Evening star., 1944-03-23
SmuIIness of Force
Held Only Criticism
Of Anzio Operation
BY WILLIAM H. STONEMAN,
Foreign Correspondent of The Star an,
Chicago Daily News.

oASieA Vi ne StdT ana
Chicago Daily News.
LONDON, Mar. 23.-Seven weeks
from the day Allied troops first en-
tered the outskirts of Casino and
eight days after the greatest tacti-
cal bombardment of all time" was
supposed to have suppressed all fur
ther German resistance, it was an
nounced today that hard fighting
was still going on in the town and
that the Germans were actually
counterattacking in the vicinity of
Monastery Hill.
This seems to confirm what was
suspected before the March Is bonn
bardment took place and seemed to
be pretty clear just after Allied
bombers and artillery had COM
pleted their work, namely, that we
were not going to be able to take
Casino through sheer weight of
explosives, and that infantry as
usual would have to do the Job.
1t now is not even certain that the
infantry can do the job-although
it still seems robable-without ex-
tremely heavy reinrorcements. What
the situation amounts to, in effect,
is that we have paid more than a
reasonable price for the place and
just have not had delivery.
Anzio Operation Misunderstood.
Recriminations are out of place in
connection with what has happened
at Casino, but equally out of place
are any boasts by the air force of it's
prowess on March IS. What hap
pened on that date did small credit
to the effectiveness of Allied bomb
ing; nobody who was there that day
can read reports of bombing sue
cess anywhere without crossing his
fingers.
1t is startling to discover, on ar
irving in London from Italy, how
people have come to misunderstood
the relationships of the Anzio
beachhead operation to the whole
picture there
Everybody seems under the i'm
preston that Anzio was a failure
because the troops that landed on
the beachhead did not either seize
Rome or at least cut German COM
munications around Velletri.
1t can be stated again that the
Anzio operation was a distinct sue
cess as a military operation and
that the troops who landed there
did everything which could be ex-
pected of them. Their mission was
to startle the Germans into with
drawing troops from the Casino
and Garlgliano fronts so that our
main forces on the 5th Army front
could make a breakthrough.
Attempted With Insufficient Force
The Germans just did not react as
expected, but that was not the fault
of the Anzio forces. With the troops
we had available. we could not have
seized and held anything more than
we did take
Anybody who had gone into Rome
or into Velletri would have been cut
off and killed or captured before
ISiIII totIS az lFtb. NtdhtII-
ing of our force by any such goose
chase would in turn have leopard
lied our chances of holding the
beachhead. The only valid criticism
of the Anzio operation, in the
opinion of your correspondent, is
that it was attempted with inSuffl-
Cient force 10 exploit our success.
And if anybody wants to blame
anybody for that, he can blame those
people who have been screaming for
second front and denying that the
Italian campaign, per Sc, was worth
while. The whole trouble with the
Italian campaign is that it has been
made a sort of sideshoW instead of
being prosecuted with all the neces-
sary force. In this case, the first
things have been last served" and
the results have been inevitable.
tCopyright, 1914, Chicago Daily News, Inc J