Monte Cassino Timeline

The Allies had already achieved a foothold on Italian soil with their arrival - and subsequent capture of the island of Sicily in the South. The next target of import was the city of Rome. Germany had devised an impregnable defensive line running from the east Italian coast to the west. The line was known under the imposing name of the "Gustav Line". The Allies would have to find some way of penetrating the natural and man-made defensive positions along this front if they were to succeed in Italy.

Eyes centered in on the town of Cassino and its overlooking mountaintop monastery known as Monte Cassino. The site watched over the main route and Liri valley that headed towards Rome itself and made for a prime starting point, considering the monastery held an excellent vantage point of the surrounding countryside for miles. Unfortunately for the Allies, the Italian Winter has arrived and made progress all the more lethal. Additionally, the German defense was being held by elite paratrooper forces who gave up their parachutes some time earlier and were further backed by two Panzer divisions. The fast Allied progress - at least up to this point - also meant that the supply columns were stretched thing and lacking behind the main army push.

It would take four major Allied offensives to dislodge the German defenders from Cassino. An Allied aerial bombardment laid waste to the monastery (the Allies believing the Germans had taken up defensive positions there) to which the resulting debris made for even better locations for which the Germans could set up in. All nations took a stab in the attacks - New Zealand, France, India, Poland, Britain, United States - and each suffered mounting casualties. It seemed that the Germans would not give up Cassino easily.

Tanks were initially limited in use due to the terrain. German Panzers were relegated to static emplacements with awkward firing angles. Allied tanks held the disadvantaged lower ground and had to make their way through roads and streets littered with battlefield debris. Allied tanks were only used in the third and fourth assaults on Cassino, playing a more major role in the latter.

The final assault utilized numbers to the Allied advantage, forcing a German retreat. The Poles eventually took the monastery - what was left of it. The five month battle - costing some 50,000 lives in whole - eventually resulted in the destruction of the Gustav Line and opened the door to the taking of Rome itself.

Sadly, many of the casualties were never officially found in the battle's aftermath. Souls now known only to God.