Twenty-two American soldiers received the Medal of Honor for service during the battle of Anzio in World War II.
In late 1943, the Allies were attempting to liberate Italy from the Germans during World War II.
That meant going up against German Field Marshal Albert Kesselring in Italy.
In order to continue on from Salerno to Italy, an amphibious operation was planned.
On Jan. 22, 1944, the U.S. Fifth Army, Sixth Corps, and British First Infantry Division landed on the beachhead at Anzio, on Italy’s west coast and about 35 miles from Rome.
From the U.S. Navy history website, “After initial success, the Allies were pinned down on the beachhead by a vastly superior German force. The Germans eventually committed 80,000 additional troops to the Italian campaign to ‘push the Allies back into the sea.’
Through sheer bravery and heroism, the Allies held the beachhead. Finally, with long awaited reinforcements, the Allies broke out in late May and ultimately marched victoriously into Rome, in June 1944.
The strategic importance of the Battle of Anzio in the liberation of Italy is well documented. The campaign’s contribution to the overall Allied effort in Europe, however, is often underestimated. The two German corps engaged on the Anzio front were originally destined for Normandy. The success of the Allied landings on the beaches in France in June 1944 were due largely to the tenacity of the Allied forces at Anzio.”
According to a brochure on Anzio written by Clayton D. Laurie of the U.S. Army Center of Military History, “the early morning hours of 22 January 1944, troops of the Fifth Army swarmed ashore on a fifteen-mile stretch of Italian beach near the prewar resort towns of Anzio and Nettuno. The landings were carried out so flawlessly and German resistance was so light that British and American units gained their first day’s objectives by noon, moving three to four miles inland by nightfall.”
The Germans were caught by surprise. Laurie wrote that Maj. Gen. John P. Lucas, commander of the Fifth Army’s VI Corps had recalled that it was “one of the most complete surprises in history.”
“The location of the Allied landings … surprised local German commanders, who had been assured by their superiors that an amphibious assault would not take place during January or February. Thus, when the landing occurred the Germans were unprepared to react offensively. Within a week, however, as Allied troops consolidated their positions and prepared to break out of the beachhead, the Germans gathered troops to eliminate what Adolf Hitler called the ‘Anzio abscess.’ The next four months would see some of the most savage fighting of World War II.”
On June 5, 1944, the Allied troops arrived in Rome to cheering crowds. Soldiers received wine and flowers. Shops closed for the day so the people could celebrate and the Pope made an appearance on the balcony of the Vatican.
(Source: Deb Kiner, Penn Live- 22/1/2020)
