Ian Blackwell - Anzio Italy 1944

PETER Beach. Shermans with wading gear come ashore under the protection of a Bofors anti-aircraft crew.

LSTs unloading on PETER Beach.

From late November 1943 onwards the reconnaissance of PETER Beach was carried out by folboat (two-man collapsible canoes) teams from a Combined Operations Pilotage Party and from Z Special Boat Section. These operations were intended to establish the beach conditions for landing personnel and vehicles, and to discover the extent of enemy defences of the area. They were very hazardous and not without mishap or casualties.

During the night of 2-3 December, for example, three folboats were launched from Moto Silurante 24 , an Italian Navy vessel now under command of the Royal Navy, off the intended landing beach. The mission, codenamed Operation PWQ, was led by Sub-Lieutenant KG Patterson RANVR, with AB GD Lockhead as his number two in the canoe. The two other folboats were manned by Captain WG Davis and CSM Galloway and Captain AR McClair and Sergeant R Sidlow, all from the SBS.

Commando at Anzio slung with a Mk 2 Bren gun.

At 0045 hours on 3 December MS 24 made landfall fifty yards northeast of Torre Caldara and the canoeists set off on their missions. Captain Davis headed for the shore, while Captain McClair paddled northwest to find the beach he had been tasked with investigating. After three-quarters of a mile he met Sub-Lieutenant Patterson, and informed him that it was his belief that they were out of position. While they were talking, their folboats were almost swamped by a large wave; the sea and the wind were rising, and visibility deteriorating. Patterson turned towards the shore to clarify his position, which was the last that was seen of him and Lockhead.

McClair continued on course and swam ashore at about 0200 hours to get the required information. By now the wind and sea had risen, and visibility had deteriorated. After twenty minutes he set course to return to the parent vessel, and was aboard it by 0320 hours.

Meanwhile Capt Davis and CSM Galloway, whose task it was to reconnoitre the southern extremity of PETER Beach near Torre Caldara, made soundings of the water depth offshore, and returned to MS 24 at 0225 hours, having seen lights flashing about half a mile further down the coast.

Sketch from Major Davis report on Operation PWQ

Nothing more was heard of Sub-Lieutenant Patterson and AB Lockhead, and the assumption was that their folboat had foundered in the surf. Although both McClair and Sidlow thought that they had heard voices from the shore, neither was certain enough to suggest turning back, and the two sailors had to be reported missing, presumed killed.

This incident was not the only one in which casualties happened off PETER Beach. During the early hours of 30 December, US Navy Ensigns KE Howe and M Pirro failed to return to their parent vessel, PT Boat 201. Captain Davis, commanding the party, considered that the Americans had either overturned their folboat or could not find their way back; with the calm sea, the latter alternative seemed more likely. Two other crews (Captain Davis and CSM Galloway, both RA; and Sub-Lieutenant T Williams RNVR and Ensign J G Donnell USN) returned safely.

Shortly after midnight on 22 January, Allied Task Force Peter dropped anchor offshore, having been guided into place by marker submarines, that for Peter Beach being HMS Ultor . The final approaches were signed by folboat crews from the Combined Operations Pilotage Parties, flashing marker lights out to sea. The landing craft were lowered and loaded with troops from the transports, the LSIs Sobieska , Glengyle and Derbyshire , and formed up into their assault formations, and at 0100 hours the LCT(R)s off each beach opened fire with their barrage of missiles beyond and to either side of the landing areas. They elicited no response from the shore, not even from the machinegun posts which aerial reconnaissance had shown to be established near the Tor Caldera. The first waves of troops, from 2nd Battalion of the North Staffordshire Regiment and 6th Battalion, The Gordon Highlanders disembarked from their assault boats ten minutes later, but their vessels having grounded on the sandbank had to wade the last hundred yards to firm ground.