UNKNOWN SOLDIERS: Reliving WWII in Europe

Regiment of “demonstration” troops who in fact had never fought a battle and were rushed to Italy with scarcely a briefing as to what they were being thrust into.

Our Intelligence indicated that the blitz was poised for the morning of February sixteenth. And so, after weeks of agonizing, the dreadful decision was made by Mark Clark on the fifteenth to bomb the ancient monastery on Monte Cassino from which the all-seeing eyes of the German observers had held us at bay on the Winter Line, as they did now from the Alban Hills. Then, early the next morning, the southern front would attack and finally take the demolished monastery, freeing the Air Force, by then having done its dirty job, to turn the tide at Anzio.

That was the scenario. We bombed hell into the Abbey—and the Germans dug into the rubble deeper than ever.

Against our three divisions augmented by the units guarding our flanks, General Mackensen had the equivalent of six on the line, with his 26th Panzer and 29th Panzer

The Abbey (U.S. Army)