大象传媒

Operation Shingle continued

Chapter 4 of 6

The Battle of Anzio was in four parts: The Landing, The Battle, Attrition and The Breakout.

The Battle

GOC 1st (Br) Infantry Division, Major General Sir Ronald Penny KBE. CB. DSO. MC., wrote in his diary on the eve of embarkation:
".....the 24 Guards Brigade should be ashore by 1600hrs [on D Day] and the Division on assault scales by midday D+1. By that time I hope that 24 Guards Brigade will be on its way to Albano, with 3 Brigade on the night of D+1 following them up"

....But not so.

Books have been written about the Battle of Anzio which I would not presume to emulate but I shall merely mention a few of the critical moments affecting my own 1st Infantry Division.

D+2: The Corps Beachhead Line was still the perimeter line of D Day and much material and all the reserves had been landed so no longer could inactivity be excused. The first patrol from 1 Division was sent forward from the Grenadier Guards to probe along the Axis of Advance - the main road northward from Anzio to Albano. They came under heavy fire from buildings christened "The Factory and beat a hasty withdrawal (the Army does not recognise the word "retreat") having established the intelligence. An attack was mounted against this strong point on the morning of D+3 which was finally occupied after fierce resistance with hard hand-to-hand fighting. It was now quite clear that the easy opportunity of reaching the Alban Hills had been lost. However, the first objective had been secured and the Alban Hills looked so much closer that if the next objective, Campoleone Station, could be taken there may yet be success.

D+7: One of the unexpected "eventualities", to which I have already referred, caused a delay of 24 hours in a co-ordinated attack with the US forces which gave the enemy yet further time to strengthen their positions. The British intention was to seize Campoleone Station by now heavily defended with machine guns, self-propelled guns and tanks. After an advance under fearful fire our troops were established south of Campoleone but the objective had not been taken. It was not a good position being now the tip of a salient 5 miles long and vulnerable to infiltration through terrain ideally suited for the purpose and about which the Germans were past masters. Tank support was called but this also failed due to unexpected terrain and the power of enemy fire. To complete the unhappy picture it rained unceasingly for long periods.

The US suffered badly; their attack on Cisterna to the south was repulsed and the bitter news was that the attempt to break through at Cassino had failed. The attack on Campoleone Station was only partially successful. The outlook was not good. Further continuance of the attack on Campoleone was useless given the situation and the very severe casualties sustained. The order was given to make a fighting withdrawal for 4 miles to the previously occupied positions at Carraceto. There was nothing for it but to recognise that the Beachhead perimeter was now a defensive line. It was 4th February.

The next days were a respite from close engagement; time sorely needed to take stock of the casualties and the situation, for soldiers to recover from the mental and physical experience, for battalions to re-organise the survivors into some kind of smaller Order of Battle and generally prepare for the inevitable German attack. Casualty Clearing stations and tented Field Hospitals sufffered from indiscriminate shelling and it is ironic that evacuated wounded men, who might expect to enjoy rest and recuperation and possible return to UK should be killed in their beds. One of the urgent jobs was the provision of earth embankments round the tented wards of the Field Hospital to give some sense of security against shrapnel to the wounded and dying and those gallant women - the army nurses of the Queen Alexandra Imperial Nursing Service - who tended their soldiers with such devotion. A shell is no respecter of persons and they too paid with their lives.

Carroceto and "The Factory" area were of critical importance. A disused railway bed crossed the Anzio-Campoleone road by a high level bridge with embankment approaches which provided a line of defence. Further back the road crossed open country for 2 miles with no stop line until a lateral road and another high level bridge known as "The Flyover". Were this to fall to the enemy it could not be long before the Beachhead was overcome and all lost. Hitler had ordered that "the abscess must be lanced" and indeed it would be.

Casualties at Campoleone and during the withdrawal had been high and our infantry in need of a rest but a defensive position was established around Carroceto Station and "The Embankment"

Hitler's Order of the day read out to the German 14th Army:
"It must be driven home to the enemy that the fighting power of Germany is unbroken and that the invasion is an undertaking that will be crushed in the blood of British soldiers"
Somewhat dramatic but.........

The German attack came on 7th February with three German Divisions against the desperate remnants at Carroceto. Other technical and service personnel had been brought up to improve numbers amongst which were the Royal Engineer Field Companies acting in an infantry role. 23 Field Company was in the line with The Scots Guards positioned in front of Carroceto Station. They held out from all sides against everything the Germans could do until the 10th February when they were attacked with tanks against which there was no defence and were overwhelmed and never seen again. I have since found out that Major "Jake" Hornby, my good friend and their Officer Commanding, was killed and is buried at Cassino. I wish he had been buried where he died - in an Anzio cemetery.

It was during the action at Carroceto that the Grenadier Guards position was seriously threatened from the rear by enemy infiltration. There was just one feasible crossing place over a natural obstacle. Here the German attackers were held at bay with the help of men of the US 504th Para.; the situation was saved by Major W.P. Sidney of The Grenadiers (later Lord De L'Isle and Dudley) who, although wounded, denied the crossing place to the enemy with hand grenades and tommy gun fire - like Horatius of old. For this act of heroism he was awarded the Victoria Cross.

Once again, what was left of the Division withdrew from the positions at Carroceto towards The Flyover and lateral road which was the Final Beachhead Line and beyond which there must be no further withdrawal. It was here that the last stand must be - a case of stand or fall. This was a period of confused fighting amongst the steep, bramble ridden old water courses of "The Wadi Country", a peculiar feature lending itself to a game of cat-and-mouse. 1st Division was totally exhausted and much reduced in strength so its Front was handed over to fresh troops of the 45th US Division and the 56 (Br) Division, 1st Division being placed in reserve - and always the rain.

The knockout blow was being prepared. Von Mackensen, the German Army Commander planned to throw the whole of his 14th Army with the new MarkVI Tiger tanks against the Beachhead defenders on a wide front from The Flyover eastwards but this was countermanded by Hitler who ordered a concentrated punch through The Flyover and directly down the road to Anzio town. Furthermore he directed that the thrust be led by the Lehr Regiment of selected Nazis, demonstration troops who had never been in battle. Von Mackensen, against his better judgement, had no alternative but to obey. The German attack was heralded by a devastating artillery bombardment on 16th February. The 432 guns of VI Corps replied in equal measure. At 0630hrs the attack began on the narrow front decreed by Hitler. Hitler's Lehr Regiment were cut down and turned in disarray; in Von Mackensen's words "thrown back disgracefully", but elsewhere seasoned German troops opened up a wide salient in centre of the Allied line. The next day nearly 40 dive bombers bombed the salient in an attempt to split the front wide open, immediately followed by massed infantry attacking from The Factory. Every gun in the Beachhead, supported by the naval ships, poured high explosives into the salient. The night sky was a continuous flame of fiery-red, the trees standing out in sharp silhouette and in the air a constant drum-roll of cannon, then to be followed in daylight by a massive US air attack of 531 sorties. Yet the German nerve held and their advance continued with 14 battalions, supported by tanks, to within a mile of The Flyover. At this time weary troops from the 1st Division in reserve were called forward again to help and took up positions to the right of The Flyover

Next day - the 18th February - the Germans made what was considered to be the final attack. They had suffered fearful heavy losses, nearly every battalion being reduced to not much more than a company. They had already beaten a large dent in the Allied front line and now felt that with fresh troops they could administer the killer-blow. The British and American tired soldiers waited for the worst in the pouring rain. The attack was launched with infantry reinforcements and tanks, with the road as the axis of advance. Two tanks gained The Flyover embankments but were knocked out with anti-tank gunfire. The infantry stormed through a forward company of the Loyal Regiment on the right but the line held. Meanwhile, every man who could fire a gun had been mobilised - soldiers from the cookhouse, stores, drivers, clerks, the docks, wherever, filled the gaps around the Flyover.

The critical moment had passed. The enemy had fought itself into a state of collapse and even with the bravery of the German soldier nothing more could be done and the vaunted 14th Army, which had started the battle outnumbering the Allies four to one and with the confidence of sufficient numbers for regular reliefs with rested troops and fresh equipment, had had enough. For all that had been done the Final Beachhead Line had been defended and had been held intact against all odds just 4 miles from Peter Beach were the Division landed, only four weeks previously, so full of hope; but there was no victory for Hitler and German arms. The day was 19th February; both sides were to count the cost. Words of mine cannot convey what the infantry (of both sides) endured. I doubt if anyone could except a person who was in the firing line the whole period and then the recollection might be more than was bearable to record. A journalist likened the beachhead to "Hell in a Hatbox" - with much more than a grain of truth. The beachhead was saved, as it had to be, but the cost was horrendous.

Attrition

"Attrition", as used here, has been described as a lull. A lull certainly, but only compared to the fierce battle in defence of the Beachhead perimeter. The infantry of 1st Division were relieved by US troops and 5th (Br) Infantry Division recently landed at Anzio. Air attacks and high level bombing continued unceasingly with particular attention given to Anzio town and shipping in Bomb Bay. As a protection an oily, black smoke screen was generated to hang over Anzio but that did not stop the bombs dropping - it just meant they were more indiscriminate!

A new Nazi weapon showered upon us from the skies - a nasty device called a Butterfly Bomb. This was a small canister of explosives from which sprouted vanes causing it to rotate and fall slowly, rather after the style of sycamore seeds one sees twisting down from the tree in the Autumn. These nasty bombs lay silent and inert on the ground or perhaps in long grass or undergrowth but the tiniest movement would detonate the device causing the loss of a foot, blindness or other injury. From the German point of view these were an efficient weapon as a wounded man is more of a liability than a dead one. The German seemed to thrive on technological tricks. There was the "Marder" midget submarine piloted by a single crewman. This was a modified torpedo with a conventional torpedo slung underneath. Then there was the "Goliath", a miniature tank controlled remotely through trailing wires. The idea was that this small tank, only two feet in height and carrying a 200-pound explosive charge, would advance and be detonated to destroy and intimidate. An example of this was discovered, abandoned at the side of the Albano road, by the same Lt George Baker MC who blew the bridge over the River Moletta immediately after the landing. Next night REME towed it back through The Flyover with a long length of barrage balloon wire and the winch of a Scammell recovery vehicle.

At no time during the whole of the 4 month-period of the Battle of Anzio was any place out of range of enemy artillery and, no matter where, one was liable to be shelled whether in Anzio town, on the beaches, in the woods or at the front; everyone was in a forward area; there was no rear area. Ammunition and petrol dumps were prime targets and to see one of these go up was quite something - pyrotechnics galore! Anzio town was specially selected to receive the attentions of "Anzio Annie". The Germans are good at very big guns! Some may have heard of "Big Bertha" the huge gun which bombarded Paris in WW1. Well ours was of similar ilk. It hid somewhere on the Alban Hills...in a railway tunnel. There it lived like some great brooding monster weighing the best part of 215 tons. Periodically it would trundle out to perform its party-piece which was to hurl a shell weighing a quarter of a ton at the beachhead distant a mere 20 miles. It could deliver its lethal missile, if persuaded by a team of 10 men, over distances up to 38 miles! Its target was mainly Anzio town which it steadily reduced to piles of rubble. There was one redeeming feature...the shell announced its arrival with a sound like the approach of an express train which gave one time to select the most comfortable shelter to hand!

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