Op SHINGLE - Battle of Anzio

Men of the 2nd Battalion The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers read 'Ireland's Saturday Night', a Belfast newspaper, in their foxhole in the Anzio bridgehead, 17 March 1944.

The Allied commander in Italy, General Sir Harold Alexander, issued an order to US Lieutenant General Mark Clark, commanding (US) Fifth Army, to:

'carry out an assault landing on the beaches in the vicinity of Rome with the object of cutting the enemy lines of communication and threatening the rear of the German XIV Corps'

The aim of the offence was to outflank the German defensive Winter (Gustav) Line and enable the advance on Rome. Alexander believed that if the Alban Hills northeast of Anzio were seized, it could block the German resupply of Cassino. This would force Kesselring into abandoning the Gustav Line and retreat to the Apennines.

Following the US Fifth Army attack on the Germans at the Garigliano and Rapido rivers near Cassino, Operation SHINGLE was launched four days later on 22 January 1944. Major General John P. Lucas, commanding US VI Corps led the operation. The British 1st Infantry Division, commanded by Major General Ronald Penney, landed north on PETER Beach, with the US 3rd Infantry Division, commanded by Major General Lucian Truscott, landing on YELLOW Beach (Anzio port) and X-RAY Beach (Nettuno). Tactical surprise had been achieved and the landings were virtually unopposed.

By the end of the day 36,000 troops and 3,200 vehicles had landed. Despite forward recce finding the road to Rome open and clear, Lucas believed that his force could not hold both the Alban Hills and the vital logistical line of communication to the port of Anzio. He therefore established a beachhead outside Anzio and Nettuno, did not seize the initiative and chose to dig in and wait for the Germans. As a result, the Germans succeeded in containing the landings and by the end of January, the landing was locked in under German artillery fire and air attack. By the beginning of February, German operations indicated a major counter-offensive to destroy the beachhead. General Alexander decided to continue with the break-through operations at Cassino in an attempt to draw German reserves away from Anzio and ordered X (British) Corps on the Garigliano to send reinforcements to Anzio.

Click on the London Irish Rifles to read about the reinforcements sent to Anzio.

Click on the Inniskillings to read about the exploits of the 2nd Battalion The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers at Anzio.

Click on the Battle Honour ANZIO to read about the distinction awarded to our former regiments.

After a four-month stalemate and seven thousand killed, thirty-six thousand wounded or missing, and forty-four thousand hospitalized from various non-battle injuries or sickness, the siege finally ended on 23 May 1944, when the Allies launched a breakout offensive.