On the morning of Friday, February 18, 1944, fresh groups of German panzergrenadiers backed by tanks swept south from their defensive positions at Anzio and overran American forward positions at Aprilia, eight miles north of the landing beaches. Among the American units hardest hit in the German counterattack were the 179th and 180th Infantry Regiments, recently committed from the American reserve. Hundreds of American soldiers surrendered to the Germans when they found themselves surrounded. In the demoralizing aftermath, Maj. Gen. John Lucas, the 45th Infantry Division commander, sent U.S. Army Ranger force commander Lt. Col. William O. Darby to take command of the shattered 179th Infantry.
Darby arrived at the regimental headquarters that afternoon to restore order and, he hoped, the regiment’s morale. When a battalion commander asked if he was going to be relieved for losing his battalion, Darby had a ready response. “Cheer up, son,” he said. “I just lost three of them. But the war must go on.”
