Cassino Revisited

In March 2004, Les Andrews, QSM, a veteran of the 2NZEF assults on Monte Cassino in 1944 was invited to take part in the filming of veterans of the battles for a Swiss TV documentary company. This is his story of his visit back to the scene of his wartime experience.

In March I was invited by Swiss/Italian television company Polivideo to participate in a documentary about the Battle of Cassino. My wife Sonia and I left Auckland on 19 March and returned on the 30th. We spent five days in Cassino.

Veterans from other countries were also there, two from Germany, a Gurkha from Nepal who is 93, a Frenchman, Englishman and a Pole. There was also an American historian, and several civilians contributed to the documentary. Our job was to relate the experiences we encountered during the battle. I was in a bridgelayer tank unit attached to the N.Z. Fourth Armoured Brigade, and was at Cassino from February to May 1944. I believed that as I represented New Zealand I should also give an overall account of the Division’s involvement. Therefore I did a lot of research so that I was well acquainted with the contributions of all the Division’s battalions, and was ready for any difficult questions I may have been asked. My interview took place at 8 p.m. one night alongside a knocked out Sherman tank which had been kept as a memorial at Albaneta Farm on Cavendish Road about half-way up Monte Cassino. It was a very nostalgic spot for me as I had been involved with the 20th Battalion in the attack on Albaneta and the tank was probably one of the 20th’s. Its number I think is C.1415. Those who were involved in that attack will remember the Indian and New Zealand engineers hacked Cavendish road through rocky outcrops round behind Monte Cassino and completely surprised the Germans. Unfortunately the 20th couldn’t get infantry support and had to retreat from the German counterattack. It rained and snowed just before my interview, conditions I well remembered from my time there.

At the video team’s request I spoke about life in a Sherman tank, which had a crew of five. Sometimes when they were in a holding position they were unable to get out of the tank for several days. Any movement, such as opening the lid would attract mortar and sniper fire. So the men would sleep in their seats, cook on a primus stove and use empty shell cases for toilets, dropping them out through a hatch in the bottom of the tank after use. I described how our sergeant was wounded prior to the attack, and the American air force had dropped a bomb in the very spot where we were to lay our bridge. Eventually we lost our tank at Cassino when a Nebelwerfer mortar bomb slewed us into a huge bomb crater full of water on Route 6 and we sank.

About the 2NZEF involvement, I explained - There were four battles of Cassino and the Division was engaged in the second and third. I gave a brief biography of General Sir Bernard Freyberg VC and said that when he arrived at Cassino in late January he had a plan to outflank it by sending a column of armoured vehicles and tanks along Route 6 and subsidiary roads with air support through the Liri valley before the Germans could destroy the 45 bridges. American General Mark Clark who was overall commander of the 5th Army ridiculed the plan and it was scrapped. The first battle, a diversion to cover the Anzio landings, was a disaster. American troops attacking Monte Cassino front over the Rapido river in daylight were decimated. The second battle involved bombing the Monastery, and many people have blamed Freyberg for that. His plan, which he discussed with General Tuker of the 7th Indian Division, was to have fighter-bombers drop bombs on the gun emplacements outside the walls of the Monastery as a warning. General Clark insisted on sending in the Flying Fortresses to demolish the Monastery. I viewed the bombardment from Mount Trocchio and saw the flight of American bombers veer off to the right and they bombed a village 25km away. They also bombed the 7th Indian Division and Royal Sussex Division. The 28 Maori Battalion captured the Railway Station but was unable to get tank support because the Rapido river was swollen and the ground a quagmire due to heavy rain. So they had to retreat from the German counter-attack and lost more than 130 men. Before the third battle the township of Cassino was carpet-bombed after all the civilians had left. They also bombed Venafro ten miles away and caused 148 civilian casualties. The New Zealand infantry Divisions and 19th Armoured Battalion went in, targeting the Continental Hotel and Hotel Des Roses. The 26th Battalion captured the railway station. However the Germans brought in reinforcements, the tanks couldn’t proceed through the rubble and bomb craters, so it became a stalemate. Freyberg said when the casualties’ reach 1000 we’ll call it off and he did. When General Alexander had a troops superiority of three to one he decided to out flank Cassino. The Moroccan forces went around the right, the Poles captured the Monastery and the remaining forces pushed through the Liri valley to the left. At the same time the allied forces broke out of Anzio. Its task was to link up with the 5th Army and cut off the German retreat. Instead, General Mark Clark decided to liberate Rome, which wasn’t defended. The German forces thus escaped and the battles continued the length of Italy. The New Zealand Division had 1600 casualties, 343 of whom were killed at Cassino. It had 7,000 more casualties in battles the men fought in the advance through Italy to Trieste. Total casualties on both sides at Cassino totaled more than 350,000. I quoted historians who had said - ‘Tactically Cassino was absurd, strategically it was senseless, the worst battle of the Second World War.

I concluded my interview stating that if the German retreat had been cut off at Cassino the war in Italy would have been over and thousands of lives saved. While the 2NZEF couldn’t claim a victory, it believed it had a honourable draw. I got spontaneous applause from all the video crew and staff present.

Cassino and the Monastery have been completely rebuilt. All the valuable historic books, manuscripts, paintings; statues and jewellery dating back to the beginnings of Christianity, which the Germans had sent to the Vatican, are back in the Monastery.

I understand the documentary will be shown on television in most countries of the world, probably to coincide with the 60th anniversary.