From CMH's Anzio history:
"At the end of January, the security of the beachhead was threatened by ammunition & labor shortages. For a time, the Corps' most valuable counterbattery weapon (the 155-mm howitzer) had to be limited to 25 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 were evacuated from the beachhead..."
(HOW did VI Corps "evacuate" twenty two thousand civilians? where did they put them all?)
"To alleviate the labor 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 March 1 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..."
(And this last sentence is amusing): "The opportunity for a quick departure from the dangerous Anzio area was an incentive to rapid unloading."
I'll just BET it WAS! I'm sure ALL our guys would've welcomed "a quick departure from the dangerous Anzio area"!!
m2