# Monte Cassino - Book Review



## rolandstrong (17 Jun 2003)

Monte Cassino, Berkely Books, 1986 - David Hapgood and David Richardson

one of my favorite hobbies is to scrounge around used book stores and pick up WWII military books on the cheap...pricipally because I live in a community that is anti-military and generally uninterested in WWII. Great for me. I bought this book for a buck.

I thought by the title I was going to get the nitty gritty on this hard fought battle between a handful of belligerent German Paratroops vs. haughty New Zealanders, Juin‘s Free French, and the hard fighting Polish remnant army. Sadly, this was not the case. This book was about the controversy surrounding Monte Cassino, a benedictine monestary in an unquestionably perfect strategic position covering the Liri Valley during the Italian campaign in 1943. The book mainly discusses a classical piece of archetecture that was blasted to oblivion by the Allies (at the request of Lt.Gen Bernard Freyberg leading the battle hardened New Zealand forces) even though the Axis powers took great pains not to occupy the building for its own protection. 

Ok, now for the interesting military stuff. If anyone can get a chance, try to read the tactics and strategies of Panzer General Frido Von Senger und Etterlin. While this book is basically garbage, it does make not of one thing: Von Senger was a brilliant tactician, and managed to establish a strong defence of Monte Cassino while smoking the Allies at Anzio. 

At Monte Cassino, he did not occupy the monestary, but the caves surrounding its perimeter, escaping not only the intensive artillery assault, but also the most intensive aerial bombardment of a single structure during the war. The kicker is that the Germans did not sustain a single casualty from the bombing, while the americans managed to kill 200+ civilians in the church. Once the Monestary was a pile of rubble, Von Senger sent in the German paratroops who were so entrenched in a mass of rock and labyrinthine tunnels, the Allied forces never did dislodge them. In fact, the Allies called Casino a major victory, but the when the Poles finally got into the monestary (after sustaining enormous losses), the Germans were gone. They withdrew earlier without the Allies seeing them. The cost?  200000 casualties on both sides - 25000 (one quarter) German.


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