USS Anzio (CG-68) is a US Navy Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser. She is the second US ship to bear the name, was commissioned 02 May 1992 and decommissioned 30 September 2022. She is named for the Battle of Anzio, Italy, an Allied campaign to liberate Italy from the hands of the Germans in late 1943 - early 1944. On 22 January 1944, forty thousand troops from Canada, England, and the Unite
d States were landed on the beachheads at Anzio and Nettuno to clear the road to Rome. The Allied forces were initially successful, but the German forces soon outnumbered them; the Germans committed 80,000 additional troops to the Italian campaign to "push the Allies back into the sea." This led to a stalemate at the Gustav Line, a natural stronghold of mountainous terrain stretching across Italy just north of Naples. Through sheer bravery and heroism, the Allies maintained the beachhead and were able to break out in May 1944 upon receipt of long-awaited reinforcements. They reached Rome in June 1944. The ship's motto, "ANZIO, STAND AND FIGHT!" comes from General Mark Clark, who commanded the American Fifth Army and ordered the amphibious assaults at Anzio and Nettuno. The Battle of Anzio was strategically important to World War II. The additional 80,000 German troops sent to Anzio were initially meant to fight at Normandy. It is no surprise the price was high at the Battle of Anzio with the great number of German forces. Allied forces suffered nearly 28,000 casualties. 22 Americans were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, the most of any single battle of World War II.
