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Chapter 12
The Remnant and Its Mission
The great red dragon crouches, ready. Already it has brought about the downfall of one third of heaven's angels (Rev. 12:4, 7-9). Now, if it can devour the infant about to be born, it will have won the war.
The woman standing before it is garbed with the sun and has the moon under her feet and wears a crown of twelve stars. The male Child to whom she gives birth is destined to "rule all nations with a rod of iron."
The dragon pounces, but its efforts to kill the Child are in vain. Instead, the Child is "caught up to God and to His throne." Enraged, the dragon turns its wrath against the mother, who is miraculously given wings and is taken to a remote place specially prepared by God, where He nourishes her for a time and times and half a time3 1/2 years, or 1260 prophetic days (Rev. 12:1-6, 13, 14).
In Biblical prophecy, a pure woman represents God's faithful church.1 A woman depicted as a fornicator or adulteress represents God's people who have apostatized (Ezekiel 16; Isa. 57:8; Jer. 31:4, 5; Hosea 1-3; Rev. 17:1-5).
The dragon, the "serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan," was waiting to devour the male Child, the long-expected Messiah, Jesus Christ. Satan, warring against his arch-enemy Jesus, used as his instrument the Roman empire. Nothing, not even death on the cross, could deter Jesus from His mission as Saviour of humanity.
At the cross, Christ defeated Satan. Speaking of the crucifixion, Christ said, "'Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out'" (John 12:31). Revelation describes heaven's hymn of victory: "'Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. . . .
Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them!'" (Rev. 12:10-12). Satan's expulsion from heaven restricted his works. No longer could Satan accuse God's people before the heavenly beings.
But while heaven rejoices, earth must take warning: "'Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time'" (Rev. 12:12).
To vent his anger Satan began persecuting the womanthe church (Rev. 12:13), which, though it suffered greatly, nevertheless survived. Sparsely populated areas of the earth"the wilderness"provided refuge for God's faithful during the 1260 prophetic days or 1260 literal years (Rev. 12:14-16; see chapter 4, p. 41, on the year-day principle).2
At the end of this wilderness experience God's people emerge in response to signs of the soon return of Christ. John identifies this faithful group as "the remnant. . . which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ" (Rev. 12:7, KJV). The devil particularly hates this remnant (Rev. 12:17).
When and where did this persecution take place? How did it come about? When did the remnant begin to appear? What is its mission? The answer to these questions requires a review of both Scripture and history.
The Great Apostasy
During His last major discourse, Jesus warned His disciples of the coming deception. "'Take heed that no one deceives you, '" He said, "'for false Christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to deceive, if possible, even the elect'" (Matt. 24:4, 24). His followers would experience a period of "great tribulation," but they would survive (Matt. 24:21, 22). Impressive signs in nature would mark the end of this persecution and would reveal the nearness of Christ's return (Matt. 24: 29, 32, 33).
Paul too warned: "'After my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves'" (Acts 20:29, 30). These "wolves" would lead the church to "the apostasy," or "falling away."
This apostasy must occur before Christ's return, Paul said. It was such a certainty that the fact that it had not yet taken place was a sure sign that Christ's coming was not yet imminent. "Let no one deceive you by any means," he said, "for that Day will not come unless the falling away [apostasy] comes first, and the man of sin [lawlessness] is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple [church] of God, showing himself that He is God" (2 Thess. 2:3, 4).
Even during Paul's time this apostasy was already at work in a limited way. His method of operation was satanic, "with all power, signs and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception" (2 Thess. 2:9, 10). Before the end of the first century John stated that "many false prophets have gone out into the world." Indeed, he said, "the spirit of the Antichrist" is "already in the world" (1 John 4:1, 3).
How did this apostate system come about?
The Ascendancy of the "Man of Sin." "As the church left its 'first love' (Rev. 2:4), it forfeited its purity of doctrine, its high standards of personal conduct, and the invisible bond of unity provided by the Holy Spirit. In worship, formalism replaced simplicity. Popularity and personal power came more and more to determine the choice of leaders who first assumed increasing authority within the local church, then sought to extend their authority over neighboring churches.
"Administration of the local church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit eventually gave way to ecclesiastical authoritarianism at the hands of a single official, the bishop, to whom every church member was personally subject and through whom alone he had access to salvation. Henceforth leadership thought only of ruling the church instead of serving it, and the 'greatest' was no longer one who considered himself 'servant of all.' Thus, gradually, developed the concept of a priestly hierarchy that interposed between the individual and his Lord."3
As the importance of the individual and the local church eroded, the bishop of Rome emerged as the supreme power in Christianity. With the assistance of the emperor this highest bishop, or pope,4 was recognized as the visible head of the universal church, invested with supreme authority over all church leaders throughout the world.
Under the leadership of the papacy,5 the Christian church plunged into yet-deeper apostasy. The increasing popularity of the church accelerated its decline. Lowered standards caused the unconverted to feel comfortable in the church. Multitudes knowing very little of genuine Christianity joined the church in name only, bringing their pagan doctrines, images, modes of worship, celebrations, feasts, and symbolism with them.
These compromises between paganism and Christianity led to the formation of the "man of sin"a gigantic system of false religion, a mixture of truth and error. The prophecy of 2 Thessalonians 2 does not condemn individuals, but exposes the religious system responsible for the great apostasy. Many believers within this system, however, belong to God's universal church because they live according to all the light that they have.
The Suffering Church. With the decline of spirituality, the church of Rome developed a more secular profile with
closer ties to the imperial government. Church and state were united in an unholy alliance.
In his classic The City of God, Augustine, one of the most influential church Fathers, set forth the Catholic ideal of a universal church in control of a universal state. Augustine's thinking laid the foundation of medieval papal theology.
In A.D. 533, in a letter incorporated in the Code of Justinian, the emperor Justinian declared the bishop of Rome head over all the churches.6 He also recognized the pope's influence in eliminating heretics.7
When Justinian's general Belisarius liberated Rome in A.D. 538, the bishop of Rome was freed from the control of the Ostrogoths, whose Arianism had resulted in their restricting the developing Catholic Church. Now the bishop could exercise the prerogatives Justinian's decree of A.D. 533 had granted him; he could increase the authority of the "Holy See." Thus began the 1260 years of persecution as Bible prophecy foretold (Dan. 7:25; Rev. 12:6, 14; 13:5-7).
Tragically, the church, with the assistance of the state, tried to force its decrees and teachings on all Christians. Many surrendered their beliefs out of fear of persecution, while those faithful to the scriptural teachings experienced severe persecution. The Christian world became a battlefield. Many were imprisoned or executed in the name of God! During the 1260-year persecution millions of faithful believers experienced great suffering while many paid for their loyalty to Christ with death.8
Every drop of blood spilled put a stain on the name of God and Jesus Christ. Nothing has done more harm to the cause of Christianity than this ruthless persecution. The grossly distorted view of the character of God given by these actions of the church, and the doctrines of purgatory and eternal torment, led many to reject Christianity altogether.
Long before the Reformation, voices within the Catholic Church protested against its merciless killing of opponents, its arrogant claims and demoralizing corruption. The church's unwillingness to reform gave birth to the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century. Its success was a great blow to the authority and prestige of the church of Rome. Through the Counter Reformation the papacy carried on a bloody struggle to crush the Reformation, but it gradually lost the battle against the forces striving for civil and religious freedom.
Finally, in 1798, 1260 years after A.D. 538, the Roman Catholic Church received a deadly blow (cf. Rev. 13:3).9 The spectacular victories of Napoleon's armies in Italy placed the pope at the mercy of the French revolutionary government, which saw the Roman religion as the irreconcilable enemy of the Republic. The French government directed Napoleon to take the pope prisoner. At his orders General Berthier entered Rome and proclaimed the political rule of the papacy at an end. Taking the pope captive, Berthier carried him off to France, where he died in exile.10
The overthrow of the papacy was the culmination of a long series of events associated with its progressive decline. That event marks the end of the prophetic period of 1260 years. Many Protestants interpreted this event as a fulfillment of prophecy.11
The Reformation
The Doctrinal Issues. The following are examples of the un-Biblical doctrines that helped foster the Protestant Reformation and still separate Protestants and Roman Catholics.
1. The head of the church on earth is the vicar of Christ. This doctrine claims that only the bishop of Rome is the vicar or representative of Christ on earth and the visible head of the church. In contrast to the Biblical view of church leadership (see chapter 11 of this book), this doctrine was based on the assumptions that Christ made Peter the visible head of the church and that the pope is Peter's successor.12
2. The infallibility of the church and its head. The doctrine that contributed most strongly to the prestige and influence of the church of Rome was that of its infallibility. The church claimed it had never erred, and never would. It based this teaching on the following reasoning, which finds no Biblical support: Because the church is divine, one of its inherent attributes is infallibility. In addition, since God intended, through this divine church, to lead all people of good will to heaven, she must be infallible in teaching faith and morals.13 Christ, then, will preserve her from all error through the power of the Holy Spirit.
The logical corollary, which denies the basic corruptness of humans (see chapter 7 of this book), is that the church's leader must also be infallible.14 Accordingly Catholic literature claimed divine prerogatives for its leader.15
3. The eclipse of Christ's high-priestly mediatorial ministry. As the influence of the church of Rome increased, the attention of believers was shifted away from Christ's continual mediatorial work as High Priest in heaventhe antitype of the continual daily sacrifices of the Old Testament sanctuary services (see chapters 4 and 23 of this book)to an earthly priesthood with its leader in Rome. Instead of trusting in Christ for forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation (see chapters 9 and 10 of this book), believers placed their faith in popes, priests, and prelates. Contradicting the New Testament teaching of the priesthood of all believers, the clergy's ministry of absolution was now believed to be vital for salvation.
Christ's priestly ministry in heaven, where He constantly applies the benefits of His atoning sacrifice to repentant
believers, was effectually negated when the church substituted the mass for the Lord's Supper. Unlike the Lord's Suppera service that Jesus instituted to commemorate His death and to foreshadow His coming kingdom (see chapter 15 of this book)the Catholic Church claims the mass to be a human priest's unbloody sacrifice of Christ to God. Because Christ is offered again, as He was at Calvary, the mass was considered to bring special grace to believers and the deceased.16
Ignorant of the Scriptures, knowing only the mass conducted by a human priesthood, multitudes lost the blessing of direct access to our Mediator Jesus Christ. Thus the promise and invitation, "Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Heb. 4:16), was obliterated.
4. The meritorious nature of good works. The prevalent view that by doing good works a person could obtain the merit vital for salvation, that faith could not save, contradicted the New Testament's teaching (see chapters 9 and 10 of this book). The Catholic Church taught that the good works that were the result of grace infused into the sinner's heart were meritorious, which meant that they gave an individual a just claim to salvation. In fact, one could perform more good works than were necessary for salvationas was the case with the saintsand thus accumulate extra merits. This extra merit could be used for the benefit of others. Because the church held that sinners were justified on the basis of the righteousness infused into their hearts, good works played an important role in a person's justification.
Meritorious works also played an important role in the doctrine of purgatory, which asserts that those who are not perfectly pure must bear a cleansing, temporal punishment for their sins in purgatory before they enter into the joys of heaven. By their prayers and good works, living believers could shorten the duration and the intensity of the suffering of those in purgatory.
5. The doctrine of penance and indulgences. Penance is the sacrament by which Christians may obtain forgiveness for sins committed after baptism. This forgiveness of sins is accomplished through the absolution of a priest, but before it can be obtained, Christians must examine their consciences, repent for their sins, and resolve to nevermore offend God. Then they must confess their sins to the priest and perform the penancesome task assigned by the priest.
Penance, however, did not completely release sinners. They still had to bear the temporal punishment either in this life or in purgatory. To take care of this punishment the church instituted indulgences, which provided the remission of the temporal punishment that remained due on account of sin after the guilt had been absolved. Indulgences, which could benefit both the living and those in purgatory, were granted on condition of penitence and the performance of prescribed good works, often in the form of payment of money to the church.
It was the extra merits of the martyrs, saints, apostles, and especially Jesus Christ and Mary, that made indulgences possible. Their merits were deposited in a "treasury of merit" and were transferable to those believers whose accounts were deficient. The pope, as the alleged successor of Peter, was in control of the keys of this treasury and could release people from temporal punishment by assigning them credit from the treasury.17
6. Ultimate authority resides in the church. Throughout the centuries the established church adopted many pagan beliefs, holy days, and symbols. When voices cried out against these abominations, the church of Rome assumed the sole right to interpret the Bible. The church, not the Bible, became the final authority (see chapter 1 of this book). The church argued that two sources of divine truth existed: (1) The sacred Scriptures and (2) the Catholic tradition, which consisted of the writings of the Church Fathers, the decrees of church councils, approved creeds, and ceremonies of the church. Whenever church doctrines were supported by tradition but not by Scripture, tradition took precedence. Common believers had no authority to interpret the doctrines God had revealed in Scripture. That authority resided only in the Catholic Church.18
The Dawn of a New Day. In the fourteenth century John Wycliffe called for a reformation of the church, not only in England but in all Christendom. During a time when few copies of the Bible existed, he provided the first translation of the whole Bible into English. His teachings of salvation through faith in Christ alone and that only the Scriptures were infallible laid the foundation of the Protestant Reformation. As the morning star of the Reformation, he tried to free Christ's church from the bonds of paganism that chained it in ignorance. He inaugurated a movement that was to liberate individual minds and to free whole nations from the clutches of religious error. Wycliffe's writings touched the souls of Huss, Jerome, Luther, and many others.
Martin Lutherfiery, impulsive, uncompromisingwas perhaps the most powerful personality of the Reformation. More than any other man, he led the people back to the Scriptures and the great gospel truth of justification by faith, while he railed against salvation by works. Declaring that believers should receive no authority other than the Scriptures, Luther turned people's eyes upward, from human works, priests, and penance, to Christ as their only Mediator and Saviour. It was impossible, he said, by human works to lessen the guilt of sinning or to avoid its punishment. Only repentance toward God and faith in Christ can save sinners. Because it is a gift, freely given, His grace cannot be purchased. Humans can have hope, therefore, not because of indulgences, but because of the shed blood of a crucified Redeemer.
Like an archeological expedition finding treasures buried beneath the accumulated discards of the centuries, the Reformation uncovered long-forgotten truths. Justification by faith, the great principle of the gospel, was rediscovered, as was a new appreciation for the once-for-all atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ and His all-sufficient mediatorial priesthood. Many un-Biblical teachings, such as prayers for the dead, veneration of saints and relics, celebration of the mass, worship of Mary, purgatory, penance, holy water, celibacy of the priesthood, the rosary, the inquisition, transubstantiation, extreme unction, and dependence upon tradition, were repudiated and abandoned.
The Protestant Reformers were nearly unanimous in identifying the papal system as the "man of sin," the "mystery of iniquity," and the "little horn" of Daniel, the entity that was to persecute God's true people during the 1260 years of Revelation 12:6, 14, and 13:5, before the Second Coming.19
The doctrine of the Bible and the Bible only as the norm of faith and morals became basic to Protestantism. The Reformers considered all human traditions subject to the final and higher authority of the Scriptures. In matters of religious faith no authoritypope, councils, church Fathers, kings, or scholarswas to rule the conscience. Indeed, the Christian world was beginning to awake from its slumber, and eventually, in many lands, religious liberty was proclaimed.
The Stagnated Reformation
But instead of advancing the Reformation, their successors consolidated its achievements. They focused their attention on the Reformers' words and opinions instead of on Scripture. A few discovered new truths, but the majority refused to advance beyond what the early Reformers believed. Consequently the Protestant faith degenerated into formalism and scholasticism, and errors that should have been discarded were enshrined. The flame of the Reformation gradually died out, and Protestant churches themselves became cold, formal, and in need of reform.
The post-Reformation era buzzed with theological activity, but little spiritual progress was made. Frederic W. Farrar wrote that in this period "liberty was exchanged for bondage; universal principles
for beggarly elements; truth for dogmatism; independence for tradition; religion for system. A living reverence for Scripture was superseded by a dead theory of inspiration. Genial orthodoxy gave place to iron uniformity and living thought to controversial dialectics."20 And although the "Reformation had broken the leaden sceptre of the old Scholasticism," the Protestant churches introduced "a new Scholasticism whose rod was of iron."21 Robert M. Grant called this new scholasticism "as rigid as any medieval theological construction."22 The Protestants "practically bound themselves by the limits of their current confessions."23
Controversies erupted. "There never was an epoch in which men were so much occupied in discovering each other's errors, or in which they called each other by so many opprobrious names."24 Thus the good news became a war of words. "Scripture no longer speaks to the heart but to the critical intellect."25 "Dogmas were orthodox, but spirituality was extinguished. Theology was triumphant, but love was quenched."26
The Remnant
What Is the Remnant? In John's description of the dragon's battle with the woman and her descendants, he used the expression "the rest of her offspring" (Rev. 12:17). That expression means the "remaining ones" or "remnant" (Rev. 12:17, KJV). The Bible portrays the remnant as a small group of God's people who, through calamities, wars, and apostasy, remain loyal to God. This faithful remnant were the rootstock God used to propagate His visible church on earth (2 Chron. 30:6; Ezra 9:14, 15; Isa. 10:20-22; Jer. 42:2; Eze. 6:8; 14:22).
God commissioned the remnant to declare His glory and lead His scattered people throughout the world to His "holy mountain Jerusalem," "Mount Zion" (Isa. 37:31, 32; 66:20; cf. Rev. 14:1). Of those thus gathered together Scripture states, "These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes" (Rev. 14:4).
Revelation 12:17 contains a description of the last remnant in God's chosen line of loyal believersHis loyal witnesses in the last days before Christ's second coming. What are the remnant's characteristics?
The Characteristics of the Remnant. The remnant at the time of the end cannot be
easily mistaken. John describes this group in specific terms. Appearing after the 1260 years of persecution, they are made up of those "who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ" (Rev. 12:17).
They have the responsibility of proclaiming, just before Christ's return, God's final warning to all the world, the three angels' messages of Revelation 14 (Rev. 14:6-12). These messages themselves contain a description of the remnant, they are "those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus" (Rev. 14:12). Let us consider more closely each of these characteristics.
1. The faith of Jesus. God's remnant people are characterized by a faith similar to that which Jesus had. They reflect Jesus' unshakable confidence in God and the authority of Scripture. They believe Jesus Christ is the Messiah of prophecy, the Son of God, who came as the world's Saviour. Their faith encompasses all the truths of the Biblethose which Christ believed and taught.
God's remnant, then, will proclaim the everlasting gospel of salvation by faith in Christ. They will warn the world that the hour of God's judgment has arrived and they will prepare others to meet their soon-coming Lord. They will be engaged in a worldwide mission to complete the divine witness to humanity (Rev. 14:6, 7; 10:11; Matt. 24:14).
2. The commandments of God. Genuine faith in Jesus commits the remnant to follow His example. "He who says he abides in Him," John said, "ought himself also to walk just as He walked" (1 John 2:6). Since Jesus kept His Father's commandments, they too will obey God's commandments (John 15:10).
Particularly since they are the remnant, their actions must harmonize with their professionotherwise, it is worthless. Jesus said, "'Not everyone who says to Me, "Lord, Lord'" shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven'" (Matt. 7:21). Through the strength Christ gives them, they obey God's requirements, including all ten of the commandments, God's unchanging moral law (Ex. 20:1-17; Matt. 5:17-19; 19:17; Phil. 4:13).
3. The testimony of Jesus. John defines "the testimony of Jesus" as "the spirit of prophecy" (Rev. 19:10). The remnant will be guided by the testimony of Jesus conveyed through the gift of prophecy.
This gift of the Spirit was to function continuously throughout the history of the church, until "all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13). It is, therefore, one of the major characteristics of the remnant.
Such prophetic guidance makes the remnant a people of prophecy who proclaim a prophetic message. They will understand prophecy and teach it. The revelation of truth that comes to the remnant helps them accomplish their mission
of preparing the world for Christ's return (see chapter 17 of this book).
The Emergence of the Remnant of the Last Days. The Bible indicates that the remnant appears on the world's stage after the time of great persecution (Rev. 12:14-17). The earthshaking events of the French Revolution, which led to the captivity of the pope at the end of the 1260-year period (A.D. 1798), and the fulfillment of the three great cosmic signsin which earth, sun, moon, and stars testified of the nearness of Christ's return (see chapter 24 of this book)led to a major revival of the study of prophecy. A widespread expectation of the imminent coming of Jesus arose. Throughout the world many Christians recognized that "the time of the end" had arrived (Dan. 12:4).27
The fulfillment of Bible prophecies during the second half of the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth century brought about a powerful interconfessional movement centered on the Second Advent hope. In every church believers in the imminent return of Christ could be found, all praying, working, and anticipating the climax of the ages.
The Advent hope brought a deep spirit of unity among its adherents, and many joined together to warn the world about Christ's soon return. The Advent movement was a truly Biblical interconfessional movement centered in the Word of God and the Advent hope.
The more they studied the Bible, the more convinced they became that God was calling a remnant to continue the stagnated Reformation of the Christian church. They had themselves experienced the absence of the true spirit of the Reformation in their respective churches and a lack of interest in the study of and preparation for the Second Advent. Their Bible study revealed that the trials and disappointments God had led them through constituted a deeply spiritual, purifying experience that brought them together as God's remnant. God had commissioned them to continue the Reformation that had brought so much joy and power to the church. With gratitude and humility they accepted their mission, realizing that God's commission had not come to them because of any inherent superiority, and that only through Christ's mercy and power could they in any way be successful.
The Mission of the Remnant
The First Angel's Message.
Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth-to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people-saying with a loud voice, "Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water" (Rev. 14:6, 7).
The first angel symbolizes God's remnant carrying an everlasting gospel to the world. This gospel is the same good news of God's infinite love that the ancient prophets and apostles proclaimed (Heb. 4:2). The remnant do not present a different gospelin view of the judgment they reaffirm that everlasting gospel that sinners can be justified by faith and receive Christ's righteousness.
This message calls the world to repentance. It summons all to "fear," or reverence, God and to give "glory," or honor, to Him. We were created for this purpose, and we can give honor or glory to God in our words and actions: "By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit" (John 15:8).
John predicts that the movement preparing the world for Christ's return will give a renewed emphasis to the Biblical concern for glorifying God. As never before it will present the New Testament appeal for the sacred stewardship of our lives: "Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit." We do not have exclusive rights to our physical, moral, and spiritual powers; Christ bought these with His blood at Calvary. "Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Cor. 6:19, 20). "Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Cor. 10:31).
The fact that "the hour of His judgment" has arrived adds urgency to the call to repent (see chapter 23 of this book). In Revelation 14:7, the word judgment translates the Greek krisis, the act of judging, not the sentence of judgment (krima). It refers to the entire process of judgment, including the arraignment of people before the divine judgment bar, the investigation of life records, the verdict of acquittal or conviction, and the bestowal of eternal life or the sentence of death (see Matt. 16:27; Rom. 6:23; Rev. 22:12). The judgment-hour message also proclaims God's judgment on all apostasy (Dan. 7:9-11, 26; Revelation 17, 18).
The judgment-hour message points particularly to the time when, as the last phase of His high-priestly ministry in the heavenly sanctuary, Christ entered upon His work of judgment (see chapter 23 of this book).
This message also calls on all to worship the Creator. God's call to worship must be seen in contrast to the summons to worship the beast and his image (Rev. 13:3, 8, 15). Soon everyone will have to make a choice between true and false worshipbetween worshiping God on His terms (righteousness by faith) or on our terms (righteousness by works). By commanding us "'to worship Him who made
heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water'" (Rev. 14:7; cf. Ex. 20:11), this message calls attention to the fourth commandment. It leads people into true worship of the Creator, an experience that involves honoring His memorial of Creationthe seventh-day Sabbath of the Lord, which He instituted at Creation and affirmed in the Ten Commandments (see chapter 19 of this book). The first angel's message, therefore, calls for the restoration of true worship by presenting before the world Christ the Creator and Lord of the Bible Sabbath. This is the sign of God's Creationa sign neglected by the vast majority of His created beings.
Providentially, the proclamation of this message calling attention to the Creator-God began at the stage of history when the evolutionary philosophy received a major boost from the publication of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species (1859). The preaching of the first angel's message constitutes the greatest bulwark against the progress of the theory of evolution.
Finally, this call implies the restoration of the honor of God's holy law, which has been trampled upon by the "man of lawlessness" (2 Thess. 2:3, RSV). Only when true worship is restored and believers live the principles of God's kingdom can God be glorified.
The Second Angel's Message
From early history, the city of Babylon symbolized defiance of God. Its tower was a monument to apostasy and a center of rebellion (Gen. 11:1-9). Lucifer (Satan) was its invisible king (Isa. 14:4, 12-14) and it appears that he wanted to make Babylon the agency of his master plan for ruling the human race. Throughout the Bible the struggle between God's city, Jerusalem, and Satan's city, Babylon, illustrates the conflict between good and evil.
During the early Christian centuries, when the Romans were oppressing both Jews and Christians, Jewish and Christian literature referred to the city of Rome as Babylon.29 Many believe that Peter used Babylon as a pseudonym for Rome (1 Peter 5:13). Because of its apostasy and persecution, most Protestants of the Reformation and Post-Reformation era referred to the church of Rome as spiritual Babylon (Revelation 17), the enemy of God's people.30
In Revelation, Babylon refers to the wicked woman, the mother of harlots, and her impure daughters (Rev. 17:5). It symbolizes all apostate religious organizations and their leadership, though it refers especially to the great apostate religious alliance between the beast and his image that will bring about the final crisis described in Revelation 13:15-17.
The second angel's message brings out the universal nature of the Babylonian apostasy and her coercive power, saying that "she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication."
The "wine" of Babylon represents her heretical teachings. Babylon will pressure the powers of state to enforce universally her false religious teachings and decrees.
The "fornication" mentioned represents the illicit relationship between Babylon and the nationsbetween the apostate church and civil powers. The church is supposed to be married to her Lord; in seeking instead the support of the state, she leaves her spouse and commits spiritual fornication (cf. Eze. 16:15; James 4:4).
This illicit relationship results in tragedy. John sees the inhabitants of the earth "drunk" with false teachings, and Babylon herself "drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus," who refuse to accept her unscriptural doctrines and submit to her authority (Rev. 17:2, 6).
Babylon falls because she rejects the first angel's messagethe gospel of righteousness by faith in the Creator. As during the first few centuries the church of Rome apostatized, many Protestants of today have departed from the great Bible truths of the Reformation. This prophecy of Babylon's fall especially finds its fulfillment in the departure of Protestantism at large from the purity and simplicity of the everlasting gospel of righteousness by faith that once so powerfully impelled the Reformation.
The second angel's message will have increasing relevance as the end draws near. It will meet its complete fulfillment with the alliance of the various religious organizations that have rejected the first angel's message. The message of the fall of Babylon is repeated in Revelation 18:2-4, which announces the complete downfall of Babylon and calls on those of God's people who are still in the various religious bodies comprising Babylon to separate from them. Says the angel, "'Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues'" (Rev. 18:4).31
The Third Angel's Message.
The first angel's message proclaims the everlasting gospel and calls for the restoration of the true worship of God as Creator because the judgment hour has arrived. The second angel warns against all humanly originated forms of worship. Finally, the third angel proclaims God's most solemn warning against worshiping
the beast and his imagewhich all who reject the gospel of righteousness by faith ultimately will do.
The beast described in Revelation 13:1-10 is the church-state union that dominated the Christian world for many centuries and was described by Paul as the "man of sin" (2 Thess. 2:2-4) and by Daniel as the "little horn" (Dan. 7:8, 20-25; 8:9-12, KJV). The image of the beast represents that form of apostate religion that will be developed when churches, having lost the true spirit of the Reformation, shall unite with the state to enforce their teachings on others. In uniting church and state they will have become a perfect image to the beastthe apostate church that persecuted for 1260 years. Hence the name image of the beast.
The third angel's message proclaims the most solemn and fearful warning in the Bible. It reveals that those who submit to human authority in earth's final crisis will worship the beast and his image rather than God. During this final conflict two distinct classes will develop. One class will advocate a gospel of human devisings and will worship the beast and his image, bringing upon themselves the most grievous judgments. The other class, in marked contrast, will live by the true gospel and "keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus" (Rev. 14:9, 12). The final issue involves true and false worship, the true and the false gospel. When this issue is clearly brought before the world, those who reject God's memorial of creatorshipthe Bible Sabbathchoosing to worship and honor Sunday in the full knowledge that it is not God's appointed day of worship, will receive the "mark of the beast." This mark is a mark of rebellion; the beast claims its change of the day of worship shows its authority even over God's law.32
The third message directs the world's attention to the consequence of refusing to accept the everlasting gospel and God's message of the restoration of true worship. It pictures vividly the final result of people's choices regarding worship. The choice is not an easy one, for whatever one chooses will involve suffering. Those who obey God will experience the wrath of the dragon (Rev. 12:17) and eventually be threatened with death (Rev. 13:15), while those who choose to worship the beast and his image will incur the seven last plagues and finally "the lake of fire" (Rev. 15, 16; 20:14, 15).
But while both choices involve suffering, their outcomes differ. The worshipers of the Creator will escape the deadly wrath of the dragon and stand together with the Lamb on Mount Zion (Rev. 14:1; 7:2, 4). The worshipers of the beast and his image, on the other hand, receive the full wrath of God and die in the presence of the holy angels and the Lamb (Rev. 14:9, 10; 20:14).
Every person will have to choose whom to worship. Either one's choice of righteousness by faith will be revealed as one participates in a form of worship God has endorsed, or one's effectual choice of righteousness by works will be revealed as
one participates in a form of worship God has forbidden but which the beast and his image command, a man-made worship. God cannot accept this latter form of worship, because it gives priorities to the commandments of men and not to those of God. It seeks justification through the works of man and not by faith that comes through a total surrender to God as Creator, Redeemer, and Re-creator. In this sense, then, the message of the third angel is the message of justification by faith.
God has His children in all churches; but through the remnant church He proclaims a message that is to restore His true worship by calling His people out of the apostasy and preparing them for Christ's return. Recognizing that many of God's people have yet to join them, the remnant sense their inadequacies and weaknesses when they try to fulfill this solemn mission. They realize that it is only through God's grace that they can accomplish their momentous task.
In the light of the soon coming of Christ and the need to prepare to meet Him, God's urgent, compassionate call comes home to each of us: "'Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities'" (Rev. 18:4, 5).
1 The dazzling brilliance of the sun surrounding the pure woman (Rev. 12:1) represents, according to various commentators, the light of the New Testament gospel, which empowered and gave unction to the early church. The moon, mirroring the light of the sun, fitly symbolizes the Old Testament's reflection of the light of the gospel through the predictions and rites that pointed forward to the cross and the One to come. The crown of twelve stars represents the church's roots, arising in the Old Testament in the fathers of the twelve tribes and extending in the New through the twelve apostles. [back] [top]
2 The use of year-day principle to calculate prophetic time was mentioned earlier in reference to the Messianic prophecy of Daniel 9. See chapter 4 of this book. [back] [top]
3 SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 4, p. 835. [back] [top]
4 The name pope literally comes from the Low Latin papa, Low Greek, papas, "father," "bishop"; Greek pappas, "father." The pope is "the bishop of Rome; the head of the Roman Catholic Church." (Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, 2nd ed. [New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1979]). [back] [top]
5 The papacy can be defined as the system of ecclesiastical government in which supreme authority is vested in the pope. [back] [top]
6 Letter, Justinian to Pope John, quoted in Letter, Pope John to Justinian, in Codex Justinianus (Code of Justinian), Book I, title 1, 8, Corpus Juris Civilis, comp., Paulus Krueger, 12th ed. (Berlin: Weidmannsche Verlaglsbuchhandlung, l959), vol. 2, p. 11, in The Civil Law, ed. and trans. S.P. Scott, (Cincinnati, OH: Central Trust Comp., l932), vol. 12, pp. 11-13, Cf. Justiniani Novellae (Justinian's New Constitutions), 131 st New Constitution, Chap. 2, Corpus Juris Civilis, comps. Rudolfus Schoell and Guilelmus Kroll, 7th ed., vol. 3, p.665, in Civil Law, vol. 17, p. 125. See also Don Neufeld and Julia Neuffer, eds., Seventh-day Adventist Bible Student's Source Book (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald, l962), pp. 684, 685. [back] [top]
7 Letter, Justinian to Archbishop Epiphanius of Constantinople, March 26, 533, in Codex Justinians, Book i, title 1, 7, Corpus Juris Civilis, Krueger's ed., vol. 2, p. 8 as quoted in Source Book, p. 685. [back] [top]
8 See e.g. "Persecution," Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, ed. James Hastings (New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1917), vol. 9, pp. 749-57; John Dowling, The History of Romanism: From the Earliest Corruptions of Christianity to the Present Time, 10th ed. (New York, NY: Edward Walker, 1846), pp. 237-616. [back] [top]
9 This blow severely damaged the prestige of the papacy but did not end its influence. Revelation 13:3 speaks of a healing of the "deadly wound," indicating a revival of the papal influence. In the last days it becomes the most powerful religious influence in the world. [back] [top]
10 George Trevor, Rome: From the Fall of the Western Empire (London: The Religious Tract Society, 1868), pp. 439, 440; John Adolphus, The History of France From the Year 1790 to the Peace Concluded at Amiens in 1802 (London: George Kearsey, 1803), vol. 2, pp. 364-369. See also Source Book, pp. 701, 702. [back] [top]
11 Leroy E. Froom, The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald, 1948), vol. 2 pp. 765-782. [back] [top]
12 Peter Geiermann, The Convert's Catechism of Catholic Doctrine (St. Louis, MO: B. Herder Book Co., 1957), pp. 27, 28. [back] [top]
14 Later, the doctrine of papal infallibility was based on the assumption that (1) "infallibility as an attribute of a divine church is necessarily found in its fullness in her headship"; (2) Peter was infallible in teaching faith and morals, and (3) the pope has inherited from Peter the attributes of the divine church. It was concluded that when speaking ex cathedra "the Pope is an infallible Teacher in Faith and Morals" (Geiermann, p. 29). Ex cathedra in Latin literally means "from the chair." In reference to the pope it refers to his official pronouncements addressed to the Catholic Church. [back] [top]
15 For claims made for the papacy, see e.g. Lucius Ferraris, "Papa," art. 2, in Prompta Bibliotheca (Venice; Gaspar Storti, 1772), vol. 6, pp. 25-29 as quoted in Source Book, p. 680. For the claims of the papacy itself, see e.g. Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter, Jan. 10, 1890 and June 20, 1894 in The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII (New York, NY: Benziger Brothers, 1903), pp. 193, 304. See also Source Book, pp. 683, 684. [back] [top]
16 Catechism of the Council of Trent for Paris Priests, trans. by John A. McHugh and Charles J. Callan (New York, NY: Joseph F. Wagner, Inc., 1958 reprint), pp. 258, 259. See also Source Book, p. 614. [back] [top]
17 SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 7, pp. 47, 48. [back] [top]
18 See Council of Trent, Session IV (April 8, 1546) as quoted in The Creeds of Christendom. ed., Philip Schaff, 6th ed., rev. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1983), vol. 2, pp. 79-83. See also Source Book, pp. 1041-1043. [back] [top]
19 Froom, Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2, pp. 528-531. [back] [top]
22 Robert M. Grant, A Short History of Interpretation of the Bible (Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1984), p. 97. [back] [top]
23 Farrar, p. 361. [back] [top]
26 Farrar, p. 365. [back] [top]
27 For the origin of the remnant, see Froom, Prophetic Faith Of Our Fathers, vol. 4; P. Gerard Damsteegt, Foundations of the Seventh-day Adventist Message and Mission (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1977). [back] [top]
28 Cf. Damsteegt, "A Theology of Restoration" (paper presented at the Centennial Conference of Evangelism, Andrews University, May 4, 1974). [back] [top]
29 See Midrash Rabbah on Canticles I. 6, 4; Tertullian, Against Marcion, III, 13; Tertullian, Answer to the Jews, 9. [back] [top]
30 Froom, Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2, pp. 531, 787. [back] [top]
31 SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 7, pp. 828-31. [back] [top]
32 The Catholic Church claims the authority to change the day of worship. "Q. Which is the Sabbath Day? A. Saturday is the Sabbath Day. Q. Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday? A. We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday" (Geiermann, p. 50). See also Source Book, p. 886. This catechism received the "apostolic blessing" of Pope Pius X, Jan. 25, 1910 (ibid.) [back] [top]
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KnKS Motto & Poems
KnKS Motto & Poems
The Parlour, The Forum, It's all in the name
But KnKS is just always the same.
Four years now have gone so fast
No doubt at all we are going to last!
Together we laughed, together we cried
All of us always at each other's side.
If you have a problem, come in and share
Nothing is too much for us to bear.
We tease each other and "take the mick"
But that is just what makes us noodles tick.
We love to laugh, we love to share
Whatever life brings we always will care.
Here are the noodles so wave to them all
Line up for inspection along the hall
If you're not mentioned please don't fear
We love you the same and hold you dear.
Gale causing havoc wherever she goes,
What she will do next, nobody knows.
Carol posting jokes which makes us so groan
But leaving us smiling and without a moan
Angie is "posing" and using her Bryce
Whips up a poser in only a trice.
Owl is tagging like a well oiled machine
The likes of her speed has never been seen
Kells is cooking, tiling and tagging
How does she do it with energy unflagging?
Terry is scrapping and now posing too
Wonder what else she will find to do
Tilly is teasing, tagging and slapping
While Kitty takes over the role of napping!
Lulu is Kindling and Rox is stamping
Did I mention Kells is camping?
Faye has cheered us up with comps
Shelli has shared all her travelling romps
Trish in the background whip in hand
Ready to deal with the recalcitrant band!
Angel works hard though you don't always see
And Sass pops in with a tag or three
Shelli is taking us on her trip
The way things are going she will need a ship!
Karma runs contests and has secrets galore
Hoping this year to see some more.
Cris treats us all with wonderful tags
Varsha keeps us amused with jokes and gags
Wendy is our "looney" from down in Oz
We love her so - and just because
Babzy and Marway pop in when they can
Of their tags we are all a fan
Jewel and Val - they do not tag
Working with filters is just "not their bag"
But we love them so much it's really okay
It's great to see them posting away
We can't forget our lovely and single man
Our Davie who keeps the Forum on plan
With Davie around we are so blessed
Stopping the forum from going sou'west!
So Happy Birthday - let's break out the beer
And give one enormous and resounding cheer
For KnKS and it's noodles so arty
Let's get on down and party party!
Attachment 36
To Kitty and Kells,
First i have to say that i could not have done this without the help of ConnieRae and Krissy. I shared my idea ConnieRae and she told Krissy and they made it happen! You both deserve to be spoiled the way you spoil us.
You guys have done so much more than I think you realize here.
Not only have you given us an Awesome place to come and chat, play games and psp, you have given us a place to call home, with friends and Family alike. Both of you are so generous to us and you are always there when someone needs you.
Not just for questions about the forum or psp, but also when we need an ear to listen or a shoulder to cry on! You both laugh when we laugh, cry when we cry, you congratulate us on our progress and growth of all kinds, You truly have made this place a second home to our real life ones.
And it is not physically knowing or seeing someone that binds a friendship. It is the emotional ties between people that binds them together. And YES, I truly believe that emotional ties can be made just by talking with someone, even if you have no clue who they are or what they look like. I am very honored to be a part of this family and i could never thank you both enough for all that you have done and will continue to do here at our little home. You are so generous and caring always thinking about others, and gifting us with gifts and prizes even though you know some of us are not ever able to do the same for you. You guys have been through a lot since I have been here and you have shown such courage and support by muttling through everything and still being here with us at the same time. Giving us support and courage through all of our ups and downs as well.
You are truly two very special people and you should be proud of your selves. I know there is one very special Guardian Angel who would be so proud of you both and you know who i am talking about.
Thank you both so very much for everything you have done for me and for making this a place to call home!!
"This is the only place where I felt welcome from the word go, even though I got the third degree from da Kellsinator as to how I had heard of the place, cuz I was their first 'outsider' to apply!
Anyway, I love the place, it's small and friendly and we have a great mix of noodles here and encouragement, sympathy, excitement, good wishes and prayers etc are always forthcoming when needed (even a little bit of chastisement from da Whip when necessary!), and you don't doubt that people mean what they say
May we have many more years of the same, says I"
"KnKS is my playground where I come to de-stress (unless I play the games lol) and relax. I can come in here knowing that everyone is very friendly, if I need help, advice or a shoulder I will get be supported.
I have made some wonderful friendships here and I am looking forward to another year of building on those friendship and making new ones too. "
"wonderful place to be part of great noodles and i love you all"
"Well i Met Kell through DC and she came me one day n email bout awnting to tut one my kits...
So we added one another and got to talking and she told me bout KNKS. So i joined and been a member for some time now
and love the place...So i told few friends
(Rose,Gale,Babzy) Bout this awesome place and how the people are great and so friendly.....And now look Gales addicted..
I Love everyone here and KNK.....thats wut ya call family"
"KnKs is a place for dreaming... I know during the day that when I will arrive at home I can enter in my private space of happiness. I will not feel alone and I will discover awesome tags and perhaps one of them is for me"
"This was the first forum I joined, and my god, was I lost or was I lost, you must have cursed Charlii and Tilly for telling me about this place, and you must have wondered why on earth you let me in. BUT, I was never made to feel stupid, just pushed gently in the right direction. That's was I love about this place, everyone so helpful, and encouraging. I come in here as often as I can, not as often as I would like, but I love all the challenges, and I've met some really good friends here. To sum up, I LOVE IT HERE, and a big thank you from this little wet noodle
"I first discovered KnKS when i was directed here for a tut. did the tut and then i decided to give it a try....i hate forums. but this place is the bestest place on the net. Everyone treats each other as an equal, no one thinks they are better than everyone else....etc. If i had to call someplace home away from home, KnKS would be that place"
"Wow Dont Get Me Started!
When Foxy told me bout this awesome place I was like.. but its a forum! I dont understand how to get around Forums! She told me she would help me... and dat Babzy and I should join, cos the team and members were awesome!
Well... shes so right... I know Im still a newbie to some of u guys, but no one treats me like that, and I have been made to feel like one of the Noodles... and Trish hadda put up with quiet a few mistakes when I first joined here. At first I was like.. ackkkk... Im never gonna get this right... but everyone dat noticed me gettin in trouble, helped me get back on my feet and do things the right way... and let me know I was not the only one makin mistakes.
I love this place... I love u all... Its my new family... Me and Babzy have been in many groups on MSN before... and this is by far the best place I have ever entered.. Yall are so so stuck with me... I dont know if dats a good thing or a bad thing... but ur STUCK ! I have set roots and picked my own lil corner and Im not budgin from here!
And Kitty... I love gettin picked on by u lol.. dont ever stop.. u dont know how good it feels to know u know u can do dat and I wont be runnin!
"I LOVE KnKS! Even if i dont do much, this is where i spend most of my time when i am online. Everyone here makes you feel welcome and "wanted", lol. Words cant even describe what this place means to mean, i would be lost without it!"
"It's a place where you are never alone. When you feel down there is always somethere for you. Thanks everyone "
"Well Ive known Charlii, Owl, Bahiti, Goldie and Tilly basically since I started PSPing and have always been with them and so when msn decided it was gonna close its doors I was directed here and havent left. I come here more then any other group or site and love seeing what people have been making me..
I have so many cds full of tags made by all the wonderful girls here..and have them playing on my digital photo frame so I can see them all..
I love KnKS so much!!!!"
" I LOVE KnKs. It's my way to de-stress at the end of a long and hard day at work!! I gave up all my other Psp groups a month after I started here as I felt that I get everything I need from this forum!!"
"I found KnKS through a tut. I've never been a lover of forums but decided to join even though I didn't know anyone here but that changed very quickly.... lol.
I now call it my home, I was made to feel welcome from day 1. Everyone was great, Kitty and Kells encouraged me & have helped me through some good and bad times. I love them dearly.
To me, the people here are family. I know when they say something that they mean it. They are supportive, caring and can make me laugh when I'm not feeling that way inclined.
I feel I have been nurtured and have learned so much, I could go on and on about how I feel but then I'd have to make it a book. I've made so many friends here and I'm here for the long haul ... lol"
"I started out in an MSN PSP group.
And I came here through one of Kells' tuts.
Then the other group sort of fizzled out, and so i started spending more time here...
and now, I think of you all as dear friends!
There is so much support and encouragement here.
And things to keep you occupied when you have too much time on your hands.
I would be lost without you all!"
"I love this place I was so welcomed when i first came here and still continue to be. I love getting to know all of you. I feel really blessed to be a part of such a wonderful group of ladies. Thank you for all the support and friendship. "
"This is home to me. Well my second home anyways. I know that when I come in here, I can be myself and not be judged. I know that I can expect fun and friendship.
I know that if I make a mistake, I'm not going to get yelled at, cursed at, etc. That instead, a gentle reminder and encouragement.
I have never regretted the decision to begin participating instead of just hanging out on the sidelines and watching others. I know that even if I feel that my tags stink, that there is someone who thinks they are good.
I just really don't know what to say since there is so much TO say, but words just escape me most times. Just know that I love this place and everyone here."
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Schwarzenbach, Jean Christophe (1942) Calibration of the Merrill-G.A.L.C.I.T. wind-tunnel, and a suggestion for a variable cross-section on a small high-speed wind-tunnel. Engineer's thesis, California Institute of Technology. doi:10.7907/PGWH-E460. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechETD:etd-11252008-083306
Kiesling, Louis (1924) The Sail-Plane. Bachelor's thesis, California Institute of Technology. doi:10.7907/YB5X-9C87. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechETD:etd-05052004-132633


text:
After the repulse of the German attack on the 3d Division, the character of the fighting at Anzio underwent a radical change. For nearly three months, VI Corps and Fourteenth Army limited their operations to an active defense of the positions they held at the conclusion of the German offensive. The Allied and enemy forces in the Anzio area were marking time, awaiting the renewal of Allied offensive operations on the southern front. Both forces engaged in aggressive patrolling. The Allied Air Force and VI Corps artillery constantly pounded enemy positions, and the enemy retaliated with medium and long-range artillery fire and air raids against Allied shipping and supply dumps. After drafting plans for renewing his offensive against the beachhead, the enemy decided to conserve his depleted combat strength for the big Allied drive to come, VI Corps built up its forces and accumulated a huge supply reserve in preparation for the great May offensive which was to carry the Fifth Army through to Rome.
Adjusting itself to its new defensive role, the Fourteenth Army regrouped its forces by reducing the number of units occupying the perimeter of the beachhead front. During March, the Hermann Goering Panzer Division was sent north to Leghorn for rest and refitting; the 114th Light Division was transferred to the Adriatic front; and Fourteenth Army's two best divisions, the 26th Panzer and 29th Panzer Grenadier, were withdrawn to the area south of Rome as Army reserves. These two divisions were subsequently designated as Army Group reserves, making them available for action against an Allied offensive in the south, a new attempt of VI Corps to break out of the beachhead, or a new Allied landing in the enemy rear above Anzio. Some replacement units arrived at the beachhead, including two battalions of Italian troops that were employed east of the main Mussolini Canal in the Littoria sector. The Germans displayed little confidence in their Axis partners, brigading them with German formations down to alternate platoons in the line and at night taking over the positions held by Italian troops.
The enemy regroupings substantially reduced the combat strength of the forces holding the beachhead perimeter; in early April, only the reinforced 3d Panzer Grenadier Division was rated as having first-class combat quality. But the total number of Fourteenth Army troops was greater in mid-March than during the February offensives. As of 14 March, it reported a strength of 135,698, a total which included about 65,800 German combat troops; by 10 April, this combat strength had increased to 70,400.
The enemy seriously considered a renewal of offensive operations at Anzio. Tentative plans drafted on 13 March provided for a large-scale attack to be launched on 29 March either in the Albano road sector or from Cisterna. On 23 Match the date of the projected attack was postponed, and it was abandoned altogether on 10 April. Field Marshal Kesselring was reluctant to commit his best reserves, the 26th Panzer and 29th Panzer Grenadier Divisions, in a renewed offensive at Anzio; without them, General Mackensen judged that a large-scale attack could not succeed. When the Allies finally launched their spring offensive
along the southern front on 11 May, the enemy was forced to strip the Fourteenth Army of its reserves in order to check the Allied advance. Thus, when VI Corps joined in the offensive on 23 May, the forces opposing it had been greatly weakened.
Fifth Army also undertook an extensive program of regrouping and reinforcement of VI Corps units at Anzio. Among British units, the 56 Division, which had been rushed to Anzio in the criticals days of February, was relieved by the 5 Division in early March and left the beachhead. The British Commando units were also withdrawn. The 1 Division remained at Anzio, except for the 24 Guards Brigade which was sent to Naples to reorganize; it was replaced by the 18 Brigade. Of the American units, only the paratroopers and Ranger Force left the beachhead. The 504th Parachute Infantry, long overdue to rejoin the 82d Airborne Division, left for the United Kingdom late in March; on 1 April the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion also departed. These losses were more than offset by the arrival of new units, notably the
veteran 34th Division; this division, which began to disembark on 21 March, relieved the 3d Division on the Cisterna front on 28 March, after the latter had completed sixty-seven consecutive days of front-line duty. The arrival of 14,000 replacements in March brought Allied units up to full strength. By the end of the month the numerical strength of the combat units of VI Corps was equal to that of six full divisions-approximately 90,000 men-and considerably exceeded that of the opposing Fourteenth Army.
VI Corps, like the enemy, at least contemplated a resumption of the offensive during March. Preliminary plans for a large-scale operation in the Albano road sector were issued on 11 March. A definite plan was outlined in Field Order No. 18 of 18 March. It proposed a frontal assault by the British 1 and 5 Divisions against the German salient astride the Albano road; meanwhile the American 45th Division was to attack from the southeast toward the Factory. The 5 Division was to continue its attack along the old railroad bed which ran northwest from Carroceto. The 45th Division, in cooperation with the 3d Division striking from the east, was to follow through by capturing the Factory and Carroceto. The 1st Armored Division would then pass through the 1 Division up the Albano road and exploit the advances of the infantry. Other projects for offensive operations were issued in April for planning purposes, but there seems to have been no serious intent of putting them into effect. VI Corps as well as the enemy awaited the renewal of the offensive in the south. In the meantime, it limited its operations to patrolling and local attacks designed to keep the enemy on the defensive.
The description of some of a typical day's operations and events may serve to illustrate the weeks of relative inaction at Anzio. Before dawn on 15 April, eight enemy aircraft dropped antipersonnel and high explosive bombs in the areas of the 1 Division and 1st Armored Division. They struck an ammunition dump and a gasoline dump, and caused a few casualties at the 1st Armored Division command post. Antiaircraft shot down one of the enemy planes and probably destroyed another. At 0530, the 2d Regiment of the 1st Special Service Force, supported by twelve tanks of the 1st Armored Regiment, launched a raid on the village of Cerreto Alto, southwest of Littoria; after seizing this objective and other enemy positions in the vicinity, the raiding force withdrew at 1115. Sixtyone enemy prisoners, including seventeen Italians, were captured. The attacking force suffered only one casualty but lost two medium tanks. Elsewhere along the front the situation remained unchanged. Enemy artillery fire was somewhat lighter than on preceding days, and the usual long-range firing of heavy enemy guns did not occur. American artillery fires were directed against enemy tanks and self-propelled guns in front of Isola Bella; and in the afternoon the newly introduced 240-mm. howitzers destroyed several enemy-occupied buildings in the vicinity of Cisterna. On the British front, mortars were used to scatter enemy troops working on fixed defenses. During the day, Allied planes flew ninety-nine sorties in the VI Corps area, somewhat fewer than normal. Behind the lines, 3,513 tons of supplies were unloaded, slightly above the average daily total of 3,191 for April. Total combat casualties of VI Corps on 15 April were 105 (20 killed, 83 wounded, and 2 missing), slightly below the daily average of 107.5 for April.
The Problem of Supply
The Anzio landing of VI Corps as originally conceived was to be the prelude to a short-term operation that would lead to a quick junction with an advancing main Fifth Army. When that advance failed to materialize, the initial plans for supplying the beachhead had to be radically revised and expanded. Supplies were brought in by preloaded trucks on LST's, by LCT's, and on Liberty ships. Beginning on 28 January, a convoy of six LST's was dispatched daily from Naples, each vessel carrying fifty preloaded trucks. Each convoy brought in a 1,500-ton load, 60 percent of which was ammunition, 20 percent fuel, and 20 percent rations, Fifteen LCT's also made a weekly turnaround from
Naples with supplies. Every ten days four Liberty ships, loaded with supplies at Naples or at North African ports, were scheduled to arrive at the beachhead. The LST's and LCT's could dock in Anzio harbor, while the Liberty ships had to be unloaded off shore and their cargo brought into the harbor or over the beaches by LCT's or (in calm weather) directly by DUKW's. Since VI Corps was not equipped to handle supply functions, Fifth Army assumed control of the port and dump areas on 6 February. The 540th Engineers took over the operation of the port and beaches, and their commanding officer, Col. George W. Marvin, became port commandant.
As the whole beachhead area was within range of observed enemy artillery fire and subjected to constant air raids, a difficult and unique supply situation prevailed at Anzio. Enemy artillery and air attacks endangered beach and dock personnel and reduced their efficiency by an estimated 10 percent. Since ammunition and gasoline dumps were of necessity concentrated in a small and highly vulnerable area, some material damage also occurred. Between 22 January and 10 March, 1,043.8 tons of ammunition were destroyed by enemy bombing and 228.5 tons by artillery fire, an average of 27.7 tons per day. But material losses were at no time critical, Supplies were dispersed in many separate dumps and protected by earthen bunkers erected by bulldozers and Italian laborers. To help in this work, the 16th Armored Engineer Battalion improvised an armored bulldozer by mounting a bulldozer blade on an M-4 tank. As time went on, VI Corps counterbattery fires, improved air defenses, and bombing attacks on enemy gun positions reduced the effectiveness of enemy bombing and shelling of supply areas.
At the end of January the security of the beachhead was threatened by ammunition and labor shortages. For a time, the Corps' most valuable counterbattery weapon (the 155-mm. howitzer) had to be limited to twenty-five rounds per gun per day, but gradually the supplies of ammunition were replenished and reserves built up. The beachhead needed many civilian laborers to clean up debris and to dig in dump areas. Soon after the landing, the bulk (about 22,000) of the civilian population was evacuated from the beachhead, and only about
750 able-bodied civilians were left available for work. To alleviate the tabor shortage Italian workers were recruited in Naples and brought to Anzio. At first a port battalion was stationed at the beachhead to unload Liberty ships. About 1 March a new practice was adopted of placing a port company on board each Liberty ship at Naples, and having it return with the vessel to Naples. The opportunity for a quick departure from the dangerous Anzio area was an incentive to rapid unloading.
A shortage of LCT's, Deeded to unload Liberty ships, developed at the beginning of February. Most of these craft had been in service for more than a year without overhaul and they frequently broke down. On 6 February only fifteen were available, a number that was increased to twenty-two by 12 February. As a stop-gap, from ten to twenty LCI's were successfully employed in unloading supplies. An effort was made to persuade the Liberty ships to come in closer to shore so that they could be unloaded directly by DUKW's, but ship captains were reluctant to do so in the face of heavy shelling. Between 450 and 490 DUKW's were in use at Anzio. The craft situation greatly eased at the end of February, when sufficient LCT's again became available.
By March, supply problems at the beachhead had been largely solved. With improving weather and adequate craft for unloading, it was possible to discharge five or six Liberty ships at a time. The
proportion of supplies unloaded from Liberty ships greatly increased; by May they were discharging six times as much cargo as the LST's. The greatest volume of supplies come in during the month of March, when 157,274 tons were discharged; on the peak day, 29 March, 7,828 tons were unloaded. Large reserves were built up in anticipation of the Fifth Army's resumption of the offensive. By 23 May the beachhead had, in addition to its normal 10-day reserve, a month's additional reserve of supplies. Between 22 January and 1 June, 513,511 long tons of supplies were discharged at Anzio, the over-all daily average being 3,920 tons. As a result of careful planning and efficient operation, supply never became a critical problem at Anzio.
Life at the Beachhead
From the beginning of March the forward positions at Anzio beachhead were stabilized and remained practically unchanged until the breakthrough in May. Conditions at Anzio resembled the quiescent periods of trench warfare on the Western Front during World War I. The great
bulk of VI Corps casualties were caused by enemy air raids and especially by enemy artillery fire. The narrow confines of the beachhead made it peculiarly vulnerable to enemy artillery, which ranged from 88-mm. guns up to giant 290-mm. railroad guns. One of the latter was popularly known as the "Anzio Express," also as "Anzio Annie." These big guns, not to be confused with the smaller railroad guns which the Germans had employed during February, were first reported in action on 24 March. During March, 83 percent of the combat casualties of the 3d Division were caused by shell fragments, although the division occupied a long sector of the forward line until the end of the month. VI Corps' highly centralized fire control center carried out a systematic program of counterbattery firing to combat enemy artillery. Its efforts became more effective in April with the arrival at the beachhead of heavier artillery weapons-8-inch guns and howitzers and 240-mm. howitzers.
Smoke generators, used to create an artificial fog behind the lines, helped to reduce the accuracy of enemy artillery and of bombing; but there was only one effective answer to the problem of security from the constant pounding of enemy shells and bombs: that was to go underground. The whole beachhead area became a honeycomb of trenches, fox holes, and dugouts as the men burrowed into the sandy ground. Bulldozers dug pits for guns and vehicles and pushed up tons of earth around the neatly stacked piles of gasoline cans and ammunition which were located in every open field in the rear areas. During the rainy winter months the pro. cess of digging in was hampered by the proximity of the ground water to the surface. Fox holes and dugouts quickly filled with water. With the arrival of spring, warm and sunny days dried up the ground and it became possible to construct a dugout without striking water. Viewed from the air the beachhead created the illusion that thousands of giant moles had been at work.
In the American hospital area near Anzio, the 36th Engineers set to work excavating foundations three and one-half feet deep for hospital tents; the sides of each tent were further strengthened by sandbag walls. Even with these improvements, the hospital area remained one of the more dangerous spots on the beachhead. No soldier who was at Anzio will forget the work of the doctors, nurses, and aid men who served with them. When the shells were coming over or the air raid siren signalled a red alert others could seek shelter; the doctor performing an operation or the nurse tending a patient had no choice but to continue in the performance of his or her task. A measure of their courage and willingness to sacrifice themselves for their patients is indicated by the losses suffered by medical personnel at the beachhead. Ninety-two were reported killed in action (including 6 nurses), 387 wounded, 19 captured, and 60 reported missing in action.
VI Corps headquarters was initially located in the Hotel de Ville at Nettuno. After this building was struck by shells and bombs, the headquarters was established in caverns which the inhabitants had used for wine cellars. This was a popular spot while the wine lasted, but men tied to desk jobs in the little cubbyholes off the narrow corridors soon felt that they were scaled for life in catacombs. After the Fifth Army Advanced Command Post was established at the beachhead, it was located in a tunnel beneath Villa Borghese on the hill above Anzio harbor. Other troops built their own shelters. Wooden beams, doors, scrap lumber, and huge wine barrels from destroyed farmhouses, together with hundreds of thousands of sandbags and ammunitions boxes, were consumed in the construction of tiny underground homes. The barrels, sunk deep in the ground, made good bedrooms if one could stand the odor of stale wine. In any event, protection was more important than comfort.
To counteract the debilitating effects of static warfare, General Truscott not only conducted a vigorous training program but also endeavored to give his men as much rest and recreation as possible when they were out of the line. Owing to the open nature of most of the beachhead terrain, troops in forward areas usually stayed under-
ground during the day; at night combat patrols probed deep into the enemy lines, and occasionally a company or battalion launched an attack to take prisoners or capture or destroy a strategic group of buildings. Recreation and training facilities were limited by the lack of a safe rear area. The 1st Armored Division built two underground theaters, each capable of holding over two hundred men. Each division set up small recreation and bath units; at the latter, the men could obtain a complete change of clothing. On the coast below Nettuno the 3d Division established a large rest camp where men could combine training with opportunities for swimming, going to the movies, and writing letters. Every four days VI Corps sent 750 men by LST to the Fifth Army rest camp at Caserta. Troops at the beachhead were given priority on mail, Post Exchange supplies, and recreation equipment. The quality of their food also improved. During February rear-area as well as front-line troops lived almost exclusively on C and K rations; by March calmer seas and lessened enemy activity permitted Liberty ships to bring in fresh meat and a high percentage of B rations.
Where organized recreation was impossible, men provided their own amusement. Horseshoes were in great demand, and volley ball and even baseball games were played close to the fighting front. When enemy shells started coming in, the men ducked for cover and then calmly returned to their games. A few troops had their own chicken pens; others, less fortunate, dickered with the few remaining Italian farmers for eggs. Patrols for chickens and livestock were as carefully planned as patrols against the enemy. To help pass the long hours in dugouts men improvised radio sets on
which they could listen to the Fifth Army Expeditionary Station and also to Axis propaganda broadcasts. "Sally," the German radio entertainer, was as well known to them as the "Anzio Express." They enjoyed her throaty voice and her selections of the latest American popular music; they laughed at her crude propaganda and that of her partner "George," just as they laughed at the German propaganda leaflets which they collected for souvenirs. German efforts to sow discontent among the Allied troops at the beachhead were singularly onsuccessful. They merely supplied an additional source of entertainment.
It was easy for a replacement arriving at the beachhead on one of the beautiful spring days of April or early May to gain the impression that, despite all the evidence of destruction around the tiny harbor, Anzio was a relatively safe spot. Even the occasional white plume of water, rising as an enemy shell plunged into the calm bay, had an impersonal air about it. Men worked at the docks unloading LST's or LCT's, drivers of DUKW's churned their vehicles out across the bay toward the Liberty ships outside the harbor, antiaircraft crews lolled by their guns, and a few men swam along the shore below the battered villas. But the apparent
unconcern of the men was deceptive. The terrific tension under which they had lived during the critical days of February had eased somewhat, but some measure of it was still there. The next shell to whistle over the beachhead might well land in the hold of a ship or obliterate a truck driving through the streets of Anzio or Nettuno. At dusk the feeling of tension increased; men around the harbor kept an eye on the end of the jetty, where the raising of a flag gave warning of another air attack. Although the enemy abandoned daylight raids after the costly attacks of February, anywhere from one to half a dozen attacks were made every night, and the enemy shelling, sporadic during daylight hours, substantially increased after dark, One night at Anzio dispelled all illusions of security. The battle of the beachhead remained a grim and deadly struggle to the end.
Both VI Corps and the enemy suffered heavy losses in combat casualties during the four months between the Allied landing at Anzio on 22 January and the attack out of the beachhead on 23 May. In presenting casualty Statistics, a note of caution is in order. Since it is impossible to compile an exact record of combat casualties for any large-scale operation, those presented here should be treated as an approximation.
The combat casualties of VI Corps at Anzio through 22 May numbered about 30,000, including at least 4,400 killed and 18,000 wounded in action. Of these totals, American units lost approximately 17,000 men, including at least 2,800 killed and 11,000 wounded in action. The enemy reported the capture of 6,800 Allied prisoners, including about 2,400 American troops. About two-thirds of the combat casualties occurred during the period of heavy fighting that ended on 3 March. During the first thirty days of the Anzio operation, the combat casualties of VI Corps amounted to about 17 percent of its effective strength. British combat losses were relatively heavier than American, in terms of the number of troops engaged; during the above 30-day period, their units lost 27 percent of their effective strength. In addition to the combat losses, VI Corps reported over 37,000 noncombat casualties during the whole period of the Anzio operation, more than 26,000 of whom were American. About 33,000 casualties, combat and noncombat, were evacuated by sea from Anzio-including 24,000 Americans-without the loss of a single patient's life as a result of the process of moving men from shore hospitals to the waiting ships.
Fourteenth Army lost between 28,000 and 30,000 men as combat casualties in its operations against the Anzio beachhead. This total included at least 5,500 killed and 17,500 wounded in action. The Allies captured more than 4,500 enemy prisoners of war. The German combat losses during the period of relative inaction after 3 March were about 10,000, almost exactly the same as those of the Allied forces.
The total combat casualties of VI Corps and Fourteenth Army were thus roughly equal, although the enemy had a larger number of troops killed in action. Three factors made the enemy losses relatively more costly in terms of combat strength than those of the Allies. The Germans suffered higher losses among combat units, they received far fewer replacements than Allied units, and the replacements they did receive were of progressively poorer quality.
The Breakthrough, 23 May-4 June
On the night of 11-12 May, main Fifth Army launched its spring offensive against the Gustav Line in the south. (Map No. 2.) After the failure of the Cassino assaults in February, the Fifth Army boundary had been moved southwestward toward the coast, and the British Eighth Army took command on the Cassino front. In the new offensive, Fifth Army attacked from its bridgehead north of the Garigliano into the hill masses between the Liri Valley and the sea; while the Eighth Army, heavily reinforced, at the same time launched its attack on the Cassino front. Cassino and the dominant mountains to the north fell only after a week of heavy fighting, and the Eighth Army pushed
on slowly up the Liri Valley against strong German opposition. Meanwhile, after three days of stubborn fighting, Fifth Army's two corps-the French Expeditionary Corps on the right, and II Corps on the left along the coast-broke through the Gustav Line positions and started the rapid drive northward that was not to be halted until Rome was entered on 4 June.
As late as 15 May, General Clark had under consideration a plan to shift the two divisions of II Corps (the 85th and 88th) by sea to Anzio after they had completed their initial breakthrough in the south. They were to have combined with VI Corps to conduct a powerful drive out of the beachhead. But the pace of the advance in the south promised to collapse the German coastal defenses and permit a quick juncture between II and VI Corps by land. On 20 May, therefore, General Clark directed II Corps to continue its attack toward Terracina, situated at the southern end of the coastal plain that extended northwestward to the Anzio beachhead. Terracina fell on the night of 23-24 May. American troops then raced northward over the flat land of the Pontine Marshes to meet the 1st Battalion, 36th Combat Engineers (Task Force Brett), which had advanced south from the beachhead. The junction was effected at 0731 on 25 May, and General Clark (who had moved to Anzio to direct the offensive) personally greeted his men from the south at 1020. Anzio was a beachhead no longer; it was now the left flank of the main fighting front.
During the first eleven days of the spring offensive, the character of the Anzio front remained unchanged; but behind the forward lines, the forces of VI Corps were busily preparing for their part in the big Allied drive. To strengthen the beachhead forces, early in May Combat Command B had joined the 1st Armored Division, which was now at full strength. On 22 May, the day before the attack out of the beachhead, the 36th Division landed at Anzio; this brought the strength of the beachhead forces to seven full divisions together with a large number of auxiliary supporting units. VI Corps had prepared three different plans for an attack out of the beachhead; on 5 May, plan BUFFALO was adopted to govern the Anzio offensive. However, to deceive the enemy, preparations for all three plans were carried out. Essentially, plan BUFFALO projected a breakthrough on the Cisterna front toward Cori at the base of the Lepini Mountains and Velletri at the base of Colli Laziali; the attack would then continue through the Velletri Gap to Valmontone in order to cut Highway No. 6, the main supply route of the German Tenth Army. The initial assault was to be launched through the front held by the 34th Division, with the 1st Armored Division advancing on the left, the 3d Division in the center (directly toward Cisterna), and the reinforced 1st Special Service Force on the right. On the left flank the 45th Division was to penetrate beyond Carano as far as the Campoleone-Cisterna railroad. The 36th Division, after its arrival, was earmarked to exploit a breakthrough. The British 1 and 5 Divisions, holding the western end of the beachhead front, were to launch local attacks to deceive the enemy as to the main course of the beachhead offensive and to contain enemy forces that were opposing them. (Map No. 21.) The British divisions were detached from VI Corps and reverted to Fifth Army control on 22 May, the day before the attack.
Until the Fifth and Eighth Armies began their offensive on 11-12 May, the German Fourteenth Army had substantially maintained its strength. The 26th Panzer and 29th Panzer Grenadier Divisions had become Army Group reserves, but they were kept in the area south of Rome and were available for use against an attempted Allied thrust out of the beachhead. Then came the breakthrough in the south, and Field Marshal Kesselring was forced not only to commit his Army Group reserves but also to strip Fourteenth Army of its combat reserves to bolster the hard-pressed Tenth Army. General Mackensen protested, but his protests were overruled until it was too late to stem the American advance out of the beachhead. In anticipating the Allied spring offensive, the enemy made two major miscalculations, revealed in an estimate of the Allied situation drafted on 30 April. The Ger-
mans believed (and continued to believe as late as 20 May) that Fifth Army would make a new seaborne landing, either between Anzio and the southern front at Gaeta or Terracina, or (less probably) to the northwest of Anzio near the mouth of the Tiber River. In view of this belief, Field Marshal Kesselring was reluctant to release his reserves or strengthen the German forces in the immediate vicinity of Anzio until the very eve of the Anzio offensive, The second German miscalculation-natural enough, in view of the preceding offensives-was that VI Corps would launch its main assault up the Albano road past the Factory. Thus the better German divisions-the 65th Infantry and 3d Panzer Grenadier-continued to occupy the Albano road sector; while the Cisterna and Mussolini Canal sectors were held by the weaker 362d and 715th Infantry Divisions. When the attack came on 23 May, the enemy was unable to shift his strength to the Cisterna sector.
At 0545 on 23 May, a tremendous Allied artillery barrage was directed against the enemy defenses along the Cisterna front. Forty-five minutes later, American tanks and infantry emerged from the smoke all along the front from Carano to the Mussolini Canal to launch the assault. At first, the enemy resistance was stiff, and German mine fields took a heavy toll of American tanks and tank destroyers; but before noon, the 1st Special Service Force had cut Highway No. 7 below Cisterna, and all units had reached their initial objectives. Bad weather curtailed the planned air support, but before the day was over 722 missions had been flown; Cisterna and more distant objectives were heavily bombed. By evening, the 1st Armored Division had crossed the Cisterna-Campoleone railroad, and had smashed the enemy main line of resistance.
The enemy estimated that, by the end of the first day's attack, the 362d Infantry Division had lost 50 percent of its fighting power, and two regiments of the 715th Infantry Division had been badly mauled. The Hermann Goering Panzer Division was rushed southward from Leghorn; and Fourteenth Army planned to detach combat units from I Parachute Corps, holding the Moletta River-Albano road sector, to bolster the shattered forces of LXXVI Panzer Corps on the Cisterna front. This step was frustrated by the holding attacks of the British 1 and 5 Divisions and the attack on the left flank by the 45th Division. General Mackensen realized his precarious position, but his request to withdraw his left flank to the base of the Lepini Mountains was refused.
Resuming the attack on 24 May, VI Corps troops drove forward beyond the railroad to cut Highway No. 7 above Cisterna, and virtually to encircle Cisterna itself. On 25 May the German defenses to the rear of Cisterna crumbled, and Cisterna itself fell to the troops of the 3d Division, who collected nearly a thousand enemy prisoners. By nightfall, 3d Division and 1st Special Service Force units were at the base of the Lepini Mountains, before Cori; meanwhile, 1st Armored Division troops had reached a position halfway between Cori and Velletri, thus facing the entrance of the Velletri Gap leading toward Valmontone. On 26 May, the 1st Armored Division advanced to within two miles of Velletri; while the 3d Division raced through the Velletri Gap its reconnaissance units reached the outskirts of Artena, only three miles from the goal of Valmontone and Highway, No. 6. Although Artena was captured on the following day, the VI Corps advance then came to a temporary halt. The plans for the continuation of the Fifth Army's attack were being recast, and the enemy had now somewhat recovered from his confusion. In Particular, elements of the Hermann Goering Panzer Division had reached the Valmontone area and were counterattacking the 3d Division. (Map No. 22.)
VI Corps' highly successful offensive out of the Anzio beachhead was nevertheless costly in losses, both in men and material. In the first five days of the attack, combat casualties exceeded 4,000; they were almost twice as heavy in killed and wounded as during the five days of the big German attack of 16-20 February. The 1st Armored Division and other armored units supporting the infantry lost at least eighty-six tanks and tank destroyers in the first day's attack alone. Enemy losses were far heavier; no figures are available for the number of en-
emy troops that were killed and wounded, but in the first five days of the attack VI Corps captured 4,838 prisoners and, among items of enemy material, destroyed or damaged more than 2,700 motor transports.
On 26 May General Clark issued new orders to VI Corps which reshaped the nature and direction of its attack. Hitherto, the main axis of advance had been toward Valmontone; now, the weight of the VI Corps drive was to be shifted to the west of Colli Laziali, to seize a line from the Factory through Campoleone to Lanuvio. (Map No. 23.) The 34th Division would advance northwest from below Velletri (which was stubbornly defended by the enemy) toward Lanuvio, while the 45th Division attacked toward Campoleone Station. Initially, the 1st Armored Division was allotted the task of attacking Velletri; subsequently (28 May) it was shifted to the left flank to strengthen the attack of the 45th Division. In the Artena area, the 3d Division was to continue its advance on Valmontone, while the wide gap between the attacks to the west and east of Colli Laziali was to be plugged by the 36th Division. This general plan was carried out in the face of stiffening enemy resistance. The 45th Division drove to Campoleone village by 29 May, and the 34th Division reached the outskirts of Lanuvio on the same date. (Map No. 24.)
The 36th Division moved in before Velletri, but initially its rote was limited to aggressive reconnaissance. In the east, the 3d Division was held on the defensive by the counterattacking Hermann Goering Panzer Division. On 30 May the 3d Division and 1st Special Service Force passed to the control of II Corps, which thereafter commanded the attack toward Valmontone and Highway No. 6.
The enemy had been hard pressed to round up sufficient troops to check the American advance. He had been forced to withdraw to a new defensive line, extending from Ardea near the coast through Lanuvio and Velletri to a position before Valmontone, and German units were ordered by Hitler to hold this line at all costs. In a change of Corps boundaries, Fourteenth Army assigned the sector west of Colli Laziali to I Parachute Corps, and the sector to the east to LXXVI Panzer Corps. In the reshuffling of units and the Corps boundaries, the mountainous region of Colli Laziali just east of Velletri was left temporarily almost denuded of enemy troops; the Germans had concentrated their depleted forces in defense of Lanuvio and Valmontone.
At dusk on 30 May the Fifth Army drive appeared to have been stalled. (Map No. 24.) On the left flank west of Colli Laziali, the 1st Armored Division and 45th Division had fought bitterly but unsuccessfully along the Albano road above Campoleone all day; and the attack of the 34th Division before Lanuvio had been stopped on 29 May. On the new II Corps front east of Colli Laziali, the 85th Division was just coming in to reinforce the 3d Division, which had remained on the defensive since 27 May. Actually, General Clark had been informed by General Truscott of the gap in the enemy defense line along the rugged base of Colli Laziali between the units of I Parachute Corps and LXXVI Panzer Corps, and he
moved quickly to exploit this weakness. Late in the evening of 30 May, troops of the 36th Division (142d Infantry, followed by 143d Infantry) started to climb the steep slopes of Colli Laziali east of Velletri, undetected by the enemy. By dawn on 31 May, American troops had made a deep penetration that flanked both enemy corps, and not a shot had been fired to herald their advance. When the Germans discovered this dangerous penetration of their defensive line, they counterattacked; but the 36th Division held to its key positions which outflanked the main enemy line of resistance and permitted the advance on Rome to continue. (Map No. 25.)
Despite their now untenable positions, the separated corps of Fourteenth Army fought hard for three days (31 May-2 June) to check the Fifth Army's advance. Enemy resistance was especially stiff on the VI Corps front to the west of Colli Laziali. But when II Corps swept around the north of the mountains and the 36th Division reached the central heights of Colli Laziali, the enemy decided that the time had come to pull out. On the night of 2-3 June the main enemy forces hurriedly withdrew northward, leaving only scattered rear guards to impede the Fifth Army's advance into Rome. On 3 June all units of the Fifth Army hastened after the retreating enemy, and at 0800 on the morning of 4 June the first American troops reached the outskirts of Rome. Actual entry into the city was delayed until early afternoon when elements of the 1st Armored and 36th Divisions moved in simultaneously to occupy the Italian capital. By the end of the day, Fifth Army troops held the entire south bank of the Tiber from the sea to the junction of the Tiber and Aniene Rivers above Rome. By the next evening, the tide of battle had rolled far beyond Rome, as Fifth Army pursued the fleeing enemy to its next line of mountain defenses.
With the capture of Rome, Fifth Army attained the ultimate goal toward which the Anzio landing had originally been directed. On the eve of the landing on 22 January, the Allied High Command had hoped that the surprise assault behind the German Tenth Army, combined with a strong offensive in the south, would collapse the enemy's resistance along the Gustav Line and lead to a rapid march on Rome. Actually, the Anzio assault did not become a phase in an over-all Allied offensive, for the attack in the south stalled on the very day that the men of VI Corps swarmed unopposed over the beaches near Anzio. What had been envisioned as a brief operation coordinated with an Allied drive from the south became an isolated and bitter struggle to preserve a strategic foothold far behind the main enemy line of defense. Reinforced, Allied VI Corps was able to hold the beachhead, and then to build up its forces to fulfill its role in the spectacular spring offensive. Operation SHINGLE was crowned with final success; the grim defense of the American and British troops who held the Anzio beachhead led to a victory that forecast the collapse of the German war machine and the triumphant conclusion of the Allied war effort.
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