UNKNOWN SOLDIERS: Reliving WWII in Europe

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Abruptly out of the free-for-all, six Focke-Wulfs charged Colgan’s flight. [This portion of the page contains copyrighted material and is available in the print edition, but is not available online.]⁸ Then along came some more patrolling P-40s and RAF (Royal Air Force) Spitfires and chased the Jerries back to Rome and beyond. No Allied planes were lost, and the Luftwaffe was kept from attacking the Beachhead.

Leading eight P-40s on patrol the day before we landed, Colgan spotted twenty enemy planes headed for our ships offshore. As they closed on the dozen FWs while other patrols took on the Messerschmitts (Me-109s), the floating targets cut loose. He made the tough decision to pursue the enemy fighter-bombers into the intense friendly fire.

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One brilliant morning on the ground we watched transfixed as a mile above us, against an azure sky, a Spitfire hung on the tail of a German fighter squirming to elude it when suddenly our anti-aircraft batteries picked up the chase, puncturing the blue with cotton puffs of airbursts as they tracked the twists and turns of the prey. Alas, our ground fire lagged just enough for the dogged Brit to dive into it on the very verge of his kill; he took a hit, burst into smoke, spiraled down and bought it, for we saw no parachute flutter open.

Thank God for the flyboys.

By the morning of January 30 the Sixth Corps had 61,330 men ashore facing an estimated 71,500 Germans, and Lucas launched his second attack. The British and our First Armored Division were to smash up Via Anziate, the main highway from Anzio that joined Highway 7 from the south to Rome, while on the right the Third Ranger Battalion would infiltrate the weakly defended town of Cisterna to the northeast and the Fourth would sweep around and bottle them up, opening a wedge for our Third Division to exploit and go on to cut Highway 7 and the enemy lifeline to the southern front.