Reply To: 75 Years Ago This Hour …

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Thanks for the ‘shout out’ @oriskany.

You’re quite correct, the Polish II Corps were, at the time of D-Day, still in Italy attached to the British 8th Army. On 12th May, they launched their assault along Snakeshead ridge toward the monastery atop Monte Cassino, the fourth attempt by the Allies to capture the monastery. This was part of Operation Diadem, a large offensive by British 8th Army and US 5th Army. The Polish suffered horrendous losses in their first assault which lasted around 3 days. Their second assault on 17th May was again met with resistance but the Germans began withdrawing on the night of the 17th leaving the Polish to finally take the monastery on the 18th May with little, if any, resistance.

While the Polish cracked the nut of Monte Cassino, in my view it’s doubtful they would have succeeded had the Germans not withdrawn. Instrumental in the success were the French Expeditionary Force (FEC) of US 5th Army, who advanced ferociously and rapidly up through the Aurunci Mountains and then turned East into the Liri Valley that the British 8th Army were advancing up. This freed up the British reserve of 58th Infantry Division to advance and swing around behind Monte Cassino and begin cutting off the German retreat. This really forced the Germans to retreat from Monte Cassino for fear of being surrounded and cut off.

Two days before D-Day, General Clark of US 5th Army entered Rome and the British 8th Army began to redeploy back to the East coast of Italy.