Battle of Monte Cassino
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The Battle of Monte Cassino (also known as the Battle for Rome and the Battle for Cassino) was a costly series of battles in World War II, fought by the Allies with the intention of breaking through the Gustav Line and seizing Rome.
Strategic Background
The Allied landings in Italy in September 1943 were followed by an advance northward towards Rome. Moving from the main base of Naples up the Italian 'boot', the Allies made slow progress in the face of difficult terrain and skillful German defenses.
The only feasible routes from Naples to Rome led through the Liri valley and along the west coast; the two major roads to Rome took these routes. Blocking the south entrance to this valley was the hill mass around the town of Cassino. Excellent observation from the peak of the hill allowed the German defenders to detect Allied movement, prevent any advance northward, and direct artillery fire on Allied units.
At the 1100 metre peak of Montecassino stood the 1300 year old Benedictine Monastery. It is not clear whether German troops were using the thick stone buildings of the monastery in their defensive position. Some Allied units reported seeing German troops in the monastery; German units denied allowing any of their men into the monastery itself. What is clear is that once the monastery was destroyed, the Germans made use of the rubble to build defensive positions.
Initial assaults
The first battle started on January 4, 1944 although the monastery atop the hill was not destroyed by Allied bombing until February 15. Allied aircraft heavily bombed the ruins of the monastery and an Infantry assault was again mounted on March 15.
During three failed attempts to take the heavily-guarded monastery of Monte Cassino (January 17–25, February 15–February 18, March 15–March 25), the forces of the USA, the UK, France, India, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand lost approximately 54,000 men yet did not manage to seize the town or the hills overlooking the Rapido River valley. [link]
Destruction of the Abbey
The bombing mission of 15 February 1944 was pushed by Generals Francis Tuker of the 4th Indian Division and Bernard Freyberg of the New Zealand Division and ordered by Gen. Sir Harold Alexander. All American generals at the scene, with the possible exception of Ira C. Eaker, were unconvinced of the “military necessity” to bomb the abbey. The British press and C. L. Sulzberger of the New York Times wrote of German observation posts, artillery positions, etc. inside the abbey, all poised to kill our boys. Ira C. Eaker contributed to the general press hysteria that led up to the bombing order, having observed during a fly-over German uniforms on clothes lines inside the walls.
What is certain from every investigation is the following: the only people killed by the bombing were Italian civilians seeking refuge in the abbey. There was never any evidence, then or now, that the bombs dropped on Monte Cassino that day killed a single German.
Pope Pius XII was silent after the bombing, however, his secretary of state, Cardinal Maglione bluntly stated to the senior U.S. diplomat to the Vatican, Harold Tittmann, that the bombing was “a colossal blunder . . . a piece of gross stupidity.”
In all, 239 heavy (B-17) and medium (B-26) bombers dropped 453 tons of ordnance on the Monte Cassino abbey complex within four hours, followed the next day (16 February 1944) by additional tonnage onto the ruins by 59 fighter bombers.
Fourth and Final battle
The Fourth Battle of Monte Cassino was fought by the 2nd Polish Corps under General Władysław Anders (May 11–May 19) and the 4th Indian Division of the British Army. The Indian divisions stationed there helped in the capturing of the main Gunnery for which a member of the Indian armed forces was recognized with the Victoria Cross for his daring raid into the gunnery.
The first assault (May 11–May 12) brought heavy losses but also allowed the British Eighth Army under General Sir Oliver Leese to break through German lines in the Liri river valley below the monastery.
The second assault (May 17–May 19), carried out at immense cost by the Polish troops and the key out-flanking movement in the mountains by skilled Moroccan soldiers of the 4ème Division Marocaine de Montagne (French Expeditionary Corps CEF), pushed the German 1st Parachute Division out of its positions on the hills surrounding the monastery and almost surrounded them. In the early morning of May 18 a reconnaissance group of Polish 12th Podolian Uhlans Regiment occupied the ruins of the monastery after it was evacuated by the Germans.
The capture of Monte Cassino allowed the British and American divisions to begin the advance on Rome, which fell on June 4 1944 just two days before the Normandy invasion.
In the course of the battles the historic monastery of Monte Cassino, where St. Benedict first established the rule that ordered monasticism in the west, was entirely destroyed by the US Army Air Force. Fortunately its irreplaceable library had been removed for safekeeping to Rome at the start of the Battle by the Germans. The site has since been rebuilt, but the historic buildings are gone.
Immediately after the cessation of fighting at Monte Cassino, the Polish government in Exile (in London) created the Monte Cassino campaign cross to commemorate the Polish part in the capture of the strategic point. Later, an imposing Polish cemetery was laid out; this is prominently visible to anybody surveying the area from the restored monastery.
The destruction of the abbey was also the inspiration for Walter M. Miller Jr. to write his critically acclaimed novel A Canticle for Leibowitz, which gives a view of monastic life in a post-apocalyptic world. He served as bomber crew member in the U.S. Army Air Force during the battle and it was his traumatic first-hand experience of the annihilation of the monastery that led to him writing the book.
Bibliography and references
English
- Gerhard Muhm : German Tactics in the Italian Campaign , http://www.larchivio.org/xoom/gerhardmuhm2.htm
German
- Gerhard Muhm : German Tactics in the Italian Campaign , http://www.larchivio.org/xoom/gerhardmuhm2.htm
- Gerhard Muhm, La tattica tedesca nella campagna d'Italia, in Linea gotica avamposto dei Balcani, a cura di Amedeo Montemaggi - Edizioni Civitas, Roma 1993
Polish
Belarusian
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