At 5 a.m. he initiated Operation "Richard" and ordered the
Kampfgruppe of
4th Parachute Division and the
Hermann Göring Panzer Division to defend the roads leading from Anzio to the
Alban Hills via
Campoleone and
Cisterna whilst his plans expected some 20,000 defending troops to have arrived by the end of the first day.
The German units in the immediate vicinity had in fact been dispatched to reinforce the Gustav Line only a few days earlier. All available reserves from the southern front or on their way to it were rushed toward Anzio and Nettuno; these included the
3rd Panzer Grenadier and
71st Infantry Divisions, and the bulk of the Luftwaffe's Hermann Göring Panzer Division.
Kesselring initially considered that a successful defence could not be made if the Allies launched a major attack on January 23 or January 24. However, by the end of January 22, the lack of aggressive action convinced him that a defence could be made. Nevertheless, few additional defenders arrived on January 23 although the arrival on the evening of January 22 of
Lieutenant General Alfred Schlemm and his 1st Parachute Corps headquarters brought greater organisation and purpose to the German defensive preparations. By January 24, however, the Germans had over 40,000 troops in prepared defensive positions.
[18]
Three days after the landings, the beachhead was surrounded by a defence line consisting of three divisions: The 4th Parachute Division to the west, the 3rd Panzer Grenadier Division to the center in front of Alban Hills, the Hermann Göring Panzer Division to the east.