As late as the second day of the final Cassino battle, Kesselring estimated the Allies had six divisions facing his four on the Cassino front. The operation was undertaken by General Sir Harold Alexander's 15th Army Group and followed the successful Allied Invasion of Sicily. The story of their forefathers’ fight against Etruscan tyrants was told by Romans over generations, but historians are divided over whether it actually took place. [13] Both Allied and Axis bombers made some effort not to attack the Vatican when bombing Rome. The Battle of Monte Cassino (also known as the Battle for Rome and the Battle for Cassino) was a costly series of four assaults by the Allies against the Winter Line in Italy held by Axis forces during the Italian Campaign of World War II. They lost about 55, 000 people by the end of the battle. Roosevelt, F.D. The officers convinced church authorities and their own senior commanders to use the division’s trucks and fuel for the undertaking. Pope Pius XII was silent after the bombing; however, his Cardinal Secretary of State, Luigi Maglione, bluntly stated to the senior U.S. diplomat to the Vatican, Harold Tittmann, that the bombing was "a colossal blunder … a piece of a gross stupidity". The two divisions from Rome arrived by 21 January and stabilized the German position in the south. All the fire has been from the slopes of the hill below the wall". Although in the east the German defensive line had been breached on the Adriatic front and Ortona was captured by the 1st Canadian Division, the advance had ground to a halt with the onset of winter blizzards at the end of December, making close air support and movement in the jagged terrain impossible. (2004) "Die militärische und innenpolitische Entwicklung in Italien 1943-1944", Chapter 11. The first bombardment occurred on July 19, 1943 and was carried out by 500 American bombers which dropped 1,168 tons of bombs. Once again, therefore, the battle commenced without the attackers being fully prepared. Excellent observation from the peaks of several hills allowed the German defenders to detect Allied movement and direct highly accurate artillery fire, preventing any northward advance. The army of the Roman Republic was being led by consuls Lucius Aemilius and Gaius Terentius Varro. During the battle there had been occasions when, with more astute use of reserves, promising positions might have been turned into decisive moves. Even though Romans had a clear edge over Hannibal in terms of heavy infantry, the double … The Battle of Monte Cassino (also called the Battle for Rome and the Battle for Cassino) was a battle during the Italian Campaign of World War II.It was a series of four attacks by the Allies against the Winter Line in Italy held by the Germans and Italians.. At the beginning of 1944, the western half of the Winter Line was held by Germans. The assault had been a costly failure, with the 36th Division losing 2,100[17] men killed, wounded and missing in 48 hours. They could then break through down into the Liri valley behind the Gustav Line defences. [40] There is no evidence that the bombs dropped on the Monte Cassino monastery that day killed any German troops. The ravines were no better since the gorse growing there, far from giving cover, had been sown with mines, booby-traps and hidden barbed wire by the defenders. The two Moroccan-French divisions sustained 2,500 casualties in their struggles around Colle Belvedere.[19]. However, the defenders were resolute and the attack on Point 445 to block the German reinforcement route had narrowly failed whilst in the town Allied gains were measured only house by house. On the Cassino high ground the survivors of the second Polish offensive were so battered that "it took some time to find men with enough strength to climb the few hundred yards to the summit. On 20 March Freyberg committed elements of 78th Infantry Division to the battle; firstly to provide a greater troop presence in the town so that cleared areas would not be reinfiltrated by the Germans and secondly to reinforce Castle Hill to allow troops to be released to close off the two routes between Castle Hill and Points 175 and 165 being used by the Germans to reinforce the defenders in the town. [28], Major General Francis Tuker, whose 4th Indian Division would have the task of attacking Monastery Hill, had made his own appraisal of the situation. A range of opinions were expressed as to the possibility of victory but it was evident that the New Zealand and Indian Divisions were exhausted. It was hoped that the Anzio landing, with the benefit of surprise and a rapid move inland to the Alban Hills, which command both routes 6 and 7, would so threaten the Gustav defenders' rear and supply lines that it might just unsettle the German commanders and cause them to withdraw from the Gustav Line to positions north of Rome. "In three weeks, in the middle of a losing war, in another country, it was quite a feat. Now, the crowds were celebrating the liberation of Rome from German occupation.Shops and workplaces were closed for the day and the reigning Pope – Pius XII – appeared on the balcony of the Vatican to address the jubilant crowds below in St Peter’s Square. In the afternoon, the second target was the "Scalo del Littorio" on the northern side of Rome. When handing over the U.S. II Corps position to the New Zealand Corps, Brigadier General J.A. An immediate follow-up assault failed and Eighth Army then decided to take some time to reorganize. [24] The commander in chief of the Mediterranean Allied Air Forces Lieutenant General Ira C. Eaker accompanied by Lieutenant General Jacob L. Devers (deputy to General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, the Supreme Allied Commander of the Mediterranean Theater) personally observed during a fly-over "a radio mast [...] German uniforms hanging on a clothesline in the abbey courtyard; [and] machine gun emplacements 50 yards (46 m) from the abbey walls. [6] British public opinion, however, was more aligned towards the bombing of the city, due to the participation of Italian planes in The Blitz over London. [71], At the time, Truscott was shocked, writing later, ...I was dumbfounded. The Polish cemetery is the closest of all allied cemeteries in the area; an honor given to the Poles as their units are the ones credited with the liberation of the abbey. Though not a major world power, Australia was a significant contributor to the Allied cause. On 15 May, the British 78th Division came into the British XIII Corps line from reserve passing through the bridgehead divisions to execute the turning move to isolate Cassino from the Liri valley. In his memorandum to Freyberg he concluded that regardless of whether the monastery was currently occupied by the Germans, it should be demolished to prevent its effective occupation. There is some speculation[by whom?] [51] Success depended on taking advantage of the paralysing effect of the bombing. Increasingly, the opinions of certain Allied officers were fixed on the great abbey of Monte Cassino: in their view it was the abbey—and its presumed use as a German artillery observation point—that prevented the breach of the 'Gustav Line'. The German 14th Army, facing this thrust, was without any armoured divisions because Kesselring had sent his armour south to assist the German 10th Army in the Cassino action. Forward units of the 3rd Algerian Infantry Division had also by-passed Monte Cifalco to capture Monte Belvedere and Colle Abate. Speel ★ Cradle Of Rome ★ helemaal gratis! At this point, astonishingly, Clark ordered Truscott to change his line of attack from a northeasterly one to Valmontone on Route 6 to a northwesterly one directly towards Rome. General Juin was convinced that Cassino could be bypassed and the German defences unhinged by this northerly route but his request for reserves to maintain the momentum of his advance was refused and the one available reserve regiment (from 36th Division) was sent to reinforce 34th Division. [8], 55 USAAF bombers attacked the Ciampino Airport. Whilst this would have been consistent with the German tactics of the previous three months, Allied intelligence had not understood that the strategy of fighting retreat had been for the sole purpose of providing time to prepare the Gustav line where the Germans intended to stand firm. The large troop movements required for this took two months to execute. [85], Among the treasures removed were Titians, an El Greco and two Goyas. However, the Germans were still able to reinforce their troops in the town and were proving adept at slipping snipers back into parts of the town that had supposedly been cleared.[53]. On the whole I thought it would be more useful to the Germans if we left it unbombed. Lying in a protected historic zone, it had been left unoccupied by the Germans, although they manned some positions set into the steep slopes below the abbey's walls. Leese's British Eighth Army was constantly reminded that their job was to engage the 10th Army, destroy as much of it as possible and then bypass Rome to continue the pursuit northwards (which in fact they did, harrying the retreating 10th Army for some 225 miles (362 km) towards Perugia in 6 weeks). [87][88], The U.S. government’s official position on the German occupation of Monte Cassino changed over a quarter-century. However, it is more likely that he just had too much to do, being responsible for both the Cassino and Anzio offensives. [52] The defences rallied more quickly than expected and the Allied armour was held up by bomb craters. [8], Ciampino was attacked again, this time by 35 bombers. In addition, subsidiary battle honours were given to some units which participated in specific engagements during the first part. After the breakout from the Anzio beachhead in late May of 1943, Lt. Gen. Mark W. Clark, commander of the U.S. Fifth Army, split his forces in order to ensure that American units would be the liberators of Rome, a decision that remains controversial. [15][16], There is no obscurity about the identity of the British plane that dropped bombs on the edge of Vatican City on 1 March 1944 as this was explicitly acknowledged, at least in private, by the British Air Ministry as an accidental bombing when one of its aircraft on a bombing raid over Rome dropped its bombs too close to the Vatican wall. Cerasola, San Giorgio, Mt. Her fleets sailed a… Highway 6 ran through the Liri valley, dominated at its south entrance by the rugged mass of Monte Cassino above the town of Cassino. Battle of Anzio Maps | World War II Database. The way was clear for the advance northwards on Rome and beyond. [12], 206 USAAF bombers attacked the Tiburtino, Littorio and Ostiense marshalling yards; these were hit but so were the surrounding urban districts, with 400 civilian deaths. Nevertheless success was there for the New Zealanders' taking, but by the time a follow-up assault on the left had been ordered that evening it was too late: defences had reorganised and more critically, the rain, contrary to forecast, had started again. This was evidenced in the writing of Maj. Gen. Howard Kippenberger, commander of New Zealand 2nd Division, after the war. On the western front, the American Fifth Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark, which had suffered very heavy casualties during the main landing at Salerno (codenamed Operation Avalanche) in September, moved from the main base of Naples up the Italian "boot" and on the eastern front the British Eighth Army, commanded by General Sir Bernard Montgomery, advanced up the Adriatic coast. It is now known that the Germans had an agreement not to use the abbey for military purposes. [18] By 31 January the French had ground to a halt with Monte Cifalco, which had a clear view of the French and U.S. flanks and supply lines, still in German hands. Here is a list of films that convey the Italian WW2 experience. Clark also paid tribute to the Goumiers and the Moroccan regulars of the Tirailleur units: In spite of the stiffening enemy resistance, the 2nd Moroccan Division penetrated the Gustave [sic] Line in less than two-day's fighting. [12], The 12th USAAF bombed the Littorio and Tiburtino marshalling yards, but bombs fell also on the city, killing 200 civilians. The Joint Allied Forces Headquarters was operationally responsible for all Allied land forces in the Mediterranean theatre and it planned and led the invasion of Sicily in July 1943, followed in September by the invasion of the Italian mainland and the … The German positions on Point 593 above and behind the monastery were untouched.[37]. The first assault was made on 17 January. In 1922, Mussolini rose to power and began his quest to create a new empire; by 1935, Italy had invaded Ethiopia. By the end of 17 March the Gurkhas held Hangman's Hill (point 435), 250 yards (230 m) from the monastery, in battalion strength (although their lines of supply were compromised by the German positions at point 236 and in the northern part of the town) and whilst the town was still fiercely defended, New Zealand units and armour had got through the bottleneck and captured the station. By the next day they would have been astride the line of retreat and 10th Army, with all Kesselring's reserves committed to them, would have been trapped. They had to find the materials necessary for crates and boxes, find carpenters among their troops, recruit local labourers (to be paid with rations of food plus twenty cigarettes a day) and then manage the "massive job of evacuation centered on the library and archive",[80] a treasure "literally without price". It was hoped that being a much larger force than their 4th Indian Division predecessors they would be able to saturate the German defences which would as a result be unable to give supporting fire to each other's positions. The assault failed, with the company sustaining 50 per cent casualties. Wells was a particularly vocal proponent of doing so.[7]. The U.S. II Corps, with 34th Infantry Division under Major General Charles W. Ryder spearheading the attack and French colonial troops on its right flank, launched an assault across the flooded Rapido valley north of Cassino and into the mountains behind with the intention of then wheeling to the left and attacking Monte Cassino from high ground. Also during this time, the Polish song writer Feliks Konarski, who had taken part in the fighting there, wrote his anthem "Czerwone maki na Monte Cassino" ("The Red Poppies on Monte Cassino"). Monte Cassino, The Hardest Fought Battle of World War II by Matthew Parker First Anchor Edition, May 2005 414 pages with maps and pictures My son loaded me up with books from my wish list for Christmas 2011 and I finally got around to reading the last one around Christmas time 2012. One interesting detail about the Battle of Monte Cassino is how everyone fighting for it perceived it. The day following the battle, the Goumiers, French Moroccan colonial troops attached to the French Expeditionary Forces, have been accused of rape and murder through the surrounding hills. [8] After the raid, Pius XII, along with Msgr. [6] The raid failed to achieve its objective, as German paratroopers then occupied the rubble and established excellent defensive positions amid the ruins. The Allied landings in Italy in September 1943 by two Allied armies, following shortly after the Allied landings in Sicily in July, commanded by General Sir Harold Alexander, the Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) of the 15th Army Group (later retitled the Allied Armies in Italy), were followed by an advance northward on two fronts, one on each side of the central mountain range forming the "spine" of Italy. To be first in Rome was a poor compensation for this lost opportunity.[72]. U.S. II Corps, after two and a half weeks of battle, was worn out. By early February, American infantry had captured a strategic point near the hamlet of San Onofrio, less than 1 mile (1.6 km) from the abbey and by 7 February a battalion had reached Point 445, a round-topped hill immediately below the monastery and no more than 400 yards (370 m) away. Battle of Anzio Background. Simultaneously the French Expeditionary Corps (CEF), under General Alphonse Juin would continue its "right hook" move towards Monte Cairo, the hinge to the Gustav and Hitler defensive lines. Rome was eventually declared an open city on August 14, 1943 (a day after the last Allied bombing) by the defending forces. The main central thrust by the U.S. II Corps would commence on 20 January with the U.S. 36th Infantry Division making an assault across the swollen Gari river five miles (8 km) downstream of Cassino. In truth, Clark did not believe there was much chance of an early breakthrough,[12] but he felt that the attacks would draw German reserves away from the Rome area in time for the attack on Anzio (codenamed Operation Shingle) where the U.S. VI Corps (British 1st and U.S. 3rd Infantry Divisions, the 504th Parachute Regimental Combat Team, U.S. Army Rangers and British Commandos, Combat Command 'B' of the U.S. 1st Armored Division, along with supporting units), under Major General John P. Lucas, was due to make an amphibious landing on 22 January. The entire working class district of San Lorenzo was destroyed, and 3,000 Italian civilians were killed in the raids over five residential/railway districts. Some historians[who?] [12], 149 USAAF bombers bombed the Littorio and Ostiense marshalling yards, hitting both their objectives and the city. The German cemetery (Deutsche Kriegsgräberstätte Cassino) is approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) north of Cassino in the Rapido Valley. However, given the imprecision of bombing in those days (it was estimated that only 10 per cent of the bombs from the heavy bombers, bombing from high altitude, hit the monastery) bombs did fall elsewhere and killed German and Allied troops alike, although that would have been unintended. This was planned to keep German reserves held back from the Gustav Line. The plan for Operation Diadem was that U.S. II Corps on the left would attack up the coast along the line of Route 7 towards Rome. Success would pinch out Cassino town and open up the Liri valley. On 11 February, after a final unsuccessful 3-day assault on Monastery Hill and Cassino town, the Americans were withdrawn. Once again the two regiments attacked but with no more success against the well dug-in 15th Panzergrenadier Division: the 143rd Infantry Regiment got the equivalent of two battalions across, but, once again, there was no armoured support and they were devastated when daylight came the next day. Smashed by bombing it was a jagged heap of broken masonry and debris open to effective fire from guns, mortars and strafing planes as well as being a death trap if bombed again. Torrents of rain flooded bomb craters, turned rubble into a morass and blotted out communications, the radio sets being incapable of surviving the constant immersion. [14] Damage from the raid is still visible. As it happened, Fifth Army HQ failed to appreciate the frailty of the German position and the plan was unchanged. By daylight the U.S. II Corps had made little progress, but their Fifth Army colleagues, the French Expeditionary Corps, had achieved their objectives and were fanning out in the Aurunci Mountains toward the Eighth Army to their right, rolling up the German positions between the two armies. 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