yards (9–18 m), and nobody was shooting at him.

   Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, ch. 20 (opens a new tab) · Anzio Beachhead, The Anzio Landing (opens a new tab) · Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, ch. 24 (opens a new tab) · Anzio Beachhead, The Allied Offensive (opens a new tab)

9. Lucas

   Major General John P. Lucas led VI Corps until Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark relieved him on February 22, 1944, citing pressure from Alexander and Devers. Clark felt Lucas had done all that could reasonably be expected.

   Did you know?

   General Sir Harold Alexander wanted “a thruster like George Patton” instead. General George C. Marshall judged Lucas wise not to go for the Alban Hills: “For every mile of advance, there were seven or more miles added to the perimeter.”

   Anzio Beachhead, The Anzio Landing (opens a new tab) · Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, ch. 24 (opens a new tab)

10. Mackensen

    Generaloberst (general) Eberhard von Mackensen commanded at Anzio from January 25, 1944. In 1946 a British court sentenced him to death, commuted to life, for being “concerned in the killing” of 335 prisoners at the Ardeatine Caves in March 1944.

    Did you know?

    Hitler followed the planning of Mackensen’s February 1944 attack closely and wanted a creeping barrage “reminiscent of those used in World War I.” It was impossible: the Germans simply lacked enough ammunition.

    Anzio Beachhead, The Anzio Landing (opens a new tab) · Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, ch. 20 (opens a new tab) · Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, ch. 24 (opens a new tab) · UNWCC Law Reports, vol. 8, case 43 (opens a new tab) · Fisher, Cassino to the Alps, ranks table (opens a new tab)

11. Medics

    On February 7, 1944, bombs jettisoned by a German plane killed three nurses at the 95th Evacuation Hospital, including the chief nurse, First Lieutenant Blanche F. Sigman. The Army’s 1947 study counts 92 medical personnel killed, 6 of them nurses.

    Did you know?

    Front-line troops called the hospital area “Hell’s Half Acre.” With hospital ships unable to dock, landing craft ferried patients out to them; air evacuation was impossible, since the dust of planes landing and taking off drew immediate artillery fire.

    Anzio Beachhead, The Breakthrough (opens a new tab) · Anzio Beachhead, The Enemy Attacks (opens a new tab) · Anzio Beachhead, Foreword (1947) (opens a new tab) · Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, ch. 26 (opens a new tab)

12. Nettuno

    Anzio’s twin resort town, 2 miles (3 km) east, sat at the center of the beachhead. The 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion took it by 10:15 a.m. on January 22, 1944; VI Corps made its headquarters there.

    Did you know?

    After shells and bombs hit Nettuno’s town hall, VI Corps headquarters moved into wine cellars carved from rock beneath the town. It “was a popular spot while the wine lasted,” the Army’s Anzio study says.

    Anzio Beachhead, The Anzio Landing (opens a new tab) · Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, ch. 20 (opens a new tab) · Anzio Beachhead, The Breakthrough (opens a new tab)

13. Shingle

    Beach pebbles: the “small, round stones that cover a beach.”

    Fifth Army code-named the Anzio plan in November 1943, then shelved it. Its revival was essentially Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s decision, the US Army history says, and the planned force of about 24,000 men eventually grew to more than 110,000.

    Did you know?

    At Marrakech, Morocco, where Churchill was convalescing from pneumonia, a conference on January 8, 1944, made Shingle final. When the word reached Fifth Army headquarters, the mood turned jubilant: “Operation SHINGLE is on!”

    Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, ch. 17 (opens a new tab) · Anzio Beachhead, The Anzio Landing (opens a new tab) · Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, ch. 20 (opens a new tab) · Cambridge Dictionary: shingle (opens a new tab)

14. Skirmishes

    In April 1944, the US Army history says, Italy’s war came down to “raids, ambushes, patrols, and forays, with an occasional sharp skirmish.” At Anzio on April 15, 1944, part of the American-Canadian 1st Special Service Force raided Cerreto Alto.

    Did you know?

    A few troops kept their own chicken pens; others dickered with the few remaining Italian farmers for eggs. Patrols for chickens and livestock, the Army’s study says, were “as carefully planned as patrols against the enemy.”

    Anzio Beachhead, The Breakthrough (opens a new tab) · Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, ch. 24 (opens a new tab) · Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, ch. 26 (opens a new tab) · Anzio Beachhead, The Allied Offensive (opens a new tab)

15. Stalemate

    After the last major German attack was repulsed in early March 1944, the front “remained practically unchanged” until May. The Army’s Anzio study likened it to quiet spells of trench warfare in World War I.

    Did you know?

    With the whole beachhead within range of German guns, the men went underground. From the air, the Army’s study says, the beachhead “created the illusion that thousands of giant moles had been at work.”

    Anzio Beachhead, The Breakthrough (opens a new tab) · Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, ch. 26 (opens a new tab)