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11- 17 May
Sunday, 11 May 2008
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3ID prepares to breakout at Anzio
Sixty-four years ago this week, in May 1944, the Third Infantry Division was on the verge of beginning its fourth month in what the WWII division historian called with great understatement “the ill-starred campaign” at Anzio. After a successful landing on 22 January 1944, orders from the VI Corps commander had halted the advance on the 26th, allowing the Germans to rush divisions to the front. When the 3ID was allowed to go on the offensive again on the 30th, it was stopped before the town of Cisterna. Three months of attack and counterattack then began, the Germans trying to push the division back into the sea and the 3ID repulsing them. There were also command changes: MG Lucien Truscott, Jr., 3ID CG, was promoted to the command of VI Corps and would soon get his third star. MG John O’Daniel, 3ID deputy commander, succeeded him as 3ID commander. The era of hesitant leadership had ended.
By 1 May it was time for the 3ID to break through the German lines and the 3ID spent three weeks training for it. All phases of the training centered on the attack, with emphasis placed on storming pillboxes and other infantry emplacements, using battle-sleds, street-fighting, coordinating the infantry-tank teams, defending against tanks, attacking over open country, and attacking protected “fossi” or ditches. All three infantry regiments had similar training, except the 7th Infantry, which spent time in Nettuno, a village south of Anzio, training for street fighting while using live ammunition and explosives. The 7th Inf. had the mission of assaulting Cisterna, and no one wanted a second failure there. Infantry-tank cooperation received special attention and additional hardening exercises were given members of the battle patrols that had been previously organized in each regiment and the Division Reconnaissance Troop. The patrols comprised 45-60 men and were heavily armed for special assault missions.
The most unusual feature of the training was the creation of battle-sled teams of 60 men in each infantry regiment. The sleds, the invention of the new 3ID commander, MG O’Daniel, were narrow steel tubes mounted on flat runners and were wide enough to carry one armed infantryman lying down. One medium tank towed twelve of them, so a regimental team comprised one platoon of tanks and 60 sleds. Their purpose was to transport soldiers through enemy barrages to the front, the armored tubes serving as protection against shell fragments and small arms fire.
While the infantry units trained, the artillery units reconnoitered all the available area for gun positions. They dug gun pits, completed surveys, erected camouflage, and laid down communication lines. Also, beginning 12 May they began a nightly “cover preparation” program, which successfully induced the Germans to expend much protective fire that could have been used later when the real attack occurred. Additionally, a provisional machine-gun battalion was created using all the .50-caliber machine guns in the Division, which were placed on wooden bases built by the engineers. Using artillery methods, the battalion was trained to place interdictory and harassing fire on known enemy assembly points and routes of advance during the early stages of the attack.
The engineers made sure that everyone else could carry out their missions. They built each regimental sector two extra footbridges that were safe from German artillery fire across the Mussolini Canal that lay between Anzio and Cisterna. They also placed “fascines”, compact bundles to improve traction, in soft spots for use by armored vehicles. They devised mechanical methods to clear enemy minefields quickly and safely, while at the same time training to breech minefields by hand. Finally, they built a new road five miles long to supplement the existing two main routes.
All this having been completed, on the evening of 21 May the 3ID moved out. The next day, 22 May, when the fighting for Cisterna began anew, would be four months to the day from their first landing at Anzio. But this time they would not be stopped.
