Spearhead of the Fifth Army by Frank van Lunteren

Author:Frank van Lunteren
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / World War II
ISBN: 9781612004280
Publisher: Casemate
Published: 2016-08-18T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11

LAST ATTEMPT TO BREAK OUT

Anzio Beachhead, January 28–31, 1944

In the morning of January 28, Pfc. Darrell G. Harris of the Regimental Demolition Platoon was selected with some other soldiers to retrieve the body of a fellow paratrooper who had been killed during the night. He was shocked to find it was Pfc. Quentin T. Newhart, a friend: “Newhart had been on machine gun out post the night before. When we picked him up he was grasping a book of matches in his left hand, and he had the top of his head blown off. One of the prime rules of an infantry soldier is to never strike a match when you are on the front lines at night because it can attract sniper or mortar fire. This soldier had broken that rule and paid for it with his life.”274

Early that afternoon 1st Lt. Edward J. Sims called the 3rd Battalion CP and reported he had been apprehended by an Italian civilian who claimed to know where the thirteen men of the G Company patrol were being held prisoner. First Lieutenant T. Moffatt Burriss, the S-2 officer, questioned the Italian and had him point out the location on a map. He also indicated minefields and light machine-gun positions near that point. It was clear that Sgt. Quinn’s squad was beyond saving—there was no way they could be rescued without suffering fatal casualties. The 3rd Battalion Demolition Squad laid a number of mines in addition to the 200 anti-tank mines and 100 anti-personnel mines that the 3rd Platoon of C Company, 307th AEB, had placed on the east bank of the Mussolini Canal in an area 500 yards north to 600 yards south of Bridge No. 2. Mulloy’s men also laid mines extending 500 yards to 600 yards south of Bridge No. 1.

That night the ranks of the C Company engineers were reinforced with five officers—second lieutenants William O. Claywell, John A. Holabird, Jr., Michael G. Sabia, Melvin C. Ullrich, and Henry B. Ziegler—and twenty-three enlisted men who came from the replacement depot near Naples. There were already five officers in the company, so the authorized complement of eight officers of C Company suddenly had a 25 percent turnover. Parachute infantry replacements were still kept in Naples and Sicily and they were needed to fill up the company strengths. But the senior Allied officers knew that a handful of engineers with a sufficient supply of mines, barbed wire, mine detectors, and construction material could harm the enemy patrols whilst keeping casualties on the American side to a minimum.

Meanwhile, at his VI Corps headquarters in Anzio, Maj. Gen. John P. Lucas had prepared assault plans for the breakout from the beachhead. He realized that his superior officers wanted to see more results. With the British 1st Infantry Division, the 3rd Infantry Division, the 504th PIR, the 6615th Ranger Force (Provisional), the British commandos of 2nd Special Service Brigade, and the recently arrived U.S. 1st Armored Division of Maj. Gen. Ernest Harmon, he

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