Allied landing at Anzio

The Allied landing at Anzio during WW2 received the codename of Operation Shingle. It was part of Allied Italian Campaign. It began on January 22, 1944, when the United States forces came ashore on the Italian coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. The purpose of this Allied invasion was to outflank the strong German defenses of the Gustav Line, thus breaking the stalemate between the opposing forces there and relieving the pressure on Monte Cassino. Nevertheless, Operation Shingle would soon get bogged down as the Germans would put up a ferocious resistance to the Anglo-American advance.

Forces Involved

The American invasion of Italy at Anzio was carried out by the VI Corps, 5th Army, under Lt. General John Porter Lucas. The VI Corps was composed of the US 3rd Infantry Division, led by JW O'Daniel, the 6615 US Ranger Force, the 504 US Para Infantry Rgt, the British 1st Infantry Division, under Rondald Penney, the 46th Royal Tank Battalion, and two battalions of British Commandos. On the other hand, the defending forces of the Wehrmacht numbered 40,000 men, who belonged to the German 14th Army, under Eberhard von Mackensen.

Summary

The units of the VI Corps landed at Anzio on January 22, 1944. By January 30, they had managed to secure the beachhead. However, when they were ready to advance north, the US Rangers were decimated in a gory ambush at Cisterna as the British 2nd Battalion was annihilated at Campoleone. In February, the Germans launched fierce counterattacks, which came close to completely breach the Allied lines as they punched holes in them. Nevertheless, intense Allied naval gunfire, artillery shelling, and aircraft raids brought the German attacks to a halt.

It was May 20, yet the VI Corps units were still stranded on their beachhead at Anzio. They had to wait for the Allied II Corps forces, who had broken through the Gustave Line at Cassino, for them to be able to break out of the beachhead on May 26, when they linked up with the II Corps spearhead's units. This massive military reinforcement provided by the II Corps forced the German 14th Army's divisions to fall back northwards towards Rome. At the end of the battle for Anzio, the Allies had lost around 23,000 men killed in action and wounded.

Below, maps of the Allied landing at Anzio on January 22, 1944, and the British advance through the Gustave Line.