"Cassino: Portrait of a Battle " Topic

"Cassino: Portrait of a Battle by Fred Majdalany has become a classic account of one of the bloodiest episodes in the Italian Campaign of 1943/44. His description of the fighting on this section of the Gustav Line is almost poetic in its prose and very clear in its description of what proved to be a bitterly contested and complex series of battles.

The allies had fought their way north against the deliberately stubborn fighting retreat of the Germans who held each mountain pass or ridge long enough to inflict the maximum casualties on the attackers before pulling back to a new position at the next pass or town. The geography of Italy makes ideal ground for the defender and by the time the Allies had reached the Rapido Valley they were already exhausted and battered. Now external political pressures urged the allies on against the German Gustav Line anchored on the town of Cassino and the Benedictine Monastery that overlooked it.

The line of mountains and hills that jutted into the path of the advancing allies was a natural defensive position. The town of Cassino sat astride one of the two main roads heading north towards Rome and the Monastery and surrounding peaks gave the Germans unparalleled lines of observation. They could see everything the Allies were doing and respond to it quickly and accurately. This made capturing the Monastery vital to the continued advance but it also meant overcoming the fact that each peak in German hands could provide support to the other. Any allied unit that moved in daytime would find itself fired upon from multiple directions and many New Zealand and Indian troops were lost in this inhospitable terrain…"
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Amicalement
Armand

My great uncle Mike was in the fighting with the 34th inf division.

He passed in 2001.

My respects…

Amicalement
Armand