What was the name of the Allied operation against which German forces launched a counteroffensive in Anzio in 1944?

Answer 1

The overall codename for the Anzio operation was Operation Shingle. Allied forces 90 miles to the south were stalled before Monte Cassino. The idea was that this amphibious landing just south of Rome would cut the two highways the Germans in the south depended on for supplies, forcing their withdrawal and breaking the stalemate at Cassino. These two roads were Highway 7, running near the coast, the ancient Appian Way, and Highway 6, some 25 miles inland running up the Alban Hills (where the Pope has his summer home, and where the retired Pope now lives). But the initial landing force, the US VI Corps (Reinforced), was too small to accomplish this mission. There were only two divisions, one American and one British, and a bit of thought forces one to acknowledge that cutting a highway 25 miles inland, and keeping it cut, is going to require taking and holding a perimeter in excess of 50 miles, far beyond what a mere two divisions can do. Nevertheless the commander of the landing force could have staked out a larger beachhead with deeper inland boundaries, but failed to even take Highway 7 near the coast in the early hours, when opposition was almost nonexistent. This left the landing forces on a small beachhead atop recently reclaimed swampland (the Pontine Marshes) which was completely surrounded by mountains covered with Germans and German artillery, and every inch of the beachhead was in enemy artillery range. The landings were on January 22, 1944, and only after the US 45th Infantry and 1st Armored Divisions had been sent in to join the 3rd Infantry Division and the British 56th Division (the latter two being the main components of the initial landing force) did the commander feel strong enough to at long last attempt to cut Highway 7. More than a week had passed since the landings, and Germans had been pouring in continuously. The night before the main attack the Rangers made a lunge for the ancient town of Cisterna (Saint Peter knew it as the town of Three Taverns). These were Darby's Rangers. There were only five battalions of Rangers in the entire US Army at that time, and three of these were with Darby at Anzio. Two battalions of Rangers were allowed to proceed down a massive drainage ditch by two recently arrived German divisions, old foes whose presence on the battlefield was as yet unknown to Allied brass, the 2nd Panzer and the Herman Goering Parachute Division. Only seven men from these two battalions made it back to Allied lines, and the remaining battalion of Rangers suffered 50% casualties operating in support. These three battalions of Rangers were disbanded after this disaster on January 31. The next day, the main attack went in, and though the US 3rd ID gained around three miles, the gains fell short of Cisterna, which would remain in German hands for the next four months. This was the first, and almost the only time in the war the US 3rd ID failed to gain its assigned objective. I do not think there was an overall codename for these attacks aimed at taking Cisterna January 31-February 1. The first big German counterattack came on February 3, and came very close to wiping out the beachhead.