It became clear that the attack had failed and on 18 February Dimoline and Freyberg called off the attacks on Monastery Hill. April 2018 July 2020 Excellent observation from the peaks of several hills allowed the German defenders to detect Allied movement and direct highly accurate artillery fire, preventing any northward advance. On 24 May, the Canadians had breached the line and 5th Canadian (Armoured) Division poured through the gap. After reorganising, the attack went in at midnight. Success would pinch out Cassino town and open up the Liri valley. The U.S. II Corps, with 34th Infantry Division under Major General Charles W. Ryder spearheading the attack and French colonial troops on its right flank, launched an assault across the flooded Rapido valley north of Cassino and into the mountains behind with the intention of then wheeling to the left and attacking Monte Cassino from high ground. May 2018 Many of the troops had only taken over their positions from II Corps two days previously and besides the difficulties in the mountains, preparations in the valley had also been held up by difficulties in supplying the newly installed troops with sufficient material for a full-scale assault because of incessantly foul weather, flooding and waterlogged ground. De Slag om Monte Cassino, ook weleens de Slag om Rome genoemd, was een reeks aanvallen van de geallieerden tijdens de Italiaanse Veldtocht waarmee zij probeerden door de Gustav-linie te breken. The German positions on Point 593 above and behind the monastery were untouched.[37]. Whilst the task of crossing the river would be easier in that the Rapido upstream of Cassino was fordable, the flooding made movement on the approaches each side very difficult. 2 Central Italy [92], First assault: X Corps on the left, 17 January, Main attack: II Corps in the centre, 20 January, II Corps try north of Cassino: 24 January, II Corps in the mountains north of Cassino, Clark captures Rome but fails to trap German Tenth Army, There is an inconsistency between the description of this event by historian Albert Simpson in the Official History of the Army Air Force published in 1951. "[69] A patrol of Polish 12th Podolian Cavalry Regiment finally made it to the heights and raised a Polish flag over the ruins. The idea was to clear the path through the bottleneck between these two features to allow access towards the station on the south and so to the Liri valley. Rick Atkinson described the intense German resistance: Artillery and Nebelwerfer drumfire methodically searched both bridgeheads, while machine guns opened on every sound... GIs inched forward, feeling for trip wires and listening to German gun crews reload... to stand or even to kneel was to die... On average, soldiers wounded on the Rapido received "definitive treatment" nine hours and forty-one minutes after they were hit, a medical study later found..." [16]. [85], Among the treasures removed were Titians, an El Greco and two Goyas. Only about 40 people remained: the six monks who survived in the deep vaults of the abbey, their 79-year-old abbot, Gregorio Diamare, three tenant farmer families, orphaned or abandoned children, the badly wounded and the dying. However, a surprise and fiercely pressed counter-attack from the monastery on Castle Hill by the German 1st Parachute Division completely disrupted any possibility of an assault on the monastery from the Castle and Hangman's Hill whilst the tanks, lacking infantry support, were all knocked out by mid-afternoon. However, with the coming of daylight, they too were cut down and by the evening of 22 January, the 141st Infantry Regiment had virtually ceased to exist; only 40 men made it back to the Allied lines. A single armoured division, the 26th Panzer, was in transit from north of the Italian capital of Rome where it had been held anticipating the non-existent seaborne landing the Allies had faked and so was unavailable to fight. April 2019 Leese's British Eighth Army was constantly reminded that their job was to engage the 10th Army, destroy as much of it as possible and then bypass Rome to continue the pursuit northwards (which in fact they did, harrying the retreating 10th Army for some 225 miles (362 km) towards Perugia in 6 weeks). The large troop movements required for this took two months to execute. As late as the second day of the final Cassino battle, Kesselring estimated the Allies had six divisions facing his four on the Cassino front. In truth, Clark did not believe there was much chance of an early breakthrough,[12] but he felt that the attacks would draw German reserves away from the Rome area in time for the attack on Anzio (codenamed Operation Shingle) where the U.S. VI Corps (British 1st and U.S. 3rd Infantry Divisions, the 504th Parachute Regimental Combat Team, U.S. Army Rangers and British Commandos, Combat Command 'B' of the U.S. 1st Armored Division, along with supporting units), under Major General John P. Lucas, was due to make an amphibious landing on 22 January. [78], In the course of the battles, the ancient abbey of Monte Cassino, where St. Benedict first established the Rule that ordered monasticism in the west, was entirely destroyed by Allied bombing and artillery barrages in February 1944.

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