Monte Cassino Abbey

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bigpigeon.us webpage WWII Germany > MTO > Italy > The Gustav Line/Cassino #1, © 2024 by Robert A. Christiansen, updated by RAC 27 Jun 2024.

This webpage summarizes the first of the four battles fought along the Gustav Line defenses on the western side of the Apennine Mountains. It is often known as the First Battle of Monte Cassino. 

The Gustav Line

Background: In southern Italy in late 1943, the Allies had slowly advanced northward as they moved toward the main German defensive line, the Gustav Line. 

• In the British Eighth Army sector in the east, British Commonwealth forces managed to penetrate the Gustav Line near the Adriatic Sea.
• In the US Fifth Army sector in the west, British and US forces finished clearing the German strongpoints south of the the Gustav Line in the middle of January 1944.

Summary: From January to May 1944, Gustav Line strongpoints in the Cassino area stalled the Allied advance. These defenses guarded the entrance to the Liri Valley where Highway 6 led north from Naples to Rome.

The Allies attempted to bypass Cassino by an amphibious landing in January 1944 on the beaches near Anzio and Nettuno, further up the Italian peninsula and closer to Rome. This attempt failed, resulting in half of the US Fifth Army being caught for four months in an enclave called the Anzio Beachhead.

Back along the Gustav Line, the first three Battles of Monte Cassino were defeats.

• The first battle was fought along a long front by British, American and French troops. Some of the British effort was successful.
• The second and third battles were fought in the streets of Cassino and in the mountains to the northwest and west by New Zealand and Indian troops and made only minimal gains.

Despite their failure, the first three Battles of Monte Cassino were justified as attempts to relieve German pressure on the Anzio Beachhead.

Eventually Allied strength increased, German reserves were depleted, and the 15th Army Group planned an offensive involving both the British Eighth Army and the US Fifth Army.

• The fourth Battle of Monte Cassino, fought successfully by Polish troops, was part of Operation Diadem, this May offensive.​

At the Gustav Line - the shaded area shows the gains from January up to 11 May 1944

Cassino in February 1944

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The First Battle of Monte Cassino

The First Battle of Monte Cassino actually consisted of three phases.

Phase 1 - The British Garigliano River crossings south of Cassino

• 17 January 1944: The 5th and 56th Divisions of British X Corps successfully crossed the Garigliano River north of its confluence with the Tyrrhenian Sea on 17 January 1944.
• 19 January 1944: X Corps' 46th Division attempted a crossing further north which failed.

Crossing the Garigliano River

Phase 2 - The failed US crossings of the Rapido River south of Cassino

This attack, by the 141st and 143rd Infantry Regiments of the 36th Infantry Division, a National Guard division from Texas, failed tragically.

• 20 January 1944:
• 21 January 1944: The US was able to maintain a presence on the north bank for 20 hours.

36th Division assault troops suffered over 2,000 casualties in dead, wounded, and prisoner of war.

The Rapido River Assault

Phase 3 - The first attack on Monte Cassino - 24 January to 11 February 1944

, About the first map on the right:

• This map is in error. The assault was by the 34th Infantry Division, the Iowa-Minnesota National Guard division. However, the regimental numbers are correct.
• The 36th Division's 142nd Infantry Regiment was attached to the 34th Infantry Division and  did participate in this phase from late January to 11 February.
• FEC, attacking to the north, refers to the 2nd Moroccan Infantry Division and 3rd Algerian Infantry Division of the French Expeditionary Corps, which was part of the US Fifth Army.

As the second map shows, 34th Division infantry companies managed to occupy major portions of the mountains near Cassino. However, the German army brought in reserves and the Allies no longer had reserves to commit. Eventually the 34th Division strength was reduced to such a level that the American troops were withdrawn.

The Allied Plan

Progress of the US Attack

The Second and Third Battles of Monte Cassino

After the US Fifth Army's defeat in the protracted First Battle of Monte Cassino, elements of the British Eighth Army made two additional attempts to seize the Monte Cassino area.

Both attempts were by an ad hoc unit, the New Zealand Corps consisting of the 2nd New Zealand Division, the 4th Indian Infantry Division, and the ? Neither succeded.
​

The Second Battle of Monte Cassino was preceded by the tragic, and in retrospect unnecessary, Allied destruction of Monte Cassino Abby.

February 15, 1944 - The bombing of Monte Cassino Abbey.

At the insistence of some leading Allied officiers, American aircraft destroyed the historic Monte Cassino Abbey on February 15. It was later learned that the German army had observed the terms of an agreement not to use the abbey. However, after the destruction, the abbey ruins made excellent positions for the German defenders.

Monte Cassino Abbey After the American Bombing of 15 February 1944

15 - 18 Feb, The Second Battle of Monte Cassino.

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15 - 30 Mar, Third Battle of Monte Cassino.

The Fourth Battle of Monte Cassino

Operation Diadem, the 4th Battle of Monte Cassino.

​Finally in mid-May of 1944, with extraordinary efforts by troops from many nations, the Mt. Cassino defenses fell and the Gustav Line collapsed.

The Allied forces shown on this map then pressed west and northwest towards Rome. Meanwhile in the Anzio Beachhead, a breakout to the north allowed both components of Allied forces to join.

The Allies liberated Rome in early June and then moved north through central Italy, where in late summer they encountered a new barrier, the Gothic Line.

Operation Diadem, Advance Past the Gustav Line

       ██  Pottawattamie Area WWII Dead - WWII Germany > The MTO > Italy > The Gustav Line/Cassino #1  ██

• Taken from the bigpigeon.us WW II Dead module.

02-02 - WWII Germany > The MTO > Italy > Cassino/the Gustav Line: (nine dead, updated 30 Jan 2024)
† Comley, George K., SN 20-705-562, US Army, Montgomery Co.

• Co. F, 168th Inf. Regt., 34th Inf. Div., II Corps, Fifth Army; KIA 9 Feb 1944 near Cassino, Lazio, Italy; First Battle of Monte Cassino - The MTO > Italy > Cassino/the Gustav Line.

† Doggett, Clair Quentin, SN 37-267-573, US Army, Montgomery Co.

• 132nd Inf. Regt., 34th Inf. Div., II Corps, Fifth Army; KIA 8 Feb 1944 near Cassino, Lazio, Italy; First Battle of Monte Cassino - The MTO > Italy > Cassino/the Gustav Line.

† Dunbar, Milo, SN 20-703-345, US Army, Monona Co. (WWII-DunbarMilo)

• Co. L, 133rd Inf. Regt., 34th Inf. Div., Fifth Army; KIA 15 Feb 1944 Italy; First Battle of Monte Cassino - The MTO > Italy > Cassino/The Gustav Line.

† Hiley, Dean Anderson, SN 37-666-247, US Army, Pott. Co.

• 141st Inf. Regt., 36th Inf. Div., II Corps, Fifth Army; KIA 21 Jan 1943 crossing the Rapido River S of Cassino, Lazio, Italy; First Battle of Monte Cassino - The MTO > Italy > Cassino/the Gustav Line.

† Kish, Lyman Herbert, SN 12-141-097, US Army, Pott. Co.

• Battery D, 403rd AAA Bn., II Corps, Fifth Army; WIA 20 Feb 1944 near Cassino, Lazio, Italy; DOW 21 Feb 1944 11th Field Hospital, San Pietro, Italy, shrapnel wound; The MTO > Italy > Cassino/the Gustav Line.

† Lang, Richard Waddell, SN 37-481-349, US Army, Cass & Carroll Cos.

• Co. B, 135th Inf. Regt., 34th Inf. Div., Fifth Army; KIA 8 Feb 1944 near Cassino, Lazio, Italy; First Battle of Monte Cassino - The MTO > Italy > Cassino/the Gustav Line.

† Overgaard, Andrew Bager, SN 37-045-092, US Army, Audubon Co. & Greeley Co., NE

• Co. B, 168th Inf. Regt., 34th Inf. Div.; KIA 30 Jan 1944 N of Cassino, Lazio, Italy; First Battle of Monte Cassino - Italy > Cassino/the Gustav Line.

† Troth, Russell Edwin, SN 39-280-003, US Army, Pott. Co.

• Hq. Co., 2nd Bn., 168th Inf. Regt., 34th Inf. Div., II Corps, Fifth Army; KIA 14 Feb 1944, near Cassino, Lazio, Italy; First Battle of Monte Cassino - The MTO > Italy > Cassino/the Gustav Line.

† Viether, Orville Otto, SN 36-478-542, US Army, Cass Co & Rock Island Co., IL

• 143rd Inf. Regt., 36th Inf. Div., II Corps, Fifth Army; WIA 17 Jan 1944 near Rapido River, S of Cassino, Lazio, Italy; DOW 24 Jan 1944; First Battle of Monte Cassino - The MTO > ​Italy > Cassino/the Gustav Line.

 
​                                ██   Allied Order of Battle - The Gustav Line/Cassino #1   ██

• Not yet complete. Working version is at The MTO > Italy > Order of Battle.

   ██  Sources for Big Pigeon's WWII Germany > The MTO > Italy > The Gustav Line/Cassino #1 webpage  ██​

• http://www.emersonkent.com/map_archive/southern_italy_1944.htm#google_vignette 
• Salerno to Cassino (scalable maps) (United States Army in World War II, Mediterranean Theater of Operations series, Martin Blumenson, 1993, CMH #6-3) - http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-MTO-Salerno/index.html#index.
• Rome-Arno, 22 January-9 September 1944 (The U.S. Army Campaigns of World War II, The U.S. Army Center of Military History, Clayton D. Laurie, illustrated brochure, CMH 72-20) - https://history.army.mil/html/books/072/72-20/CMH_Pub_72-20(75th-Anniversary).pdf.
• The webpage header photo, Monte Cassino Abbey Ruins, by Frank J. Davis, is courtesy of the Southern Methodist University Libraries digital collection and was found at flickr.com.
• The Crossing the Garigliano River map, https://wartime.blog/2018/01/17/on-this-day-the-battle-of-monte-cassino-begins-17-january-1944/
• The Cassino in February 1944 map is courtesy of NZ History.​
• The Operation Diadem map by Gene Thorp is taken from Rick Atkinson's The Day of Battle.