Intelligence Bulletin Vol. 2, No. 11 July 1944 and Vol. 2, No. 12 August 1944

The preceding section, which discusses the German defense of Ortona, mentions the use that the enemy made of the debris of destroyed buildings in preparing his defenses. A Fifth Army report from the Anzio front offers an unusually graphic illustration of this German practice — with the difference that in Ortona the Germans performed their own demolitions, whereas in the instance described below they made use of the collapsed walls and general debris of houses shelled by the Fifth Army. On the road to Carano, the enemy held houses A and B and their immediate surroundings (as shown in fig. 2) with 50 to 80 men — or about two platoons. Previously, both houses had been reduced to rubble by Fifth Army artillery fire. In this debris, and in the area immediately surrounding it, the Germans had prepared a formidable strong point to cover a small road bridge over a stream. Fifth Army troops subsequently attacked and captured this bridge. In the case of house A, it was observed that all the machine guns (34's) were emplaced in the house itself or in its outbuildings. Machine gun No. 1 was fired from a table in the ruins of what had been a room; the gun's direction of fire was through a hole in the main wall and then through the archway of a cowshed. By Pliln wlrs wltr, AP colnes p ,, J ■Cd-]..-, 1-n- ■'■"■H" r tpfOlSSble Cf'l
• — ".., Machiflf? (run posLUQG NOTE; MG No. 5 or. second (Mor Figure 2. — A German Defense Area on tKe Anzio Front. emplacing the machine gun in this manner, the Germans concealed its muzzle flash from all directions except to the front, and even from that direction it was not conspicuous. The gunner was well protected from small-arms fire and grenades, and was not exposed when he moved to his alternate (la) position. From position la, the gunner was able to cover an additional area to the front and also to protect the flank of the strong point against any attack from the road. Three Mauser rifles loaded with antitank grenades were found leaning against the wall to the left of the doorway. Machine gun No. 2 was in position inside the same room, and was sited so that it could be fired through a window facing the stream. It is interesting to note that when our forces secured the south side of the building and attempted to toss grenades through the window at machine gun No. 2, the German gunner ricocheted bullets off the wall (W) in an effort to forestall the grenade fire. Machine gun No. 3 was sited in a corner of an adjoining room, where the walls were still standing. This gun was so sited that its plane of fire was close to the ground; during the course of the action, the gun delivered continuous fire, ankle high, toward the stream and, alternately, to the south. The walls afforded protection from the south and west. (This gun was finally knocked out by rifle grenades. ) The siting of machine gun No. 4 shows how the enemy utilizes the characteristic Italian outdoor oven as a machine-gun emplacement. By siting his weapon in the part of the oven normally used for storing wood, the gunner protects himself against small-arms fire from the flanks and rear, and enjoys a certain amount of overhead protection against artillery fire. During the action, the No. 4 gun delivered grazing fire ankle high. (Hand grenades and rifle grenades wounded the two-man crew of this gun, and destroyed the gun itself.) The No. 5 position, in the remnants of a second floor, was occupied by a German soldier who was armed with a machine pistol.

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