Mediterranean and North Africa · United States, Britain, France, Poland, New Zealand and India vs Germany
Battle of Monte Cassino
17 January 1944 – 18 May 1944
Four Allied assaults over four months tried to break the Gustav Line at Cassino, the gateway to the Liri valley and Rome. The abbey was destroyed by bombing in February. The line finally broke in May under Operation Diadem and the Poles raised their flag on the ruins.
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Day by day
— The Garigliano
At 21:00 British X Corps puts two divisions across the lower Garigliano by boat, aiming for Castelforte and the hills behind Minturno. Kesselring sends two panzergrenadier divisions down from Rome to seal the bridgehead, which is what the Anzio landing five days later is meant to exploit.
— The Rapido
The US 36th Division crosses the Rapido below Sant'Angelo on the night of the 20th into minefields and machine-gun fire from the far bank. Two attempts over two days cost 1,700 men for no gain, and the Texans are pulled back. To the north the French have taken Colle Belvedere and the 34th Division is working into the hills behind the abbey.
— The abbey bombed
From 09:30, 229 heavy and medium bombers drop about 450 tons on the abbey and reduce it to rubble; no German soldier was inside. The 4th Indian Division attacks Point 593 on Snakeshead ridge that night and the 2nd New Zealand Division the railway station in the town, and both are thrown back by the 18th.
— The town bombed
Some 750 tons of bombs and 200,000 shells fall on Cassino town from 08:30. The 1st Parachute Division, now holding the ruins, comes up out of the cellars and stops the New Zealanders in the craters; the 4th Indian Division gets a Gurkha battalion onto Hangman's Hill below the abbey and cannot go further. The third battle is called off on 23 March.
— Diadem
At 23:00 some 1,600 guns open along forty kilometres from Cassino to the sea. Four corps attack at once: the Poles in the hills above the abbey, XIII Corps across the Rapido into the Liri valley, the French through the Aurunci mountains that the Germans thought impassable, and US II Corps up the coast.
— The abbey taken
A patrol of the 12th Podolski Lancers raises the Polish flag over the ruins at 10:20; the paratroops slipped away in the night. The French are through the Aurunci and the Americans past Formia, so the Gustav Line is gone and the Germans are falling back to the Hitler Line at Aquino and Pontecorvo. The four battles cost the Allies about 55,000 casualties.
