Cassino.

This is coolbert:

Read further here about the Monte Cassino battle.

Amazing stuff. I knew that it was a hard and difficult slog. But what I am reading here suggests something way beyond what I thought.

These excerpts are most indicative:

"The battle took four months, and by one estimate it left a quarter of a million dead or wounded."

"'Only the bloodbaths of Verdun and Passchendaele, or the very worst of the Second World War fighting on the Eastern Front, can compare to Monte Cassino,' writes the author of a recent book on the battle, Matthew Parker."

[this is saying A LOT!!!

"The largest land battle in Europe, Cassino was the bitterest and bloodiest of the Western Allies' struggles with the German Wehrmacht on any front of the Second World War."

"On the German side, many compared it unfavourably with Stalingrad."

"The German commander, Lieutenant-General Fridolin von Senger und Etterlin, wrote: 'We found that divisions arriving from other theatres of war were not immediately equal to the double burden of icy mountain terrain and massed bombardment.'"

[remember the Germans were on the defensive here. Defense is the easier form of combat. And yet, even the defenders had a very hard time. What must the allied forces, on the offensive, had to put up with??!!]

"General Alexander sought unsuccessfully to have the death penalty reinstated for desertion as the battle wore on."

[Alexander commanded the British 8th Army after Montgomery had gone on to higher duties. To reinstate the death penalty for desertion must have meant that a lot of guys were deserting and shirking duty!!]

Mountainous terrain, matched combatants, cold weather, no room for maneuver, inept operational planning [??]. The allied forces were faced with an impossible situation they just had to deal with as best they could. WHO said war was easy??!!

[look at the photo accompanying this blog. That is the abbey after the bombardment. And then occupied by the Hermann Goering Division. Best unit in the German Army. First you have to make it up the mountain. Then assault dug-in determined and skilled enemy fighters. Want to give it a try??!!]

coolbert.