What was the battle of Anzio and Casino?

Answer 1

Since the summer of 1943 British and US forces along with other allies,had been advancing slowly through the difficult Italian terrain,now in early 44 they were held up south of Rome were held up by a new German defence line the key to this was a mountain with an ancient monastery called Monte Cassino,the allies planned to outflank this defence by a seabourne assault on a resort town to the North west called Anzio,however the Germans by now expert in defensive warfare reacted quickly and held their ground preventing the beachead from breaking out,they did in the end and US forces captured Rome some 4 months later on June 5 44,in the meantime the Cassino position was also captured after very heavy fighting,the allies were reluctant to bombard this ancient holy building,but used airpower to reduce it to rubble when they believed that the Germans were using the building,the Germans claim that they were not,but now used the allied bombing to good advantage as ruins make better defenses the troops manning these were elite German paratroopers,and the allies found the fighting very hard,it was captured by Polish troops,US General Mark Clark was in for some flak for parading around Rome when he should have been cutting off the Germans retreat from the Cassino area,it was the 5th of June as Clark enjoyed his march through Rome,this event was overshadowed by news the next day 6th June DDay,