Question about Monte Cassino

Can anyone tell me why the entire Monte Cassino 'mountain' could not have been surrounded by a few dozen 25 pounders and Vickers etc, and by-passed and left to "whither on the vine?

It would have been well south of the front line within a week or two.

Comments?

John

 

The Abbey was destroyed by aircraft, but the rubble gave the defenders an advantage. Not to mention it isn't flat, and consists of two peaks (somewhat) so artillery couldn't cover the whole area. Very easy for a person to hide up there too, so a German Artillery Spotter could rain hell down on the Allies.

I posted some pics a while ago from Monte Cassino - you can see what i mean by looking at them.

 

I would think that that would work better in the Pacific campaign. IMO the Arty and other troops would have been better used at the front rather then using them in a static concentration. They were definately needed elsewhere and could not be tied up. And after awhile perhaps the Germans would become so desperate that a breakout would occur.

 

"so a German Artillery Spotter could rain hell down on the Allies."


I can see the sense in using Monte Cassino as an artillery observation post, and even as a an artillery base, but after awhile it would be useless, there would be nothing to shoot or 'spot'. Supply lines can be easily adjusted away and out of the line if sight of MC.

As for a 'breakout' - where to??


John.

 

Anywhere but where they were. Better to die fighting to some of thier thinking.

 

Ah crap,i know this because i read the book but i forget.

What i do remember is that the allies had a lot of artillery,its where spike milligan got shell shocked,i also remember reading comments from german paratroopers about the pot-luckness of being bombarded and the strain of thinking it was only a matter of time before one landed on your lap.

It was impossible to bypass.

 

No really impossible, that's what happened historically when the French mountain troops broke trough in the mountains further East, but it could not be isolated or bypassed as easily as ozjohn39 suggest. The point is that while the German arty could rain down fire on the valley it proved impossible to surround it by taking the nearby ground and strongpoints/fortresses that can be reinforced at will are very hard to take. When finally threatened with encirclement the Germans left.

 

Actually i do remember that some tanks and infantry did sneak around the back and suprise the germans but it was badly cordinated and they arrived at different times and as a consequence both were destroyed

 

If you really want to know what Monte Cassino was all about and why it took so long to capture may I suggest that the definitive book to read is Mathew Parker's "Monte Cassino- The story of the hardest fought battle of World War Two".

I was at Cassino, serving as a wireless operator in an Anti Aircraft unit, and I wrote about my return to the place here:
Return to Cassino
BBC - WW2 People's War - Return to Cassino

Another Ack Ack man wrote graphically about it here:
Peter Green, Smoke laying at Cassino
BBC - WW2 People's War - Monte Cassino - "Smoke Trains".

Finally, if you enter the text string "Books on Monte Cassino" into GOOGLE you will get 82,900 "Hits"

Take your pick !

Regards to my old friends here

Ron

 

Hardest fought battle would probably go to Hurtgen forest vs Monte Cassino....but that's just me.

 

Hi ChaoS

Sorry, but I only write about battles I've been in

Cheers

Ron

 

many think that the Cassino hell-hole was just another battle of 2 weeks duration ................. NOT ! as Ron so aptly put it, go do a google search and see what you come up with and go and buy a good book or 12 instead of viewing web-sites. this was months long duration the Germans were surprised by nothing and were ordered off that God forsaken hill. for anyone Axis or Allied the sheer size of this area and the repitive and unmerciless killing was enough to send many over the edge. Literally and in my opinion this whole series of actions has never had really enough written about it