Fibber,
I have to take exception here. Saying that Anzio was an unmitigated disaster has to be qualified. The landings themselves were uncontested, and there were no German units of strength in the area that could be mobilized for at least twenty-four to thirty-six hours. The gates to at least make a strong push on Rome were wide open. John "McClellan" Lucas, commander of VI Corps, chose to have his Richmond / Antietam moment at this crucial juncture, and doing nothing is what allowed German units to surround the Anzio beachhead.
This is one of the precise moments where I think Patton could have measurably shortened the Italian campaign. He would very likely have pushed to turn the Gothic Line and scare the crap out of the Wehrmacht.
I somehow missed this thread.
I agree fully with you, Rami. Had Patton remained at his command post here, the Italian campaign would have ended in the first half of 1944. Perhaps even before D-Day in Normandy.
This in turn would have saved thousands of civilian lives, because the SS would have not had the time to fight the partisans and do the reprisal massacres they carried out. Had Roma been seized by the Allies when the opportunity was there, the killing of 300+ people at the Fosse Ardeatine stone quarry out of Roma would have not taken place. Neither the other massacres, which took place about a year later in the Appennini mountains not too far from where I live, at S. Anna di Stazzema first and Marzabotto near Bologna later, would have happened.
There would have not been the necessity of the 1944 tactical air offensive, designed to burn the ground behind retreating Whermacht troops, which costed huge devastations and again many civilian casualties.
Ultimately, an earlier end of the Italian campaign would have changed the entire course of WWII and later history in Europe. More troops and resources would have been freed for the D-Day invasion, which would have resulted in an earlier breakup of the German defensive perimetre around the Normandy beach head, an earlier liberation of France and an earlier crossing of the Rhine and invasion of the German homeland.
War would have ended by 1944 year-end, as many Allied commanders hoped.
Moreover, the Allies would have conquered Berlin, instead of the Russians, with obvious consequences on the Cold War which plagued Europe and the rest of the world for the next four decades, eating up huge resources for both US and the Soviet Union. Think of all the consequences on the post-WWII "local conflicts", Korea, Vietnam first and foremost, Israel vs. the Arabs, Southern American and African coup d'etats and guerrilla conflicts, all caused and supported by the opposing interests of the two super-powers? Probably they would have never taken place. I doubt even the surfacing of Muslim fundamentalism and Sept. 11th, 2001, direct or indirect consequences of the Soviets "exporting the people's revolution", trying to undermine Western powers through support of anyone who was willing to take arms against America and her Allies.
Had not Patton slapped that soldier, or even if the episode would have been ignored by the Allied HQ, letting Patton carrying on his job in Italy, modern post-WWII history would have been deeply different. Unfortunately, history is not written by the "what ifs".
Thank you all for this extremely interesting topic and Rami for bringing it up!
KH 
If the area surrounding Anzio had hills like Salerno did, woe betide the troops who would have been trapped in the Anzio pocket.
