The FReeper Foxhole Remembers The Poles at Cassino (5/11-5/18 1944) - Feb. 12th, 2004

www.battleofmontecassino.com ^ | R.Berezni

[snippy_about_it]

Thanks PE. They might as well start from scratch on a new garage. LOL.

[Professional Engineer]

Cool looking for sure.

[Professional Engineer]

ROFL They tore it up but good.

[PhilDragoo]

[Valin]

Looks like a job for Martha Stewart! A few pillows, a couple of throw rugs and it'll be just so cosy.

[PhilDragoo]

Now the perfect time to dig up Roosevelt and bitch-slap him again.

1943 at Casablanca, Moscow, Teheran, Roosevelt gushing with zeal to be Stalin's friend, demonstrates his total absense of a soul.

He would bear any burden, (or the taxpaying, brainwashed sheep would), betray any friend (Poland comes to mind), fellate any foe (and he had his Uncle Joe kneepads packed), to muddy the prospect of freedom for tens of millions for decades to come.

To Roosevelt (spit).

Let the tyrant who considers subjugating Poland be Bobbited in his sleep.

Or have his head twisted by fraternity brother and wrestling champ Rich Sobolewksi, two-fifty, a rock with no neck.

What a display of historic valor presented by Polish forces in those years caught between the rat bastards of all time, the Friendship Pact Bobbsey Twins, Adolf and Joe--memo to Satan, another thousand degrees Kelvin, and don't spare the rock salt massaged into the lash marks.

polandsholocaust.org

Monte Cassino 1944

18 maja 1944 Polacy zdobyli klasztor Monte Cassino.

18 maja 1998 w rocznicê tego zwyciêstwa otwieramy w Galerii "Ciasnej" wystawê z³o¿on¹ ze zdjêæ z albumu ówczesnego szefa sztabu V Dywizji Kresowej tzw. ¯ubrów pp³k. Stanis³awa Maleszewskiego. Album ten ofiarowali mu cz³onkowie Sztabu po zakoñczeniu walk we W³oszech. Znajduj¹ siê w nim nie tylko zdjêcia z walk o Monte Cassino, lecz te¿ wczeœniejsze z frontu w Afryce ( Palestyna ) i póŸniejsze z wyzwalania W³och. By³y one wykonane przede wszystkim przez Referat Fotograficzny Oddz. Prop. i Kult. A.W.P. ( sygnowane Chruscie ) i braci Harcaj - uczestników tych walk w Dywizji Kresowej. W³aœciciel albumu uzupe³ni³ go nastêpnie o zdjêcia prywatne od ucieczki z obozu internowania na Wêgrzech do grudnia 1947. Te fotografie s¹ najczêœciej anonimowe, kilka z nich wykona³ Jerzy Bu³hak. Du¿a czêœæ z prezentowanych tu zdjêæ nie by³a dotychczas nigdzie publikowana.

Obecnie album znajduje siê wœród pami¹tek rodzinnych Pana Wojciecha Janowskiego, któremu bardzo dziêkujemy za wypo¿yczenie go i umo¿liwienie zorganizowania wystawy.

"Krzy¿ Pami¹tkowy Monte Cassino"

"Krzy¿ Monte Cassino"

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!

[snippy_about_it]

...the perfect time to dig up Roosevelt and bitch-slap him again.

...memo to Satan, another thousand degrees Kelvin, and don't spare the rock salt massaged into the lash marks.

LOL. Phil, you're simply the BEST!

[Hurtgen]

Hey, I'm around; and would be happy to participate if I can. AS to why, look at the footnote on page 124, and the comment by German General Von Gersdorff on page 345.

The Hurtgen surely was a terrible fight, one that many wish had not occurred, but in my view had to, else the Battle of the Bulge might have been worse for the US.

[snippy_about_it]

Hey you! Good to see you. I hadn't thought of it in relationship to the Battle of the Bulge.

Thank you Hurtgen for the offer, I'll let you know when we "revisit" the thread. Don't be a stranger, as you can see I think of you often. :-)

Sam, you have the book could you comment based on the page references Hurtgen mentions? Thanks.

(I haven't bought my book yet so I am way behind) :-(

[Hurtgen]

The first unit to try to take Cassino was the 133d Infantry Iowa National Guard, and they almost made it! This is what I wrote on the battle from an individual's view point.

"Cassino
They moved forward again early in January 1944, taking hills leading to the Rapido River and crossing it during the night of 24 January in an effort to seize Cassino. John remembered little of three weeks that followed.
One man called it a little Stalingrad. The back and forth, see saw close range house to house fighting. Tanks trundling down blocked and rubbled streets with infantry on both sides, advancing until the tanks ran out of ammunition or were destroyed, and the infantry pushed back. The always being cold and wet, the debilitating tiredness of continual shaking and ever present fear, and never getting anything but cat naps for sleep,of watching friends killed and wounded, and wondering who was next.
Each of the Italian houses was a fortress with walls several feet thick. In some, the Germans had built pillboxes containing antitank and machineguns that covered the critical intersections. John’s unit developed several techniques to reduce the German positions. Since doors and windows were usually covered by fire, the infantrymen used tanks or bazookas to blast entry points through walls. They found the pillboxes took fewer rounds to penetrate than the houses. When available, they used 8” howitzers to fire directly into the houses.

One afternoon in early February, about the tenth day of the battle, John’s company, supported by a platoon of tanks, attacked into the smoke blanketed northern sector of Cassino proper. A squad walked in front of the lead tank, the remaining two squads of that platoon behind. The company headquarters followed the second tank, one platoon the third tank, and John’s platoon split into two groups, John’s squad with the platoon headquarters following the fourth tank, while the remaining two squads brought up the rear. The company stood at fewer than 80 men, the preceding ten days of combat sapping almost half the company’s strength through both battle and non-battle casualties.
Once they reached the outlying buildings, most two stories high, John watched as the lead elements began clearing each house individually, 5 or 6 men working against each. First, a tank fired into the house, creating smoke and dust and suppressing those inside—after which three men rushed forward, tossed in a grenade, waited for the blast and then rushed through the door. The covering group fired rifle grenades through the upper windows, driving any Germans on the second floor down the stairs to be killed or captured by the men inside.
Then the next group would leapfrog the first and repeat the process. Two men remained in each cleared house to ensure the Germans did not reoccupy and the remainder continued down the street with the tanks.
As the band reached the first crossroad, a hidden anti-tank gun knocked out the third tank in the column while machine gun fire drove the remaining infantrymen into the doorways of houses alongside the street. The two leading tanks couldn’t pull back past the burning tank, so they stayed and fired their cannon and machineguns at every doorway and window nearby. John, his company commander and about 5 other infantrymen rushed across a small square and seized two big buildings. They spent the rest of the night holding the building, waiting for reinforcements. Unfortunately, during the night, the two tanks found a way around the disabled vehicle and pulled back. With no radio communications, the commander relied on runners to get through to battalion: but none ever returned. When the sun rose in the morning, and no relief in sight, he pulled the company back out of the town, picking up the riflemen who had remained in each house as they recoiled. John wished that support had come, as he hated seeing good men wasted in a successful attack that had had to be abandoned.
During the third week of February, there wasn’t much movement forward. John’s company had captured the jail sometime during the second week and had held on, too exhausted and too battered by the German fire to do more than await relief. Some of the fights had degenerated to rock throwing after both sides had run out of grenades, playing toss between houses just ten yards apart.
Unable to able to dig in the frozen ground, John and the others resorted to piling rubble around them for protection. The cold wet weather caused more casualties than the Germans, with trench foot and respiratory diseases affecting almost everyone. The only replacements to make it to the front lines were men from headquarters, motor pools, and kitchens. Soldiers remained pinned in these positions during the day because of the closeness of the enemy, and didn’t move at night lest they be caught in the open by German shelling.
A general from outside the division visited once, and received an earful from officers and enlisted alike on how the battle was progressing. When General Lemnitzer returned to 15th Army Group, he said the men around Cassino were dispirited and almost mutinous, and he recommended they be pulled out of the line for rest.
In the three weeks between its first attack to take the Italian barracks area and the final effort in the northeastern corner of Cassino, the 133d Infantry had captured 138 prisoners but had lost 132 killed, 492 wounded, and 115 missing; most from rifle companies. Nonbattle casualties probably reached over 1000, again primarily in the companies on the front lines. John’s rifle company, like most of the others, averaged fewer than 50 men present when they pulled off the line."
Extracted from GI, the US Infantryman in World War II" 131-134

[snippy_about_it]

With no radio communications, the commander relied on runners to get through to battalion: but none ever returned. When the sun rose in the morning, and no relief in sight, he pulled the company back out of the town, picking up the riflemen who had remained in each house as they recoiled. John wished that support had come, as he hated seeing good men wasted in a successful attack that had had to be abandoned.

Hurtgen I just love the way you write. I'm always on the edge of my seat, so to speak, when reading your descriptions. Thanks so much for this excerpt on Cassino.

[SAMWolf]

Adam Misiewicz

You're welcome, I thank your cousin for his service

[SAMWolf]

Morning Phil Dragoo.

It used to get interesting at some of my family get togethers, my in-laws think Roosevelt was the best thing since the thirty-round magazine and my dad has no use for him, he feels he sold Poland out to the Communists. We don't discuss politics much at our family events.

Thanks for the additional links. There's some heartbreaking stories there.

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning Gizara. Thank you for sharing about your cousin at the FReeper Foxhole. We are thankful for his service and we thank you for yours also.

[SAMWolf]

Hi Hurtgen. Thanks. That'll teach me not to read foot notes. My other reading on the Hurtgen concentrated on the battle for the town of Schmidt.

From "Hell in the Hurtgen Forest." Robert Sterling Rush

The town of Schmidt and the Schwammenaul Dam have been the object of much controversy over the years. In the operational orders of First Army, VII Corps and the 9th Infantry Division, there is no mention of seizing the dam, which when it's water was released precluded a crossing of the Roer River to the north.

Carles B. MacDonald, in his book "The Battle of the Hurtgen Forest" and most recently Edward Miller, in "A Dark and Bloody Ground" castigated the American commanders for not identifying the dams as objectives until late November, but in this author's opinion, to take Schmidt and the high ground near it was to control the dam, and the next obvious step after Schmidt was the Schwammenaul Dam. The change in the 9th Division's objectives from the town of Hurtgen to Schmidt is a clear indication, although not shown in any orders, that the commanders were aware of the dams. The American dilemma was that, in order to cross the Roer River, the dams had to be taken, howver to take the dams, the sector west of the Roer in the Grosshau-Hurtgen-Bergstein area had to be taken. All U.S. attacks towards Schmidt were unsucessful as long as the Germans had counterattack routes into the flanks of the American attackers.

[SAMWolf]

Thanks for the description of the fighting at Cassino. And today the people expect instant results.

[DoctorMichael]

Bump for later reading.

[stand watie]

actually, while he & Averill come to visit us fairly frequently, he/she live in Scotland.

free dixie,sw