Michael P. Spradlin - Jack Montgomery: World War II, Gallantry at Anzio

Anzio, Italy January 30, 1944

Lieutenant Jack Cleveland Montgomery led his platoon through the icy-cold knee-deep seawater toward the beach. As he did, he thought about the way things worked in the U.S. Armyhow the decisions of where and when to fight were made. The generals never asked the guys on the ground, the platoon leaders like him, for their opinions. They just gave the orders. He sure wished theyd asked this time. In private conversations, most every one of his fellow officers wondered about this battle plan. They said it made no sense. It was too rushed. They had air support and plenty of troops, but a lot was missing to ensure a successful mission.

First was the lack of critical intelligence. Which divisions of the German army were facing them? How much infantry? Artillery? How many paratroopers?

German forces had been chased out of Sicilythe large Mediterranean island just off the toe of boot-shaped Italyand were scrambling to get into position to hold the Italian Peninsula. The Italians had already surrendered, their air force shot out of the sky. Did the Luftwaffethe German air forcehave pilots and planes ready to attack? No one knew exactly what was ahead.

The Germans were concentrating their defenses along the Gustav Line, which stretched roughly a hundred miles across the narrowest part of the Italian Peninsula. Thousands of soldiers manned machine guns and artillery in trenches and concrete fortifications across the mountains. Planted with land mines and strung with barbed wire, this defensive position blocked the most logical and direct route from the south to Rome, the capital of Italy.

The officers of the U.S. landing forces understood that Adolf Hitler, the German fhrer, was incensed at how quickly the Italian army had folded after the Allies showed up. If he didnt divert German troops to slow the enemys advance north through Italy, the Allies could march right up to Berlin, the German capital, or invade southern France, which his forces occupied. Hitler already had his hands full with the Soviet army in the east, which was turning back his invasion of the Soviet Union. He was also fortifying the northern coast of France, believing the Allies would launch an invasion from across the English Channel. To say the fhrer was in a bit of a tizzy would be a vast understatement.

Propaganda poster from the Soviet Union promoting the effort to defeat Hitler

HITLER VS. THE ALLIES

Adolf Hitler (18891945) and his Nazi Party rose to power in Germany in the 1930s. In 1933, he became Germanys chancellor and soon established an absolute dictatorship, holding control over the entire German state. He remained in power by eliminating all other political parties, controlling the military, and imprisoning or executing his opponents.

The Allies were the countries who had banded together to defeat Hitler, including Britain, France, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India, the Soviet Union, China, and the United States of America.

Jack Montgomery had fought with the Allied forces a few months earlier as they cut through Sicily like a sharp knife through cheese. He had earned a battlefield commission and was promoted from sergeant to second lieutenant. Now they had sailed around the Gustav Line, and Rome was within their reach. Still it wasnt going to be easy. It never was. Lieutenant Montgomery and his men had no idea they would end up fighting some of the Nazis most battle-hardened troops.