The Battle of Monte Cassino

By Matt Prestia

Setting
The winter of 1943 to 1944 Monte was a small village with a monastery that over looked the village

Belligerents
The Allies consisted of mostly of American troops, British troops and some Italian Rebels. The Axis powers at the battle of Monte Cassino were mostly seasoned Germans along with Italian Soldiers.

Axis objective
The Germans and Italians were trying to defend the Gustav line, also know as the Winter line.

The Gustav Line

This line was map to stop the advancement of the Allies toward Rome. The line also went along many rivers making it harder to cross.

Allies objective
They wanted to continue their advancement of Italy to Rome

Pre-battle preparations
The Germans did not use the monastery when they were preparing for battle, they did mine the grounds heavily and made defenses all over the mountainous area. The Americans did bomb the monastery because they thought that they Germans were going to use it. After it was bombed they used the rubble as fortifications.

Battle
The whole battle lasted four months and a day. The allies attacked from all sides and kept attacking the Germans. They had to cross a river that was flooded by the Germans. They finally took the mountain. They were not able to dig foxholes on the mountain because of the rocky soil and they ground was covered with thorny plants.

After Math
The allies lost 55,000 solders during the battle The axis lost 20,000 solders during the battle It was an allied victory but they lost many men taking Monte Cassino General Mark Clark let many Germans escape because he was more focused on liberating Rome The battle was also know as the Stalingrad of the Italian front