Operation Shingle - Noted Participants

Noted Participants

• Denis Healey — later a prominent Labour Party politician — was the Military Landing Officer for the British assault brigade at Anzio.
• Eric Fletcher Waters, father to Pink Floyd's bassist and songwriter Roger Waters, was killed during Operation Shingle at Anzio. The Pink Floyd albums The Wall and The Final Cut contain many references to this. In particular, the song "When the Tigers Broke Free" (featured in the soundtrack to the film of The Wall, and later added to The Final Cut) recounts the events at Anzio.
• John Raymond Parfitt, father of Andy Parfitt (controller of BBC Radio 1), was part of the British force landing at Anzio. He was shot in the head and badly wounded in early February.
• There is a story that a war orphan named "Angelita" became a platoon mascot but was killed just a few days later. Pte. Christopher S. Hayes of the Royal Scots Fusiliers claimed to have found her and 20 years later, he asked for information from the mayor of Anzio. The story has variations on which army adopted her and how she was killed, leading some to conclude that it could be only a legend; this is the opinion of historian Carlo D'Este who has labeled it a 'myth' of the battle. Regardless, the story has come to symbolize the plight of all the children in all the wars and has been the inspiration for one of the most moving and successful Italian songs in the 1960s. The town of Anzio erected a monument in Angelita's memory, unveiled in the International Year of the Child (1979).
• James Arness (born May 26, 1923 in Minneapolis, Minnesota as James Aurness; died June 3, 2011 in Los Angeles, California) was an actor best known for portraying Marshal Matt Dillon on the T.V. series Gunsmoke for 20 years. Arness served in the United States Army during World War II, and was severely wounded at the Battle of Anzio, leading to a lifelong slight limp.
• Bill Mauldin, noted cartoonist and author of the Willie and Joe series which appeared in the American Army newspaper Stars and Stripes, was at Anzio, serving with the 45th Infantry Division.
• Audie Murphy, Hollywood actor. Murphy became the most decorated United States combat soldier in United States military history. He received the Medal of Honor, the U.S. military's highest award for valor, along with 32 additional U.S. medals. He served with Company B, 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division. Lucas is reported to have once visited the set of one of Murphy's films and, while he greeted actors and crew, was forced to salute Murphy - Murphy had the Medal of Honor and Lucas did not - and then had his handshake refused by Murphy, who instead returned the salute and then simply walked away. Murphy later commented that "...too damn many good men died at Anzio because of that son of a bitch. I'm damned if I'll shake hands with him."
• James Chichester-Clark, Baron Moyola, a newly commissioner officer in the Irish Guards, who was later the fifth Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and eighth leader of the Ulster Unionist Party.
• BBC reporter Alan Whicker was at Anzio as a member of the British Army Film and Photo Unit. His 2004 documentary Whicker's War describes his experiences there.