1944: MONTE CASSINO
The History Trip
6,932 views
In January 1944 thousands of Allied troops converge on Monte Cassino. Atop the near-vertical hillside is a vast Benedictine abbey that the Allies believe is being used by the Germans. In reality its Commander – a lay member of the religious order - has forbidden its military use. Despite, Allied bombing raids reduce the monastery to rubble - providing perfect cover for determined German troops to move into, and set up their defence against constant assault by British, Polish, Canadian, South African, and New Zealand and American troops. Over the next four months of brutal conflict up to 80,000 casualties were suffered by both sides, and tens of thousands more in connected fighting across the region. Soon after the Allies finally took their objective, all eyes turned to Normandy and D-Day - and those who had fought in the brutal Italian campaign were nicknamed 'D-Day Dodgers'. Their response was to take the name as a badge of honour...
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@thehistorytripofficial
7 Comments
1944: MONTE CASSINO
The History Trip
6,932 views
In January 1944 thousands of Allied troops converge on Monte Cassino. Atop the near-vertical hillside is a vast Benedictine abbey that the Allies believe is being used by the Germans. In reality its Commander – a lay member of the religious order - has forbidden its military use. Despite, Allied bombing raids reduce the monastery to rubble - providing perfect cover for determined German troops to move into, and set up their defence against constant assault by British, Polish, Canadian, South African, and New Zealand and American troops. Over the next four months of brutal conflict up to 80,000 casualties were suffered by both sides, and tens of thousands more in connected fighting across the region. Soon after the Allies finally took their objective, all eyes turned to Normandy and D-Day - and those who had fought in the brutal Italian campaign were nicknamed 'D-Day Dodgers'. Their response was to take the name as a badge of honour...
Don't forget to hit that subscribe button and be part of the journey—history awaits! 🔔✨
@thehistorytripofficial
He worked like a man possessed from Monday to Friday as a carpenter in the border area of south Norfolk and north Suffolk and never touched a drop of alcohol during the working week, but come Friday night and Saturday night he would walk down to the Ex Serviceman`s club and down a few liters of vodka to help him to make sense of why he was allowed to survive the war when so many of his Polish comrades were slaughtered on that terrible Italian mountain. I had the job of picking him up from the Ex Serviceman`s club on Friday and Saturday night to ensure that he returned home safe and sound after he`d filled his boots with his beloved Vodka, he would always curse the Nazis under his breath in his native language, but would never follow it up with an English translation, that is until one Saturday night collection when he started to talk in English about the Battle of Monte Casino. He mentioned that after all of the other Allied combatants had failed to dislodge the Nazis from the hill top abbey, that they the free Poles, were now given the chance of defeating their dreaded enemy. He bemoaned the loss of many of his Polish brothers in taking the abbey and how hard their part of the battle became but with the knowledge of how the Polish nation were being systematically eliminated by those Nazi devils in his homeland, they were determined to carry out their task regardless of casualties. One of the things that he told me was that if on occasion when there was any bombing by the Luftwaffe, all of the allies would take cover and that when the Yanks came over with their bombers everyone took cover, there was nothing friendly about him and his Polish comrades being bombed by the American air force, so he cursed them for the rest of his life for killing so many of his Polish brothers.