00188

COUNTER ATTACK
The American General Lucas Landed unopposed at Anzio on 22nd

January,1994,with two <a HREF="23273.htm"
onMouseOver="drc('müttefik','IELZ HELP:'); return true;"
onMouseOut="nd(); return true;">Allied</a> <a HREF="23273.htm"
onMouseOver="drc('tümen','IELZ HELP:'); return true;" onMouseOut="nd();
return true;">division</a>. The object of Landing was to cut the
German <a HREF="23273.htm" onMouseOver="drc('hat','IELZ HELP:');
return true;" onMouseOut="nd(); return true;">lines</a> of
communication to the Gustav Line,forty miles to the south. But Lucas had
no faith in the plan, and both Churchill and General Alexsander say that
Lucas was too slow and cautious and failed to realize the great advantage
surprise had given him. For four mounts, <a HREF="23273.htm"
onMouseOver="drc('müttefik kuvvetler','IELZ HELP:'); return true;"
onMouseOut="nd(); return true;">Allied troops</a> holding the
initial <a HREF="23273.htm" onMouseOver="drc('köprü başı','IELZ HELP:');
return true;" onMouseOut="nd(); return true;">brieghead</a> were
subjected to attacks. This extract describes one of the Allied <a
HREF="23273.htm" onMouseOver="drc('karşı taarruz','IELZ HELP:'); return
true;" onMouseOut="nd(); return true;">counter attacks</a>
 
The counter attack was <a HREF="23273.htm"

onMouseOver="drc('başlatmak','IELZ HELP:'); return true;"
onMouseOut="nd(); return true;">launched</a> with drama and
tension still in the air. The 30th <a HREF="23273.htm"
onMouseOver="drc('piyade','IELZ HELP:'); return true;" onMouseOut="nd();
return true;">infantry</a> <a HREF="23273.htm"
onMouseOver="drc('askeri yürüyüş','IELZ HELP:'); return true;"
onMouseOut="nd(); return true;">marched</a> five miles in the
darkness to their <a HREF="23273.htm" onMouseOver="drc('sıçrama','IELZ
HELP:'); return true;" onMouseOut="nd(); return
true;">jumping_of</a> point at the <a HREF="23273.htm"
onMouseOver="drc('taarruz mihveri','IELZ HELP:'); return true;"
onMouseOut="nd(); return true;">shoulder of salient</a>: they
were to advance on the rigt-hand flank of the Bowling Alley with the 6th <a
HREF="23273.htm" onMouseOver="drc('mekanize piyade','IELZ HELP:');
return true;" onMouseOut="nd(); return true;">Armored
infantry</a> ıst <a HREF="23273.htm" onMouseOver="drc('tabur','IELZ
true;">Battalion</a>. The 3th Battalion of the 6th to push forward on
the left side of the road. The tanks would rumble up the track itself.
Infantry and the tanks were also to swing more directly northwards on the
flat ground that strecthed along the Ficiocca Creek, to give a <a
HREF="23273.htm" onMouseOver="drc('yan destek','IELZ HELP:'); return
true;" onMouseOut="nd(); return true;">flanking support</a> to the
<a HREF="23273.htm" onMouseOver="drc('asıl taarruz istikameti','IELZ
HELP:'); return true;" onMouseOut="nd(); return true;">main
thrust</a>. 
A tremendous concentration of <a HREF="23273.htm"

onMouseOver="drc('topçu birliği','IELZ HELP:'); return true;"
onMouseOut="nd(); return true;">artillery</a> was laid on to help
Force H. Eigth British field-artillery <a HREF="23273.htm"
onMouseOver="drc('alay','IELZ HELP:'); return true;" onMouseOut="nd();
return true;">regiments</a> co-ordinated their fire to sweep the
ground in front of the advance, and eight battalions of Corps artillery
plastered the area as well-a ‘<a HREF="23273.htm"
onMouseOver="drc('baraj ateşi','IELZ HELP:'); return true;"
onMouseOut="nd(); return true;">ladder barrage</a>‘ Harmons
Chief of Staff christened the huge artillery effort, a storm of shells which
was to pour up and down the bowling Alley as the <a HREF="23273.htm"
onMouseOver="drc('görev kuvveti','IELZ HELP:'); return true;"
onMouseOut="nd(); return true;">Task force</a> prepared to
move. 
In the mud and cold, following their guides or waiting in the darknes until
hooded lights flash them forward, the columns of tanks and infantry
formed up around the ruined farms of Padiglione hamlet. The nigth was
alive with the that chaos of sound which are inseparable from the <a
HREF="23273.htm" onMouseOver="drc('hassas','IELZ HELP:'); return true;"
onMouseOut="nd(); return true;">tricky</a> business of getting
troops into the order carefully planned for <a HREF="23273.htm"
onMouseOver="drc('harekat başlama saati','IELZ HELP:'); return true;"
onMouseOut="nd(); return true;">zero hour</a>. Tanks skidded
awkwardly off the track, lorries revved up in muddy fields and the dark files
of sweating men-each man carrying 120 rounds of <a HREF="23273.htm"
onMouseOver="drc('cephane, mühimmat','IELZ HELP:'); return true;"
onMouseOut="nd(); return true;">ammunition</a> and his gun –
stumbling through the blackout. Away to the southward, almost, so it
seemed in the darkness, directly behind them, the night sky was being split
apart by the continuous flashing of the guns and the shells busting round
the Flyover. The <a HREF="23273.htm" onMouseOver="drc('kulak
tırmalayıcı ses','IELZ HELP:'); return true;" onMouseOut="nd(); return
true;">din</a> was endless and overpowering. The Germans were
making their final effort to break the Beachhead line. 
The telephone rang urgently in Harmon’s <a HREF="23273.htm"

onMouseOver="drc('karargah','IELZ HELP:'); return true;"
onMouseOut="nd(); return true;">headquarters</a>. Corps were on
the line: the Germans were almost over the Lateral Road,our first <a
HREF="23273.htm" onMouseOver="drc('savunma hattı','IELZ HELP:');
return true;" onMouseOut="nd(); return true;">defensive
position</a> was about to be <a HREF="23273.htm"
onMouseOver="drc('istila etmek, bastırmak','IELZ HELP:'); return true;"
onMouseOut="nd(); return true;">swamped</a>. Harmon’s men
were desperately needed as soon as possible back at the Flyover. Harmon
protested vigorously. He could not possibly get back in time to affect the
battle, and his infantry had already marched miles trough the mud and
darkness to get to their <a HREF="23273.htm" onMouseOver="drc('taarruz
çıkış hattı','IELZ HELP:'); return true;" onMouseOut="nd(); return
true;">jumping-off point</a> at Padiglione. What sense was there
now in sending them marching off again in a new direction? Corps must
stick to the plan and take the risk that the Loyals and the 179th RCT would
hold at the base of the salient while Harmon struck <a HREF="23273.htm"
onMouseOver="drc('cesurca','IELZ HELP:'); return true;"
onMouseOut="nd(); return true;">boldly</a> at the shoulder.
Boldness pays in danger. Corps agreed, and Harmon went on with his
preparations. 
Then, just before zero hour, he was confronted with the need to make
another <a HREF="23273.htm" onMouseOver="drc('acı veren','IELZ
true;">agonizing</a> decision. In the general uncertainty that now
<a HREF="23273.htm" onMouseOver="drc('kuşatmak','IELZ HELP:'); return
true;" onMouseOut="nd(); return true;">surrounded</a> the
Beachhead no one could be confident that the exact position of every
American <a HREF="23273.htm" onMouseOver="drc('birlik, birim','IELZ
HELP:'); return true;" onMouseOut="nd(); return true;">unit</a>
had been correctly marked on the map. The Germans were swarming
everywhere and communication had been cut again and again. Harmon
received reports that an American battalion-later messages said the
company- still lay somewhere out along the Bowling Alley, fighting
desperately in the darkness, surrounded by <a HREF="23273.htm"
onMouseOver="drc('kalabalık','IELZ HELP:'); return true;"
onMouseOut="nd(); return true;">hordes</a> of Germans. The lost
Americans were reported to be directly in the line of the ‘ladder barrage’
about to begin in support of Force H. 
Harmon had to decide at once-stop the barrage and wreck his counter-
attack or let it begin and kill hundreds hard pressed men. He was in great
<a HREF="23273.htm" onMouseOver="drc('ıstırap, elem, keder','IELZ
true;">anguish</a> of mind; and it would be terrible for his own
men to see the barrage going ahead of them, killing their <a
HREF="23273.htm" onMouseOver="drc('silah arkadaşı','IELZ HELP:');
return true;" onMouseOut="nd(); return true;">comrades</a> to
aid their advance. And yet the Beachhead was in danger. If Harmon delayed
his counter-attack the last defences, away to the sout-west around the
Flyover, might crack and let the Germans through. <a HREF="23273.htm"
onMouseOver="drc('düşman','IELZ HELP:'); return true;"
onMouseOut="nd(); return true;">Enemy</a> tanks would be
fannig out onto the <a HREF="23273.htm"
onMouseOver="drc('sığınak','IELZ HELP:'); return true;"
onMouseOut="nd(); return true;">harbour</a> and beaches.
German infantry would be swarming through the Padiglione woodlands
and around the Allied guns. Harmon did not <a HREF="23273.htm"
onMouseOver="drc('tereddüt etmek','IELZ HELP:'); return true;"
onMouseOut="nd(); return true;">hesitate</a>. He gave the <a
HREF="23273.htm" onMouseOver="drc('emir','IELZ HELP:'); return true;"
onMouseOut="nd(); return true;">order</a>, ‘Fire on time’.
 
The concentration of <a HREF="23273.htm" onMouseOver="drc('koruma

ateşi','IELZ HELP:'); return true;" onMouseOut="nd(); return
true;">shell-fire</a> went down along the Bowling Alley with a <a
HREF="23273.htm" onMouseOver="drc('çok büyük','IELZ HELP:'); return
true;" onMouseOut="nd(); return true;">tremendous</a> <a
HREF="23273.htm" onMouseOver="drc('inilti','IELZ HELP:'); return true;"
onMouseOut="nd(); return true;">howl</a> and <a
HREF="23273.htm" onMouseOver="drc('çığlık','IELZ HELP:'); return true;"
onMouseOut="nd(); return true;">shriek</a> of exoplosition that
erupted smoke and flame over the whole landscape ahead. The attacking
infantry followed. They made steady progress for mile up the road-and, to
their intense relief, found that the Americans reported in their <a
HREF="23273.htm" onMouseOver="drc('istikamet','IELZ HELP:'); return
true;" onMouseOut="nd(); return true;">path</a> had in fact <a
HREF="23273.htm" onMouseOver="drc('geri çekilmek','IELZ HELP:'); return
true;" onMouseOut="nd(); return true;">retired</a> before the
barrage began. But they also found Germans in <a HREF="23273.htm"
onMouseOver="drc('mevcut kuvvetler','IELZ HELP:'); return true;"
onMouseOut="nd(); return true;">strength</a>. There was a mass
of unit still in the salient or forming up to try to advance again towards the
Flyover. But there was no question that the Germans disorganized. They
had taken such punishment during the last day and night that they were
mixed up, uncertain of themselves and not steady on the ground. Harmon’s
men pushed them swiftly back. 
A blown bridge on the Bowling Alley delayed the tanks until the engineers
rusheds up to repair it under fire, but the Americans’ blood was up, they
were attacking again at last, striking back in strength. Nothing could stop
them. 
By late afternoon Harmon’s had reached the area of the Dead End Road
from the east, and his tanks had pushed ahead in the flat lands along the
Spaccasassi Creek. The Germans were shaken and disorganized. Two
hundred prisoners had already come in through the Americans lines. Away
to the south the Loyals and North Staffs prepared to <a HREF="23273.htm"
onMouseOver="drc('hücum etmek','IELZ HELP:'); return true;"
onMouseOut="nd(); return true;">assault</a> the last pocket of
German <a HREF="23273.htm" onMouseOver="drc('karşı koyma,
direnme','IELZ HELP:'); return true;" onMouseOut="nd(); return
true;">resistance</a> in a ruined farmhouse just north of the
Lateral Road in front of the Flyover. A white flag was suddenly <a
HREF="23273.htm" onMouseOver="drc('yükselmek','IELZ HELP:'); return
true;" onMouseOut="nd(); return true;">hoisted</a> over the ruins,
and then one or two Germans staggered across the road to surrender. In a
moment a group ran forward to follow their comrades; and then, before
anyone realized what had happened, hundreds of Germans were crawling
out of the rubble and stumbling blindly forward to give themselves up.
They had reached the limit of human <a HREF="23273.htm"
onMouseOver="drc('dayanma dayanıklılık','IELZ HELP:'); return true;"
onMouseOut="nd(); return true;">endurance</a>.

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COUNTER ATTACK

The American General Lucas Landed unopposed at Anzio on 22nd

The counter attack was <a HREF="23273.htm"

A tremendous concentration of <a HREF="23273.htm"

The telephone rang urgently in Harmon’s <a HREF="23273.htm"

The concentration of <a HREF="23273.htm" onMouseOver="drc('koruma

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