A friend of a friend is asking me to find out about and appraise a gun which appears to have the nazi eagle and swastika insignia. It says "ANZIO" on the side of it in all caps and I'm wondering how that could've gotten there if it's a German mauser.
Why not a German unit? They'd be at Anzio, not Italian soldiers. After the Italians stopped fighting in September 1943, the German Army moved into Italy, and the Battle of Anzio began in January of 1944 -Allies stuck on their beachhead, Germans on the high ground overlooking the bay able to shell them. It could have been taken when the US Army managed to break out in May.