Anzio
At five minutes after midnight on January 22nd, the assault convoy carrying 40,000 men and 5,200 vehicles, dropped anchor off Anzio, achieving complete tactical surprise. Within 24 hours 90 percent of the assault force was ashore along with most of the equipment, Anzio harbor was taken, minefields had been cleared and the Corps front was three miles inland, all at a cost of only thirteen killed. Within three hours of the invasion however, Kesselring had decided 'Operation Shingle' was a major threat and had already started assembling his forces for a counter attack. By the end of January 22nd, Kesselring was moving his troops forward for the counter thrust, moving mostly at night they avoided the allied air forces and arrived at the front remarkably unscathed. The invasion commander, Major General Lucas, dragged his feet and the invasion troops, instead of exploiting the tactical surprise they had achieved by thrusting deep inland, only increased the bridgehead slightly thus allowing Kesselring ample time to gather his forces together.
By the time Lucas felt strong enough to continue to attack (the 30th of January) Kesselring had eight Divisions around Anzio with a further 5 on the way. The allies launched a two pronged attack, the British seized Campleone but could go no farther, the Americans attack towards Cisterna had begun by the infiltration of two Ranger battalions of 767, the Germans discovered this and virtually wiped out the two battalions, only six men made it back to allied lines. The two days of bloody fighting ended with the Americans only a little beyond Cisterna and the British had been thrown back out of Campleone, leaving the entire beachhead under German artillery fire. Only the shortage of artillery ammunition and intermittent allied air cover stopped the Germans from slowly destroying the fragile beachhead positions.
Hitler felt that the battle for the Anzio beachhead was one of the most important battles in 1944, if the allies broke out then Southern Italy was lost, if, on the other hand, the Germans could destroy the beachhead, the allies might have second thoughts about an invasion across the English channel, Kesselring was ordered to eliminate the allied 'abcess'. The Germans attacked on the 16th of February, because of enfilading fire from allied warships Hitler did not order flank attacks, instead the Germans attacked the head of the salient. The same weather that prevented allied tanks from cross country movement, now restricted German armor to the roads. A fierce battle raged for four days during which VI Corps was driven back to the original beachhead line, the Germans were staggered by the quantities of artillery and air sorties being used by the allies, on the afternoon of February 17th alone, over 700 sorties were flown in direct support of VI Corps, casualties on both sides were heavy. Kesselring attacked again and again from February 28th to March 3rd until he finally convinced Hitler to stop the offensive and begin construction on the Caesar line south of Rome, to which the Germans could withdraw if the Gustav line fell. Both sides suffered about twenty percent casualties during the month long battle and both sides were exhausted and incapable of further attacks. The Battle for the Anzio beachhead ended in a kind of draw, although the allied troops were not 'driven back into the sea' neither were they in any shape to push forward.