During World War II, the Battle of Monte Cassino was a series of battles fought by the Allies to break through the Gustav Line to occupy Rome and join forces landing at Anzio.
Hundreds of bombers annihilated the Abbey of Montecassino there.
After Operation Husky (landing and capture of Sicily by the Allies) in September 1943, then the landing in Calabria and the capture of Naples, the Italian front got bogged down. Certainly the Germans can only field a reduced army against the Allies, but the front itself is reduced to the width of the Italian boot, which is much easier to defend than the vastness of Russian space.
Italy theoretically joined the Allied side, but most Italian troops were disarmed or coldly executed by the Germans. These installed a puppet and ultra-fascist republic in the north of the boot, the Republic of Salò, led by Mussolini. Although the Germans had fewer troops than the Allies, they were solidly entrenched on a solid defense system covering the entire width of the Italian peninsula, which attenuated their numerical inferiority:staggered over several lines, this system was made up of a series of more or less dense fortifications, which use the peaks of the Apennines as a real rampart. The few valleys or coastal plains allowing communication from south to north are, for their part, entirely mined and strewn with networks of barbed wire. The most formidable of these defensive lines is the Gustav line, which relies on the mountainous region of Abruzzo.
German Marshal Kesselring thus firmly bars the road to Rome for the Allies, especially since after the Tehran conference at the end of 1943 with the Soviets, another front must be opened in Western Europe. The theater of the Mediterranean and the Balkans is relegated to second place, to the chagrin of Great Britain, which has great difficulty in influencing the course of events between the two great superpowers:the Soviet Union and the USA.
From a geopolitical point of view, Winston Churchill wanted to directly and immediately counter the Soviet advance already underway in the Balkans. From a military point of view the mountainous topography which favored defense and fighting would have been very expensive. The landing in Sicily was only the preamble to the Italian campaign which was only the prelude to the invasion (Anglo-Saxon name for the landing in Normandy), while waiting for the reinforcement in equipment and troops to be ready in Grande -Brittany. The entry into Rome, an open city, on June 6, 1944 corresponded to the landing in Normandy which opened the Battle of Normandy and the rush towards the Seine on flat and open ground. After the North African campaign, the United States increasingly conducted military affairs by the relative value of its commitments and the USSR had no interest in seeing its ambitions in the Mediterranean thwarted, in the perspective of the Political science.
So, at the beginning of 1944, the Allies chose Normandy, and the bulk of their efforts were concentrated on preparing for this gigantic operation. Under these conditions, the Allies in Italy do not have priority. Moreover, the Germans do not seem ready to abandon Rome without paying a high price.
The failure of the Anglo-American frontal attacks on Cassino (January-March 1944)
The Allies want to break the Gustav line to be able to reach Rome, while the Germans try to slow down the Allied advance as much as possible. General Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander, General Clark of the US Fifth Army, and General Leese of the British Eighth Army, are opposed by Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, Commander-in-Chief, and General Heinrich von Vietinghoff, Commander of the German Tenth Army.
Kesselring will define the situation of the battle around the mountain by holding a cup of Asti wine in the presence of his officers:“The Anglo-Americans and their French allies occupy the bottom of this glass. And we are sitting on the edge! »
The Allies initially committed 1 armored division and 6 infantry divisions, then later 3 armored divisions and 13 infantry divisions, i.e. 300,000 men. The Germans have at the beginning, as for them, 4 divisions of Panzers and 5 divisions of infantry, to which are added later 1 division of Panzergrenadiere and 5 divisions of infantry, that is to say 100,000 men. It took four operations for the Allies to manage to seize Monte Cassino and its monastery, the only way to take Rome. The height on which the monastery is located (435 meters) is the key to the German defensive system. It overlooks the town of Cassino, as well as the national road, and dominates the Rapido and Liri valleys. For three months, General Von Senger und Etterlin reinforced his defenses. The 14th Panzer Corps and elite parachute and infantry battalions are responsible for its defence.
At the beginning of January, the Allies launched a series of raids by 3,000 bombers against German lines of communication. On January 15, 1944, General Keyes' US 2nd Corps took Mount Trocchio with the support of the French Expeditionary Corps (CEF). This French unit, made up mainly of troops from the African Army and commanded by General Alphonse Juin, has been engaged on the Italian front alongside the Americans since December 1943.
January 17, 1944 begins the first battle of Cassino. Initially, the plan called for the CEF to make a diversionary attack aimed at outflanking Cassino by the mountain, to the northeast, reaching Attina by Mount San Croce and Carella; while the American 2nd Corps, with part of the 1st Tank Division, marched on the towns of Cassino and Sant'Angelo, and the British 10th Corps advanced towards Minturno. All these operations must prepare Operation Shingle, which consists of a landing at Anzio-Nettuno, scheduled for January 22, 1944, on the rear of the right flank of the Gustav line. During the first phase of operations, General McCreery's 10th British Corps manages to cross the Garigliano River, near its mouth. He arrived on January 19 near Castelforte. From January 20, the Germans launched counter-attacks which were repelled after 12 days. In a second phase, General Keyes's 2nd American Corps launches the 36th Division against Sant'Angelo, supported by the 34th Division which attacks Cassino. The attempt to cross the Rapido River by the 36th Division, however, failed on January 20, 1944. The 34th Division almost succeeded in taking Cassino and the monastery:they arrived only 300 meters from the objective. When the 4th Indian Division comes to relieve the Americans, the division has only 840 men left out of the 3,200 at the start of the attack.
By early February, the Germans had recaptured most of the lost ground. On February 6, 1944, the 36th American Division was relieved by the 2nd New Zealand Division. The troops landed at Anzio are, for their part, immobilized by the German forces.
For its part, if the CEF was unable to seize Mount San Croce and Carella, for lack of reserves, it recorded many successes on particularly difficult steep terrain:the capture of La Selva, the Costa San Pietro (1,450 meters above sea level), Acquafondata and Monna Casale (whose two twin peaks culminate at 1,220 and 1,225 meters) have often constituted as many sporting exploits as military ones. In two months, the 2nd DIM then the 3rd Algerian infantry division (3rd DIA), supported by two groups of Moroccan tabors (GTM), obtained significant results:an advance of more than 15 kilometers in certain places in mountainous country , the capture of 1,200 prisoners, the putting out of action of an entire German division. During the January 1944 offensive, the North African skirmishers were the only ones to seriously threaten the Gustav line, even managing to break it at the Belvedere during the incredible assault of the 4th regiment of Tunisian skirmishers (4th RTT)! But these operations on the northeast flank of Cassino are not the priority of the Anglo-American General Staff, which persists in wanting to break down the lock of Monte Cassino by a frontal attack.
From February 15 to 18, 1944, the second battle of Monte Cassino took place. The 4th Indian Division and the 2nd New Zealand Division prepare to storm Mount Cassino, passing through Serpent's Head Ridge, and also to seize the railway station. On February 15, 1944, the Allied command ordered the bombardment of the monastery of Monte Cassino. 224 aircraft dropped 420 tons of bombs which leveled the monastery:the Allies thought that German observers were on the roofs, which was false. The destruction of the monastery, however, allows the Germans to turn it into a real fortress. The ground attack is given on February 16. The New Zealanders take the Monte Cassin station, but soon after have to withdraw. On February 17, the British 78th Division joined the New Zealand Corps, but the next day the operation was suspended. Bad weather neutralizes the movements for 3 weeks. From March 14 to 22, the battle resumed. Freyberg attacked in a southerly direction, along both banks of the Rapido River, after heavy shelling. The Allies want to seize the city of Monte Cassino, but after 6 days of fighting, the New Zealand corps is forced to withdraw. The situation is getting bogged down and German propaganda is having a great time:on the walls of occupied Europe a poster compares the advance of the Allied armies in Italy to that of a snail!
The success of the French outflanking maneuver south of Cassino (Battle of Garigliano, May 1944)
In the spring of 1944, the Allies repositioned their units for their new offensive. The British Eighth Army and the French Expeditionary Corps were thus redeployed in secret. The allied offensive which is being prepared is based on the audacious plans of General Juin, who has succeeded in imposing his views on the Anglo-American general staff. June wants to avoid any new frontal attack against Cassino, whose defenses have been further reinforced and from which the elite German troops seem impossible to dislodge. On the contrary, it is through the mountains, where the enemy does not expect it, that the main effort must be made:across the Aurunci (or Aurunces) mountains, to the south-west of Cassino, considered "impenetrable to the armies", according to the Germans. This plan must make it possible to cut the rear positions of the enemy, thus enveloping the entire Gustav line. For June, only the CEF is able to carry out this operation, thanks to the mountain combat ability of the skirmishers and goumiers, as well as their mule trains. At the same time, the plan called for an attack by the Polish 2nd Corps against the monastery from the north, while the British 13th Corps had to cross the Rapido River to cut off the national road and isolate the town. The 2nd American corps being, for its part, in charge of attacking the German lines south of the French positions.
While accepting this plan, the English and Americans nevertheless doubted that the French could succeed in accomplishing the overflow maneuver that would finally open the gates of Rome. On the German side, the date and the objectives of this offensive remain a mystery as evidenced by the sending of their reserves to Anzio, where they plan an attempt at a breakthrough by the Allies. Another unknown worries the German general staff:“Where and to what extent the CEF, with its divisions trained in the mountains and its fierce Moroccan fighters, would be engaged? »
The operation to break the Gustav line was initially entrusted to the 2nd Moroccan infantry division (2nd DIM), "the ram of the CEF" according to June's expression, which was to seize the Faito mountains for this mission and Majo (or Maio). The general Allied offensive was launched on the evening of May 11, 1944, at 11 p.m., across the entire Italian front. An intense artillery preparation of 2,000 guns precedes the attack. But in the sector of the 2nd Sun, this bombardment only sprinkled the ridges, without destroying the German defense system (blockhouses, barbed wire, mines, etc.), which furrowed the slopes that the Moroccan skirmishers had to climb before being able to capture peaks. Worse, in the other attack sectors of the CEF, such as that of the 4th Moroccan Mountain Division (4th DMM), no artillery preparation took place. This assault will prove to be formidable! The regiments of the 2nd DIM thus launched an attack in a dark night... and red with the blood of Moroccan skirmishers, during often confused and very deadly combat. During this apocalyptic night, the courage of the Moroccan soldiers was matched only by the recklessness of their officers, but the Gustav line still holds. June decides to resume the offensive for the following night, after a larger and better targeted artillery preparation. Very early in the morning of May 13, it is the rush of Moroccan skirmishers on the German positions, ravaged by the "roll of fire" of the French guns, which end up yielding. The capture of Mount Majo by the Moroccan troops of the 2nd DIM is greeted by a French flag of 30 m2 hoisted at its summit (940 meters) and visible for miles around, by the troops of the CEF as by the Germans.
Exploitation is now possible towards the Aurunci mountains and then, further west, the Lepini mountains. It was the 4th DMM and the three GTMs, forming the mountain corps of the CEF, which took charge of this from May 14, at "a hellish pace". "The French are advancing so quickly that press releases cannot keep up with them," reports an American journalist. We are indeed witnessing a veritable furia francese, which arouses the admiration of all the Allies. An expression even appears to evoke the progress of the CEF in the Aurunci and Lepini mountains:“The French have gummed up their route through the mountain”! New peaks are included in the "prize list" of Moroccan fighters, such as Mount Fammera (1,175 meters) and Mount Revole (1,307 meters).
At the same time, the 4th regiment of Moroccan spahis (4th RSM) temporarily incorporated into the 3rd DIA worked to capture Castelforte, which opened the road to Ausonia in the Ausente valley; which leads to the Liri valley, south-west of Cassino, behind the German lines. For its part, the 3rd regiment of Moroccan spahis (3rd RSM), temporarily placed at the disposal of the 1st division of Free France (1st DFL), takes part in the general movement of this division which engages in the upper Liri valley via San Apollinare, also overflowing Cassino from the south.
While an air attack destroyed the headquarters of the German X Army, the irresistible advance of the CEF, both in the mountains and in the valleys, therefore broke the German defensive system of the Gustav line and facilitated the progress of the British and the Americans. . The latter quickly reached Spigno. On May 17, 1944, Kesselring ordered his troops to leave Cassin aside, for fear of being enveloped by the French maneuver. The same day, the national road was cut by the 13th corps, and the Poles launched an assault on the monastery, which fell on the 18th. The Allies lost around 115,000 men (killed and wounded), and the Germans 60,000. A few days later, Kesselring noted in his daily report:"Especially remarkable is the great all-terrain ability of the Moroccan troops, who cross even the terrain deemed impassable, with their heavy weapons loaded on mules, and who always try to outflank our positions. by maneuvers and to drill from behind”.
On May 20, the Germans - who were in retreat - saw their situation worsen:on the 23rd, the breakthrough of the Allied troops surrounded them in Anzio. On May 26, spahis and Moroccan skirmishers seized the town of Pastena, while the 3rd DIA occupied the locality of San Giovanni, after a very violent struggle and the biggest tank battle of the Italian campaign, during which the French tankers distinguished themselves. The battle of Garigliano is over, all of the Aurunci mountains are then in the hands of the French army, which has succeeded where its allies had failed for months:to break the Cassino lock and open the road to Rome! On June 4, 1944, the Italian capital was liberated. German Colonel Böhmler, one of the staunch defenders of Cassino, confides in his memoirs:“The great surprise was the combat attitude of the French Expeditionary Corps. It was June who, by seizing Mount Majo and bursting into the Liri Valley, shattered the gate of Rome”.
After the liberation of Rome, the Allies continued their advance towards northern Italy before becoming bogged down again, during the autumn of 1944, facing a new German line of defense, the Ghotic line, to the north. of the Arno river. Previously, several of their units, including those of the CEF, were withdrawn from Italy during the summer to participate in Operation Anvil:the Allied landing being prepared in Provence, scheduled for August 15, 1944. This was the second act of the Anglo-American strategic priority defined in 1943 for the Western front, after the landing of June 6, 1944. Despite the intensity of the fighting to seize Cassino, the courage and the sacrifices of the Allied troops engaged in this battle, the exploits of the French army allowing a highly promising liberation of Rome, the Italian campaign therefore remained relegated to a secondary role:"One of the tragedies of the Italian campaign was that the triumph of the Allied armies coincided with the start of the Normandy landings. (General W.G.F. Jackson, Staff Officer to General Alexander)
War crimes attributed to the CEF during the Italian campaign (1943-1944)
The French Expeditionary Corps, led by General Alphonse Juin, made up in particular of Moroccan, Algerian, Tunisian and Senegalese soldiers from the French colonies, was guilty of war crimes during this campaign, in the vicinity of the Ciociara region. Destruction of villages, robberies and violence, but above all mass rapes (and assassinations of those who tried to defend them) multiplied around Monte Cassino. The figures vary between 700 and 2000 women raped, and about 800 dead. It is from this sad episode that the popular Italian expression "marocchinare" which means to violate comes. P>
These events serve as the canvas for a novel by Alberto Moravia (La Ciociara), as well as for the film by Vittorio de Sica, La Paysanne aux pieds nus.
If the facts mentioned above are proven, it is however necessary to provide clarifications and some nuances. The following text is taken from the book "Ana! Moroccan brothers in arms in the two world wars", it is largely based on the research work carried out by Jean-Christophe NOTIN, author of a book by reference on French participation in the Italian campaign, which studied in particular unpublished archives on the question of abuses committed by the CEF:
"(...) Faced with the supply problems which have affected the CEF since its arrival in Italy, it is certain that the skirmishers and the goumiers did not hesitate to call on the "D system". This pushed them to “live on the land” and to commit harmful acts. But most often, they were content to recover livestock and food left behind by civilians fleeing the fighting. During the Italian campaign, the withdrawal of CEF troops does not seem to exceed 50,000 sheep. In comparison, among the German troops, this figure reaches nearly one and a half million sheep! With the improvement of supplies from June 1944, the theft of cattle fell sharply within the CEF.
Regarding physical violence and especially rape attributed to North African soldiers, these rumors echo proven and very regrettable cases, but which remain very much in the minority within the CEF. Without this excusing them, these atrocities are not the sad prerogative of the French army in Italy and are unfortunately observed in all the armies of the world which find themselves on foreign territory in time of war, even when it is are about liberators. As evidenced by the cases of rape attributed to American soldiers in Europe, in 1944 and 1945.
How then to explain the real demonization to which North African and more specifically Moroccan fighters are subjected, as soon as they arrive in Italy? It seems that the Italian and allied authorities often blamed these soldiers for abuses without proof; the perpetrators of the majority of these crimes remain unknown. The North Africans have thus become very practical scapegoats, a sort of all-purpose culprit.
This situation is partly due to intense propaganda from various backgrounds. Let us quote in particular that of the Italian authorities who seek to attenuate the humiliation of the defeat and to sully the triumphal return of the French troops on their soil. Let us also mention the essential role of German propaganda, whose demonization of Moroccans, in particular, makes it possible to dissuade the desertion or surrender of Wehrmacht soldiers and to camouflage their own crimes against Italian civilians.
General Guillaume recognizes in his memoirs that; "undoubtedly, violence was committed, inevitable in the war", specifying however that it was "the act of men belonging to the services, often recruited in the slums of the ports, and not combatants of First line ". The very strict discipline within the French units of the CEF does not tolerate any deviations. Pierre Lyautey, captain of goums evokes it in his memories:“At home, the discipline is terrible. Any flagrant offense is immediately punished. The officer has the right to have someone shot on the spot, without waiting for the judgments of the military tribunal. »
In fact, cases of immediate execution within CEF units are reported. Their low number, which is difficult to establish precisely, is added to the 360 soldiers tried by French military tribunals in Italy for abuses committed against Italian civilians between 1943 and 1945. In any case, we are very far from the fanciful figures which go circulating after the war in Italy, accusing CEF troops of perpetrating tens of thousands of rapes. (...)”