Anzio to Rome

[PoorOldSpike]

ANZIO to ROME

By Gunner Bert Reed, 24th Field Regiment Royal Artillery

I enlisted in the Army in 1938. During World War 2 I served in North Africa, Italy, and India. I received extra training covering driving and maintenance of Sherman tanks. I had to be able to drive any army vehicle including a tank.
It was getting dark, but, the weather was mild. It almost felt like summer cruise, but, during the night our landing craft passed by Cassino. The sky was full of gun flashes from both German and Allied artillery.
It seemed surreal and eerie. We crept up the Italian coastline so as to land at Anzio behind the Germans. The main landings had already taken place several days before. This had been an easy landing because the enemy had been taken by surprise. However, about the time I landed they had recovered from this and building up heavy reinforcements.


Morning came, and as we approached the shore we saw that the Germans were firing on the town and at our ships in the harbour and out in the bay. All our ships including warships, transports and landing craft were returning fire. This was a spectacular sight and the noise was unbelievable. German aircraft were buzzing around strafing and bombing.
We landed by climbing down the gang-planks into the water almost to our necks – it felt like our helmets might just float away! Military Police directed us to the Lateral Road that ran from the town to the immediate front line. Under constant enemy fire we wore our steel helmets. There was no infantry fighting within the town but, our engineers were clearing rubble, mines and booby traps. However, our beachhead was only seven miles in depth so the enemy front line was pretty close.


We boarded a three ton lorry and travelled down the Lateral Road still under enemy fire. The lateral road was the one which led to the Alban Hills from the town of Anzio. Unfortunately our front line was below the Alban Hills and overlooked by the enemy who had by now got the range and registration of just about everything we had.
Later a jeep driver informed me I would be joining the 22nd battery of the 24th Field Regiment RA. As we drove our way to the battery he told me the regiment had 105mm Priests. The OP's (observation posts) were Sherman Tanks.
We arrived at the battery command post to be greeted by the signal sergeant, a Scotsman. “Well lad, you are replacing one of the lads in Battery HQ” my name would be put on the duty roster for duties on the telephone exchange, and the radio taking fire orders. He took me over to one of the nearby Sherman tanks calling out to the driver whose name was Bill. He introduced us and left. My new home would be the foxhole which Bill was strengthening with wooden slats from the ammunition boxes.


It was time to have some food (hard tack rations). Bill introduced me to all the other lads. They were not in a receptive mood. They had been dive-bombed earlier and lost some of their mates. As time went by they seemed to warm to me. We had all been thrown together in this war and none of us really wanted to be there. They were a peace-time regiment on their way home from serving their time in India when the war broke out. It was understandable how they felt.
My duties with the battery were to take my shifts on the telephone exchange and the radio receiving fire-orders from the Observation Post (OP). I also had to go up into the OP as needed.
Our lines would get cut by shrapnel etc and they had to be immediately repaired so often we would go out with a field telephone, trace the break and repair it. Everything seemed doom and gloom. Gradually I came to understand why this was. We were trapped with our backs to the sea surrounded by superior enemy forces in positions completely overlooking our beach head. Hitler gave very high priority to operations at Anzio because he thought our defeat would be a superb propaganda coup. He called us the ‘Anzio Abscess’.


The actual Anzio landing was a success catching the German Army by surprise (some officers were taken prisoner still in their pyjamas) However, such a bold and daring plan required a bold and daring General and the American General Lucas was a cautious commander. Instead of cutting German lines of retreat, supply, and communications behind the Gustav line our armies just dug in under General Lucas’s orders. This gave the enemy time to surround us with superior numbers and heavy artillery. Nevertheless, try as they might the Germans could not force us into the sea and could not take our beachhead from us.


All the same, in the end our Anzio campaign was a success. Hitler put such priority to Anzio, the Germans weakened their forces on other fronts in the hope of wiping out our beachhead. Maybe their General’s mistakes more than cancelled out ours.
General Alexander, the Supreme Commander wrote in his autobiography:
“Anzio played a vital role in the capture of Rome by giving me the means to employ a double-handed punch - from the beachhead and from Cassino - which caught the Germans in a pincer movement. Without this double-handed punch I do not believe we should ever have been able to break through the German defences at Cassino”
No one can imagine what it was like on the beachhead. It has been compared with conditions in World War I on the Somme. Living in a hole in the ground for a long period has its effect on you. The way forward was impossible and, the way back was out to sea – with no ships because they had all gone to prepare for the Normandy invasion. If we had been defeated it would have been a massacre.


The Germans fired leaflets from some of their airburst artillery shells. One of them was designed to cause friction between American and British soldiers. It showed one of our women in bed, and an American looking very happy with himself putting his tie back on. The words said “this is what the Americans are doing while you are away” Other leaflets showed pictures of the sea with a floating steel helmet. No-one took any notice of these. Maybe some of the more timid souls were affected, but if they were they certainly never said so. We just accepted the situation and made the best of it.
Because our beachhead was so shallow, in effect everyone was in the front line, but, those lads up at the very front had it bad every single moment. Jerry would attack and take many prisoners, then; we would counter attack and take them back. It was a really crazy war. The weather didn't help, it rained constantly and we thought all the time “when will the day come we can get out of this hell-hole” The whole operation was so demoralizing there was a news blackout for the folks back home. The reason given to us was that they did not need to hear our bad news because they were having enough trouble themselves with all the bombing and food shortages. This meant that at the time, the British and American public never heard the truth about Anzio. Even after the war no one seemed to know where Anzio was let alone what it was all about. It seemed like it was another was another cock up like Gallipoli – and the idea of the same man too.


One day I was ordered to go to our OP up at the flyover in a Jeep. I really thought it was stupid going up in broad daylight, the Lateral Road had open country side on either side of the road and Jerry had the whole road registered for artillery. This meant anyone on that road in daylight was a sitting duck. However, orders are orders, so I set off on my trip alone. I drove through the forest on to the Lateral Road. A Military Policeman stepped out onto the road and stopped me asking where I was going. When I explained to him what my orders were, he thought my signal Sergeant was nuts. I drove off and had gone about a quarter of a mile, when the shells started to come my way. Jerry’s OP's had spotted me on the road and I was an easy target. As I travelled forward the shells were following me and getting closer. The ground heaved and shook, the noise of the explosions was deafening and overwhelming. Up ahead I could see a farm house on the left of the road. I raced for it, turned in and hid behind it. I sat shaking like a leaf, took out a cigarette and smoked it. The shelling stopped, I assumed he couldn't see me. After I had finished my cigarette and pulled myself together. I decided the only thing to do was to go back because I had only managed to cover a small distance because of all the artillery shells aimed at me.

 

[PoorOldSpike]

I pulled out onto the road and started to drive back into the forest. I had not been on the road long, before the shells started to land on the road behind me again. I put my foot down and started to talk to the Jeep, "Come on baby give me all you've got, and let’s get out of here to the safety of the woods” I reached the woods and pulled in to where the Military Policeman was standing. "That was a close one my son," he said. I agreed, took out my cigarettes, offered him one, and we had a quiet smoke. We said our farewells, and I drove back to our command post, the first to greet me was the signal Sergeant. He asked how it went, and when I explained how Jerry was firing on me. “Never mind we just have to go up tonight when it’s dark” he said. I had expected him to put me on a charge for not fulfilling his orders, so, when he said we will go up tonight” I walked away breathing a sigh of relief. Battlefield discipline can be very unforgiving.


My tank commander was Major Crawford. He was a strange one, always looking for his MC which eventually he did get much later in the campaign.
Our OP's in the Shermans were having a bad time. Two of our signalers were cut off and captured. Another OP returning to our position was hit by an amour-piercing shell. It killed the whole crew.
We realised we were going to be in this place for quite a while so we strengthened our foxholes. We had many enemy shells drop close by, we never had a direct hit. The cold and the muddy situation did not affect us as much as I expected. Let’s face it what could we do? We were in a very isolated position, cut off from the rest of the armies in Italy. Our thoughts continued to focus on the day we could break out of this hell-hole.
The Germans eventually realised the British and Americans had a defensive line too strong to be liquidated, so, we reinforced our foxholes and settled down to a long and weary period of static warfare while we built up reinforcements and ammunition stocks for our breakout which eventually took place in late May.


The area in front of the woods was known as the Pontaine Marshes. These had been reclaimed and turned into small co-operative farms. Across these marshes the Germans had tried to penetrate our defences by sending a small radio controlled tank loaded with explosives.
Ammunition was restricted in order to build up for the future when we would break out, so we once again reinforced our fox-holes. In our command post we had a piano that Major England and I found in the ruins of one of the houses in Anzio. We used to have a visit from an American who was with an American Artillery Battery down the road. He would play the piano.
The weather was getting warmer and the area was being sprayed for mosquitoes. Some of the lads had caught malaria, some caught dysentery. They had to stop troops going to the hospital because it got so over crowded with Malaria and Dysentery patients there was no room for casualties. So you just had to really suffer at your place of duty. The battery had a collapsible WC which was rigged up in a clearing. The flies around there became huge and had a vicious sting.
It’s most surprising how well we got along. You would have thought we’d have become bored and irritable with each other but we didn’t. When you are in the battle you don't have time to think about these unimportant things. You knew we were all in trouble together and became very close. No-one walked around looking miserable. We had so much to do and there was no point in brooding at all. Our morale held up well.


As the weather improved our aircraft came over more and more bombing the Germans. We felt it would not be long before we would make a large scale attack on them. Rumours flew around. We were told we would be eventually joining the American 3rd Infantry Division for the breakout and the eventual advance on Rome. When it was dark we travelled over to the American sector where we dug gun positions for our 105mm Priests. We ate in their cookhouse. What a difference in the food they had! It was like eating at the Ritz compared to our meager rations.
The Big Day eventually came. The American 5th army handed over the Cassino assault to the British. On May 12th the offensive at Monte Cassino began. On 18th May, Allied troops led by the Polish Corps captured Monte Cassino. We were ready and waiting so, the very next day, May 19th we moved to our new positions in the American sector, ready for the breakout, we supported the Americans as they advanced. The battery had set up the guns and my tank and battery commander Major Crawford sent me back to RHQ to pick up orders. On the way back I drove past by the opening that would take me to our gun positions. Before I knew it I was through our infantry front line, then, into an area between our infantry and the German infantry. I was caught in the crossfire. This was absolutely frantic. I could hear rifle and machine rounds buzzing around me. I slammed on the brakes realizing I was in really trouble and in no-man’s land. I managed a hasty reverse gear change, sped back through our own line like a bat out of hell. It was amazing, but, despite hundreds of bullets whizzing by I never got a scratch. Once again I was being cared for by the man up stairs.


At 05:45hrs on May 23rd the attack on Cisterna began. American Infantry supported by tanks moved forward, they came up against the Herman Goring Division holding the main route to Rome. Eventually, the German defences fell apart under our sustained pressure together with the forces from the south.
The regiment set up in a position just south of Rome. We heard by radio that one of our tanks was in trouble just outside Rome. The battery commander asked me if I would go up with some rations to tide them over until REME could get there to pull them out of a ditch.
I drove in a jeep along the highway to Rome, and found myself in the middle of a tank battle. The Americans were firing down the main road at some German tanks. I got out of the jeep and took shelter, and was in a good position to see the battle going on. Unbelievably walking down the road came an Italian wedding party. The bride and bridegroom with their guests took not a bit of notice of the battle. However, they soon turned off the road and I did not see them again. The battle raged on, but, I hoped they had a nice wedding party – and a happy marriage.
In the book titled The poor Bloody Infantry 1939-1945 written by Charles Whiting there is a a photograph of me laying on the ground just outside Rome alongside an American infantryman (I am the one on the left - see photo below) The wedding was taking place just down the road, and the sign you can see in the picture 'ROMA' sign was taken down and given to General Mark Clarke and it hangs in his home.

Nearby were some blocks of flats and communist guerillas were dancing around and firing wildly into the air.
Once Rome fell, our regiment was pulled out of action, but, we spent a few weeks in the area. When the Eternal City was completely cleared we were able to visit it quite easily because we were located close to the tramway system.
Meanwhile, the D-Day invasion was launched and we were told the Second Front had begun in Normandy. This tended to push us out of the headline news. Also, we were called the “D-Day Dodgers” How ridiculous, we had forced Italy into surrender, we had decimated and beaten so many of the very best German divisions and weakened the whole of the German army making the job of the D-Day invaders and even the Russians so much easier.
Next we moved to the plains South of the City. Here we constantly rehearsed new tactics with closely coordinated bombing, artillery barrages after which infantry would advance with close artillery support. These tactics were very useful and used in the breakouts after D-Day in Normandy.
Next, we transferred to the 8th Army, this meant going over the mountains to the East coast. What a journey! That is yet another story. We then fought with the members of the 8th Army up the east coast to the River Po where hostilities eventually finished.