(He was, in fact, born in Anzio, which was once called Antium.) Now a place where some modern Romans have vacation homes, Anzio sits an hour away from Rome by train for between $5 and $12 each way.

On the 70th anniversary of the start of the Battle of Anzio, LIFE presents photos -- many of them never published before -- from the front. Sign Up for Our Ideas Newsletter POV.

Picture dated May 1944 showing U.S. tanks rolling from the open doors of an LST landing craft onto the shore of the Anzio beachead, South of Rome, on the West coast of Italy, during World War II.

Some weeks ago I had the opportunity to visit the Anzio Beachhead museum. Opened in January 1994, in the 50th Anniversary of the Allied landings, the Anzio Beachhead Museum is hosted at the ground ...

Today, Anzio is a small picture-postcard resort town on the west coast of Italy, some 30 miles south of Rome. In 1944, it was embroiled in one of the most exhausting battles of the war.

On the 23rd of January the destroyer HMS Janus was sunk by a glider bomb off Anzio few survivours. On 24January 44 Hospital ship SS St David fully illuminated red crosses, Was bombed and sunk off ...