Sailors from across the decades who share a common bond have paid their respects to men who died during amphibious landings in Italy 60 years ago.

On a Mediterranean shore, veterans of the last vessel to bear the name HMS Spartan joined present-day successors from the nuclear submarine to pay their respects to men who made the ultimate sacrifice in the bloody Anzio landings of 1944.

Dido-class cruiser HMS Spartan was anchored in Anzio Bay, south of Rome, on January 29 1944 to provide air defence for the amphibious landings which were designed to open up the Italian front.

As night fell, the invasion force was subjected to a German glider bomb attack.

Spartan was targeted, and one of the radio-controlled bombs striking close to her after funnel.

For an hour her crew fought to save her before the order was given to abandon ship. Ten minutes later she settled on her beam in just over 30ft of water, and became a tomb for five officers and 41 ratings.

60 years later members of the crew of the present-day Spartan – the sixth RN vessel to bear the name – joined survivors of the 1944 sinking in Italy as the sailors from different generations paid their respects.

Traditionally, Spartan survivors gather at the Nautical Club in Birmingham as close to January 29 as possible to remember their fallen shipmates.

On this occasion four veterans made the pilgrimage to Italy – Geoff Smith, Bernard O’Connor, Stan Turton and George Busby – along with 27 serving RN personnel from the nuclear hunter-killer submarine.

They gathered at a plaque set in the wall at Anzio’s harbour commemorating the loss of the cruiser Spartan – paid for by survivors and the boat’s senior rates’ mess – where a wreath was laid before veterans climbed on to Italian coastguard cutters to pay their respects in the waters over the wreck.

The Anzio landing was intended to help break the stalemate in the Italian campaign by outflanking the German lines between Rome and Monte Cassino, where Commonwealth armies in particular had become bogged down.

Instead, the invasion proved to be a false dawn, with the Germans sealing off the beachhead.

In January this year Anzio became the focal point for the Allied powers, as representatives from embassies and the military of the nations involved in the operation – codenamed Shingle – plus the Italian Armed Forces took part in acts of remembrance in Anzio town.

Spartan’s crew continued their mark of respect in the Allied war cemeteries around the bay – nine sailors survived the initial sinking only to die of their injuries ashore.

MEM Richie Mackie, a 20-year-old stoker, placed a cross on the grave of Royal Marines Cpl Albert Kent.

“I found the occasion very moving, seeing the graves of individuals my age and younger who died in the service of their country,” said MEM Mackie.

Today’s Spartan will soon finish her Basic Operational Sea Training (BOST) before heading out on trials; after that she is expected to be declared fit for front-line duties in the summer.