Monte Cassino Taken By Poles Majdalany

Cassino: Portrait of a Battle (Cassell Military Classics), by Fred Majdalany. 2004

British Eyewitness: Poles Took Monte Cassino

Author Majdalany begins with a history of the monastery at the top of Monte Cassino. The Benedictines put it there not only for religious purposes, but also because they realized that its location, surrounded by steep cliffs, would make it hard to take
by any invaders. Nevertheless, the monastery was, in time, destroyed by the Lombards and then by the Saracens. For centuries, it had peace. Then the Germans put it to use for their own strategic purposes.

The author describes the carnage around Monte Cassino. The effects of the German rocket-mortar nebelwerfer, a horrible weapon, are elaborated. (p. 134). [The Poles knew it all too well from the Warsaw Uprising, and called it the “roaring cow”.]

The Polish soldiers are described as impetuous, animated by hatred against Germans, and taking too many casualties because of their attitude. (pp. 87-88). [Based on what evidence?]

The battle plan was for Majdalany’s forces to advance up to Monte Cassino from one direction, and the Poles from another. (pp. 107-108). It worked. The Germans were defeated, the bodies of Germans littered the hillsides, and the Poles took the monastery at the top of Monte Cassino. (p. 147).