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The 6615th Ranger Force was a regiment of the United States Army, raised for service in World War II. It served in the Italian Campaign and lost two whole battalions at the Battle of Cisterna, part of the Battle of Anzio in early 1944.
The 6615th Ranger Force was formed specially for use in the Anzio landings (codenamed Operation Shingle). The 1st, 3rd, and 4th Ranger Battalions, the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion, and several other units were molded into a temporary regiment given the name "6615th Ranger Force." Colonel William Orlando Darby, the former commanding officer (CO) of the famous 1st Ranger Battalion, became the regimental commanding officer. Lieutenant Colonel Hermann Dammer served as the regimental executive officer (XO).
6615th Ranger Force-Colonel William O. Darby, C.O.
The 6615th landed at Peter Beach in the port of Anzio, on January 22, 1944. It suffered very few casualties and moved into the city itself. After the U.S. VI Corps occupied Anzio, the corps commander, Major General John P. Lucas and the 3rd Division commander, Major General Lucian Truscott, met with Colonel Darby and decided to have the Rangers sneak behind the German lines and capture the town of Cisterna. The corps and division intelligence officers thought that there was a gap in the German lines. However, the German commanders, Field Marshal Albert von Kesselring and General Eberhard von Mackensen suspected an American attack in the vicinity of Cisterna and sent a large force of crack troops, armored units, and artillery to cut off the Rangers.
On the night of January 30, 1944, the 1st and 3rd Ranger battalions made their way behind enemy lines and killed the German sentries in Cisterna. Suddenly, concealed German artillery and armor opened fire on the Americans. One of the first shells killed Major Miller, the 3rd Battalion commander. Major Dobson, the 1st Battalion C.O., took command of the two battalions. The Rangers took cover and started firing, but rifles were no match for the heavy German equipment. All of the Rangers fought bravely, killing a good number of Germans, but they suffered many more killed and wounded. Major Dobson was among the wounded.
When Colonel Darby, Colonel Dammer, and the other staff officers in the 6615th Regimental Headquarters found out about the plight of the 1st and 3rd battalions, Lt. Colonel Murray's 4th Battalion, with armored and infantry support, fought a bitter, bloody battle with the Germans to try to save the surrounded Rangers of the [1] 1st and 3rd. Many Germans were killed in the two-day battle that followed. However, the relief force was stalled too long to be of much help to their fellow Rangers. Out of the 767 Rangers who made it into Cisterna, only 6 made it out. The rest were either killed or captured.
Cisterna marked the end of the 6615th as a complete regiment. The 4th Battalion was attached to the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment and then to the 1st Special Service Force. Colonels Darby and Dammer were given different assignments. Darby eventually became assistant division commander of the 10th Mountain Division and was killed by an artillery shell while he was riding in a jeep in northern Italy.
After the Battle of Cisterna, the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion bore the brunt of a German counterattack. One of its companies was overrun, but the other companies fought valiantly and, with reinforcements from other regiments and divisions, was able to repulse the attack and took part in a parachute landing in Southern France. It ended the war with a very distinguished record.
The Battle of Cisterna and the story of the six Rangers who made it out is depicted in the 1968 film Anzio .
The Battle of Anzio was a battle of the Italian Campaign of World War II that took place from January 22, 1944 to June 5, 1944. The operation was opposed by German forces in the area of Anzio and Nettuno.
Brigadier General William O. Darby was a career United States Army officer who fought in World War II, where he was killed in action at age 34 in Italy. He was posthumously promoted to brigadier general. Darby led the famous Darby's Rangers, which evolved into the United States Army Rangers. Darby was subsequently portrayed by James Garner in the 1958 theatrical film about Darby's career titled Darby's Rangers.
The Battle of Cisterna took place during World War II, on 30 January–2 February 1944, near Cisterna, Italy, as part of the Battle of Anzio, part of the Italian Campaign. The battle was a clear German victory which also had repercussions on the employment of U.S. Army Rangers that went beyond the immediate tactical and strategic results of the battle.
The 1st Special Service Force was an elite American–Canadian commando unit in World War II, under the command of the United States Fifth Army. The unit was organized in 1942 and trained at Fort William Henry Harrison near Helena, Montana in the United States. The Force served in the Aleutian Islands, and fought in Italy, and southern France before being disbanded in December 1944.
United States Army Rangers, according to the US Army's definition, are personnel, past or present, in any unit that has the official designation of "Ranger". The term is commonly used to include graduates of the US Army Ranger School, even if they have never served in a "Ranger" unit.
The 75th Ranger Regiment, also known as Army Rangers, is the U.S. Army's premier light infantry unit and special operations force within the United States Army Special Operations Command. The regiment is headquartered at Fort Benning, Georgia and is composed of a regimental headquarters company, a military intelligence battalion, a special troops battalion, and three Ranger battalions.
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The Canadian Airborne Regiment was a Canadian Forces formation created on April 8, 1968. It was not an administrative regiment in the commonly accepted British Commonwealth sense, but rather a tactical formation manned from other regiments and branches. It was disbanded in 1995 after the Somalia affair.
The 1st Ranger Battalion, currently based at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Georgia, United States, is the first of three ranger battalions belonging to the United States Army's 75th Ranger Regiment.
The 508th Infantry Regiment is an airborne infantry regiment of the United States Army, first formed in October 1942 during World War II. The 508th is a parent regiment under the U.S. Army Regimental System, and two battalions from the regiment are currently active: the 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment is assigned to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, and the 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment is assigned to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division. The regiment served in combat during World War II, and regimental elements have served in combat in the Dominican Republic, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Iraq and Afghanistan.
The 502nd Infantry Regiment, previously titled the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment, is an infantry regiment of the United States Army. The regiment was established shortly after U.S. entry into World War II, and was assigned as a regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, "The Screaming Eagles", one of the most decorated formations of the U.S. Army. The regiment saw substantial action in the European Theater of World War II and was inactivated in 1945, shortly after the end of the war. Reactivating in a new form in 1956, the 502nd Infantry has served in the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War, Iraq War, War in Afghanistan, and Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq. Since 1974, the regiment has been classified as an Air Assault unit. Currently, its 1st and 2nd battalions are active. Both battalions are assigned to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division.
The 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, now the 507th Infantry Regiment, is an airborne infantry regiment of the United States Army. The regiment was initially assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division in World War II before transferring to the 17th Airborne Division. Now 1st Battalion, 507th Infantry Regiment is part of the United States Army Infantry School, subordinate to its Airborne and Ranger Training Brigade, responsible for the Army's Basic Airborne School, Jumpmaster School, Pathfinder School, and the "Silver Wings" Command Exhibition Parachute Team.
Colonel Edson Duncan Raff was a United States Army officer and writer of a book on paratroopers. He served as Commanding Officer (CO) of the first American paratroop unit to jump into combat, the 2nd Battalion, 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment, near Oran as part of Operation Torch during World War II. His book, We Jumped to Fight, was based on his experience in that operation and was published in 1944.
The 509th Infantry Regiment is an airborne infantry regiment of the United States Army. The unit was initially activated as a single battalion, the 504th Parachute Infantry Battalion, in October 1941 at Fort Benning, Georgia. Nicknamed "Geronimo", the 509th conducted the U.S. Army's first combat jump during World War II on 8 November 1942, flying 1,500 miles from England to seize Tafarquay airport in Oran, Algeria. The 509th made a total of five combat jumps during the war.
The 517th Parachute Regimental Combat Team was an airborne, specifically a parachute infantry, regiment of the United States Army that was formed in March 1943 during World War II, training at Camp Toccoa in the mountains of Northeast Georgia.
The 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, originally the 505th Infantry Regiment, is an airborne infantry regiment of the United States Army, one of four infantry regiments of the 82nd Airborne Division of the United States Army, with a long and distinguished history.
The 504th Infantry Regiment, originally the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, is an airborne forces regiment of the United States Army, part of the 82nd Airborne Division, with a long and distinguished history. The regiment was first formed in mid-1942 during World War II as part of the 82nd Airborne Division and saw service in Sicily, Italy, Anzio, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.
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Anzio order of battle is a listing of the significant formations that were involved in the fighting for the Anzio bridgehead south of Rome, January 1944 – June 1944
The Marching Regimentof the Foreign Legion (RMLE) was a French military unit that fought in World War I and World War II. Initially composed of marching regiments from the 1st Foreign Regiment of Sidi Bel Abbes and the 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment of Saida, Algeria, it re-formed as the 3rd Foreign Infantry Regiment.