![]() ![]() A lack of landing craft kept the force small, just two divisions: British 1st Division (General W.R. But the problems ran deeper than personality. General Mark Clark, the problem child of the Allied command, planned it and General John Lucas of the VI Corps was the less-than-inspiring commander tabbed to lead it in the field. Winston Churchill, the king of the cigar-butt strategists, conceived it. It was ill-fated from the start, and historians have had a field day picking it apart. Shingle was an attempt to outflank the Gustav Line by landing at Anzio in the German rear, 30 miles south of Rome. ![]() Anzio was the Last Ride of the Prussians. In the subsequent fighting, German mechanized formations came perilously close to crumpling the Allied beachhead, closer than they would ever come again to a battlefield triumph in this war. Even worse, the landing handed the Wehrmacht an opportunity to do what it did best: launch a full-scale offensive. Operation Shingle was everything a military operation shouldn't be: badly planned, indifferently led, and uncertain of its own purpose. They landed a small amphibious force-too small, as it turned out-on the western shores of the Italian peninsula, between the small towns of Anzio and Nettuno. ![]() Perhaps the Allies would get sloppy, make a false move, and provide them with an opening.Īnd then, one day in late January 1944, the Allies did just that. Perhaps if they held on long enough, they would find a way to return to the attack like the Prussians of old. Nevertheless, the men and officers of the Wehrmacht endured grimly, clinging to every mountain, river, and ridge, and contesting every inch of ground. ![]() The Allies held all the high cards: endless waves of men, tanks, guns, and aircraft, and absolute control of the sea. Their German descendants had the same mission in the later years of World War II. Prussian officers weren't supposed to count the odds, but to fight outnumbered and win. Just ask where." The slogan made sense for an army that usually fought larger, richer foes and that had no choice but to emphasize willpower over weapons, heart over high technology. The old Prussian Army used to have a saying. ![]()
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