Eighth Army Veterans

City of Manchester

ANZIO

The very word 'Anzio' still strikes terror in the hearts of many men who fought to hold this horrifying beachhead. On 22nd January 1944 the landings by joint British and American forces on the Anzio beaches began, code name Operation Shingle.  Initially there was very little opposition. The British Royal Navy together with the US Navy had landed 36,034 men, 3,069 vehicles, and 90% of the assault equipment of the US VI Corps. This included the British 1st Division and the American 3rd Division, a regiment and a battalion of paratroops, three battalions of Rangers and a brigade of Commandos. In the course of the landings losses amounted to 13 killed, 44 missing and 97 wounded. The landings were supported by four light cruisers and 24 destroyers which had silenced the German shore batteries, and two German battalions had been overrun on the beaches. That was all there was to it! Rome, 37 miles away was available to the Allies and the enemy was unable to do anything about it. All that lay in the path of the invaders was a detachment of the 'Herman Goring' Panzer Division and a hotchpotch of artillery ranging from the odd 88 mm AA, to Italian, French and Yugoslav field guns.

Major General John Lucas, the American Commanding the landing force concentrated on consolidating his bridgehead and getting ashore the balance of his corps. In London, Churchill was champing with frustration and impatience.  He wrote to Sir Harold Alexander thus, "I expected to see a wild cat roaring into the mountains - and what do I find?. A whale wallowing on the beaches!". In his memoirs Churchill wrote: "The spectacle of 18,000 vehicles accumulated ashore by the fourteenth day for only 70,000 men, or less than four men to a vehicle, including drivers and attendants was astonishing."

But this opportunity was missed - at a terrible cost to the Allies. It did gave Kesselring valuable time to organise his response to the landings. The names given to the battles are from another landscape; the 'Factory' and the 'Flyover'.  Tiger tanks were brought up to the perimeter of the beachhead to hold the line and stab at any build up of men or materials.  Heavy artillery further back thumped shells into the holding areas. One of these heavy artillery pieces was a terrifying railway gun 'Anzio Annie', which fired shells that weighed 250kg over an accurate range of up to 30 miles.

 

 

One of our long serving Branch members, George Peake, of the 7th Battalion The Cheshire Regiment, 5th Division, has a harrowing story to tell :-

It was early morning, very cold and dark. Our Company was moving to forward positions, and ahead of us there was heavy shell fire. The sergeant called for us to get under cover, and, seeing a dug-out I put my head inside and enquired of the occupants as to whether there was any room for me. The next second there was a blinding flash. I was knocked out cold. Eventually, I don't how long it was, I came round and found myself lying in the open with my right thigh bandaged and aching very badly, and a lad next to me in very bad condition and seriously wounded in the stomach. Before dawn - he died.

About an hour after dawn four stretcher bearers carrying a Red Cross Flag carried me for about twenty minutes over open ground to a Casualty Clearing Station. Not one shot was fired during the trip. The orderly who had stripped me of my clothes remarked on how 'lucky' I had been. When I enquired why, he showed me my great coat which was full of holes. After a day in the Casualty Clearing Station I was put on a hospital ship and taken to a hospital in Naples, where I stayed for about three weeks. During my stay there I could see through the hospital window the sight of Vesuvius erupting. Later I was put on a hospital train and taken across Italy to Bari on the Adriatic coast, and after a time I went to a convalescent Camp. About three months later I was posted to the 6th Battalion The Cheshire Regiment in the 56th (Black Cat) Division to carry on the push towards Trieste and the end of the war.

 

  Offshore with the invasion flotilla was Len Willcock, who gives the Navy's version:-

 

A large build-up of ships at the beginning of January 1944 was taking place at various ports in Sicily, and in Naples and Malta, for the proposed landings at Anzio, North of Naples. On the morning of the 21st January we in HMS Beaufort found ourselves off Anzio with a large force of warships, landing craft and merchant vessels. Patrols were mounted by destroyers against possible submarine attacks. Shipping at Anzio was being attacked by glider bomb carrying planes, and torpedo planes. Numerous ships were caught in these attacks including the destroyers 'Janus' and 'Inglefield".

Afterwards we and other ships continued our patrols. There was a wonderful sight at this time, of the volcanoes 'Vesuvius' and 'Stromboli' lighting up the sky quite brilliantly. What a sight to behold after the traumatic days and nights spent at Anzio. Nature having its say, I thought.

 

On the beach was one of our very own D-Day Dodgers, Dennis Spencer, who served with the British 5th Infantry Division.  Here he describes sunning himself on the beach:-

 

The Division, including the 17th Brigade and 80 Coy RASC which at the time I was a Supply Corporal, took over from the British 1st Division during the last week in March. 80 Coy was transported from Salerno northwards up the coast in a fleet of DUKWS and, as the sea was very choppy at the time, and as no keels were fitted, practically all the occupants were sea sick to a greater or lesser degree. We took over the Div Maintenance Area which had been established about two miles from the town of Anzio and were instructed to dig in (ourselves as well as all our vehicles). As a result dug-outs were constructed, some of which were quite palatial, and made more comfortable by the use of doors and other materials 'requisitioned' from the bombed out town of Anzio. As a Composite Platoon of an RASC company it was our task to collect food, petrol and ammunition from the various LSTs which had brought them to Anzio docks, and deliver them to the DMA, split them up after working out the figures and issue them to the various units' quartermasters, and this had to be done daily. You could set your watch by the fact that, at 11 am the 88s of the German Tiger tanks stationed around the perimeter would open up and we had to go to ground.

In between working and to relieve the (sometimes) boredom our unit held sports meetings with handicap sprints around the maintenance area. In addition beetle races were held, complete with bookmakers stands and boards. Quite a lot of lira changed hands during these meetings.

The weather gradually improved and the mud turned to dust. During April and May the forward patrols of the Brigade's three infantry battalions were limited to probing and our artillery regiments were kept busy. Stiff resistance was experienced from the German defenders. In early June the forces pushing up from the south were able to break through the defences and 5 Div were able to push towards Rome. I remember sitting in the dug-out on the 6th June and hearing the news, on a razor-blade radio (similar to a crystal set) that the Allies had landed in Normandy. We were lucky enough to be given a day's leave to visit Rome and on that day there was a huge explosion at one of our ammo dumps.

After the break-out we were sent back to the Middle East and then back to Italy again on the way to Marseilles, and up through France in cattle trucks to join the forces pushing towards Germany.

 

By this time, the German artillery was not getting it all their own way.  Fierce exchanges and gun duels took place.  Bill Myhill was heavily involved with these.  He served in The 19th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, commanded by a Major Greg, whose own exploits were later remarked upon in a military magazine

"They (the enemy) were further demoralised by the skill of the artillery officer, Major Grieg, who directed the fire of his guns right up to the lips of the Gully itself."

Bill tells us:-

Being a Signaller we were up with the infantry in observation posts where we relayed fire orders back to the 25 pounder guns, and also repaired telephone lines which were broken by the shelling. The Regiment was continually in action until the break-out from the beachhead.

By the middle of February the Allies were facing a catastrophic defeat similar to that faced at Salerno, and on the 18th every single Allied aircraft in Italy was ordered to support the beach-head. The battle raged on for a further 24 hours like an inferno leaving the horror of broken and bleeding bodies in the Anzio mud. But suddenly, without warning it was over and the enemy was in full retreat. Four days of this bloody battle of attrition had cost the lives of more than 10,000 men as the two armies fought each other to a standstill. There was very little further action at Anzio before May. But from 16th January to 31st March the Fifth Army alone had lost 52,130 killed, wounded and missing. Not until 25th May 1944 was the link-up between Fifth and Eighth Armies finally achieved.