This is an automated archive.

The original was posted on /r/askhistorians by /u/yeet9754 on 2023-08-25 03:07:51+00:00.

During the Battle of Anzio, the Allies were met with little opposition in their initial landings, which wasn’t capitalized on when the American General John Lucas chose to dig in instead of cutting off the supply routes. People generally seem to agree that the allies easily could’ve easily cut the Germans off and open the way to Rome, but why was the initial resistance so weak when that was case? Shouldn’t the concentration of troops in the Italian peninsula be an obvious target where the allies would navally invade, cut supply lines and potentially encircle troops? Or was Germany just barely holding on to Italy and needed every division in Italy on the front.