What does "34th Signal Company Chronicle: Cassino and Its Abbey" mean to you?

google | 12/19/2006 | self

[cold666pack]

Can someone with military knowledge tell me what this title tells them?
"34th Signal Company Chronicle: Cassino and Its Abbey"

I know the author served in the 34th Infantry Division of the US Army, bur from this title, is it safe to assume he fought in Germany where there is an Abbey of Monte Cassino?

Not knowledgable about this type of terminology at all, and would be very grateful for some insight, so as to not make stupid mistakes when writing about it.

[68skylark]

The abbey is a famous location in Italy. The battle was ferocious.

[Solamente]

http://www.officine.it/montecassino/main_e.htm

[gaijin]

I'm pretty sure that's where a bunch of Germans held out in a mountaintop Abbey of some kind. To displace them required that US forces bomb a densely-populated church area without mercy, inflicting thousands of civilian casualties.

When Germans want to allege "the Americans were JUUUUST as bad", they usually talk about this place.

I'm taking NO POSITION, you understand.

[FlingWingFlyer]

You faked me out. I Googled Monte Cassino and it is in Italy. Just where I thought. Whew! I thought I was losing my mind.

[Nancee]

Can't help other than to give this a BUMP!!!

:-)

[Michael.SF.]

There was also a WW II movie on Monte Casino, intended as a promotional, (directed by John Huston ??). It was never released as it was deemed 'unacceptably realistic'.

[Argus]

I think you're wrong about the thousands of civilian casualties. I believe there were only a few monks resident in the abbey at the time and few were killed. Bombing the place turned out to be counterproductive as the Germans found the resulting rubble made much more effective cover from the US infantry assault than the intact buildings would have. That's what I've read anyway.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Here's more.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Monte_Cassino

[68skylark]

The 34th ID is a National Guard division from Iowa and Minnesota. They are credited with taking more fortified hills in WWII than any other unit in Europe, including "Hill 609" which broke the back of axis resistance in N. Africa.

A lot of their early history in WWII is told in this magnificent book:

http://www.amazon.com/Army-Dawn-1942-1943-Liberation-Trilogy/dp/0805074481/sr=1-1/qid=1166664443/ref=pd_bbs_1/105-2037129-5678053?ie=UTF8&s=books

[ArtyFO]

A polish brigade captured the hill and took many casualties.

[Sloth]

The abbey is a famous location in Italy. The battle was ferocious.

I've fought my way up that hill many times in Battlefield 1942: Road to Rome.

[68skylark]

To displace them required that US forces bomb a densely-populated church area without mercy, inflicting thousands of civilian casualties.

That's not the way I heard it. The abbey was unoccupied by the Germans, until the U.S. made a huge blunder and bombed it into ruins. The Germans then occupied the ruins, which made perfect defensive positions and greatly increased allied casualties.

[Michael.SF.]

[cripplecreek]

I believe it was on a mountaintop. Not exactly a heavily populated residential area. The real significace is the fact that it was a holy Christian site that we bombed mercilessly because that's where the enemy was. If I'm not mistaken, we got permission for it.

[RaceBannon]

Monte Casino is in Italy, part of the Gustav line

We thought it was being held by the Germans, but it was not, we leveled it.

[cold666pack]

Do you know what Signal Company Chronicle means? Do you think it refers to a certain sect of the 34th? The Signal Company?

[cold666pack]

very helpful, thx much.

[Argus]

It was the site where St. Benedict put his first monastery in the 6th Century, because it was an excellent defensive position commanding the road to Rome. I believe the original buildings were sacked and destroyed by Saracen pirates a couple hundred years later.