Battle of Monte Cassino Begins

The Battle of Monte Cassino was one of the bloodiest battles fought on the Italian front of WWII.

Beginning January 17, 1944, and lasting four months and one day, 240,000 Allied troops fought to break through the German 10th Army around the mountain monastery of Monte Cassino. The Allies outnumbered the Germans nearly two to one, but the Germans commanded the high ground. Dug in at the hilltop monastery of Monte Cassino, elite units of German paratroopers ably controlled the surrounding hillsides and valleys to defend against Allied assaults.

During the course of the battle, Axis forces battled against the multinational formation of the Western Allies that included many British Commonwealth Nations, Free France, the United States and Poland. Italian soldiers fought on both sides of the battle as well.

By May 1944, Allied forces had finally managed to rupture the Axis defenses around Monte Cassino, with Polish troops from General Władysław Anders’s Polish II Corps at the heart of the battle. For three days, Poles and Germans fought hand to hand for control of the summit, until soldiers of the 12th Podolian Uhlans finally raised the Polish flag on top of the mountain to mark the end of the battle—finally opening the route to Rome for the Allies.

Allied forces suffered 55,000 casualties during the battle, including over 1,000 Polish soldiers who are buried at the Polish War Cemetery near Monte Cassino.