Part 9 The Battle of Anzio

We spent a few days in the comfort of our foxhole waiting on our orders to make our way triumphantly up to Rome, when suddenly there was a mighty big thump, and earth and grass flew all over the place. So did I down the foxhole. This was the first of many.

There was a range of hills overlooking the place where we had stopped, and the Germans had brought up their heavy artillery and now were going show us what good gunners they were. Somebody took pity on us, gave us a jeep and told us to move down to the town of Nettuno, which was also in the beachhead. We found a big house, mostly occupied with American military police, but there were two rooms spare on the top floor which they let us have.

We very soon found out why the rooms had been left empty, as Nettuno was also being blasted by the German artillery, and it was safer on the ground or first floor, than on the top floor. I found a single bed on the top floor, abandoned by its owner, and it was luxurious to get on it at night, securely wrapped in my single blanket even if the house did shake occasionally. (Friendly with American M.P. Tin of sardines for army blanket.)

We were ordered to use the jeep and get ourselves, and equipment up to a two-storey farmhouse which was on the front line, and use the upstairs as an observation post. The captain gave us map references which we transmitted back to the supporting warship, and soon the shells were screaming over our heads towards the Germans. They must have realised that the farmhouse was being used as an observation post, because they started shelling it with great fury, and everything started to shake and rattle, including my knees and teeth. We hurriedly made our way downstairs, and there was a unit of the London Scottish, newly arrived in there as well. One young soldier was in a corner crying for his mother, and scraping at the wall with his fingernails. A sergeant took him out the back but I don’t know what became of him, as we had to go back upstairs again when there was a lull in the shelling, and carry on with the bombardment.

We did this intermittently as required using different observation posts, and eventually contact was made by land with the 5^th Army on the 25^th May. The frigate “Penelope” was sunk off Anzio on 18/2/44 by a radio-controlled bomb from a German aeroplane, and some of the survivors stayed at our house until taken back to Naples by sea.