Anzio - German Counter - The Matrix Games version of West Front

Anzio - German Counter. Nearly a week after landing, the Allies finally made a push for the key town of Campoleone. If they took the town, it would open the door to Rome with a straight shot up Highway 7. But the Allies had waited too long and their push for the town was stopped cold with heavy losses. From there, the Germans battered the British 1st Infantry Division and knocked them all the way back to Aprilia, known as The Factory. The crucial town of Campoleone remained under German control and now served as their own door to the entire beachhead through which would pour all the reinforcements to be used in the effort to drive the Allies back into the sea. Field Marshall Kesselring (Commander In Chief, OB Sud) had directed General von Mackensen (Commander, 14. Armee) to retake the Factory and secure the ridges to the west of the Via Anziate to allow the necessary build up for the final sledge hammer push to the beaches. American General John Lucas (Commander, VI Corps) failed to push for Campoleone and the Alban Hills during the initial landings and then repeatedly denied British requests to release the American 1st Armored Division to shore up the lines. Lucas instead chose to build up a defensive perimeter in anticipation of the inevitable German counter attacks. As the British casualty rates soared and their lines fell back, Lucas remained pessimistic and constructed his "final" line of defense. The Italian winter had become harsh with driving rain, wind, fog, and near-freezing temperatures. The supposed air superiority of the Allies was non-existent in the foul weather. Trenches and foxholes filled up with water from the saturated ground and men shivered in them, all the while keeping their heads down during the incessant German artillery shelling. The muddy fields left vehicles and armor confined to the roads for fear of bogging down. The first infiltration into British lines began during the night of 7 February, though this was only the initial feeling out of the defenses. On 8 February, a little before midnight, a fearsome barrage of rockets, heavy artillery, mortars, and the railroad gun Anzio Annie rained down on Allied positions and the Germans launched the big counter attack that Lucas had been waiting for. It now came down to the tenacity of the Allied foot soldiers against the onslaught of German infantry and tanks. Allied artillery extracted a very heavy price on the advancing Germans, but the sheer weight of numbers threatened to overrun the tired and weakened 1st Division. In this engagement, they must hold the vital town of Aprilia, the strategic Buon Riposo Ridge, and the main road passing under the bridge at The Embankment. The German troops must secure these objectives to prepare for the big push to the coast that would be the new Dunkirk for the British. The survival of the beachhead itself is at stake.