Monte Cassino Abbey

[pastradamus]

The small town of Cassino sat at the entrance to the Liri valley, blocking the only road north into Rome. German Field Marshal Kesselring had begun to respond to the Allied invasion with a series of tactical retreats further into the mountains. Monte Cassino, the 1703 foot high peak that rose above Cassino, dominated his Gustav Line to check the advance. Into the town he poured some of his finest soldiers including the crack 1st German Parachute Division. At the top of Monte Cassino stood the 1300 year old Benedictine Monastery. Cassino had to be taken, and in order to do it Monte Cassino would have to fall to the allies.

Reluctant to destroy such a vital part of world history, British General Bernard Freyberg never-the-less requested permission to bomb the mountain top structure.

American B-17's started to drop 2,500 ton of bombs on the 1300 year old Benedictine Monastery.

It was later discovered that no Germans had been present in the monestry,& no Germans had used the monestry for any purpose.It was a huge mistake,but luckally the Germans had removed all the precious artefacts that were inside,before the boming had taken place.

American Ignorance destroyed 1300 years of history within 10 minutes .

[Linksradikaler]

That's the Nazis, all right. Defenders of western culture under the assault of big, bad American bombs. LOL.

[Capitalist Imperial]

Wow! Too bad they couldn't parlay that great victory of artifacts into winnng the war.

Is that the best you have, pasrtradamus? Because I can cut and paste many, many stories of allied, especially american, defeats of german forces in WWII

[James]

Its a "pitty" your not alowed in the history forum, i've made some posts about allied war crimes...You want me to post some up for you


(by the way i don't care if you say yes, this is my last post in soc v's, so ner :P )

[pastradamus]

CI,the artefacts were sent to rome,to the vatican.Im NOT backing the Nazis for a second! it was a basic propaganda stunt.

But let everybody on this board see what a pathetic responce the cappis gave on this one,they avoid the main point (no responce to the destruction of the abbey) & manufacture a pityfull reply from the fact that the Nazis were defeated.

[American Kid]

This is true.

And afterwards, the Germans kicked our asses even harder, because the destruction of Monte Cassino gave them a better position strategically on the mountain, looking down on us.

Good moves.

-AK

[pastradamus]

honest answer AK,There should be more cappies like u.

[Stormin Norman]

It is not true that no Germans were present. What is true is that we bombed it. One should ask; who is more dispicable, the soldiers who held a defensive position in a historical structure, or the men who found it necessary to eliminate those men so they could advance? It ended up being a mistake for the reasons AK akkuded to. Like in Chechnya, rubble remains an excellent place to dig in and hide. I bet if we had had those bunker busters back then this would have been a non-issue.

[Stormin Norman]

I am so pissed off that I do not get the history channel. God Dammit!

[pastradamus]

SN,German Field Marshal Kesselring was retreating back up another mountain when the attack took place,they were miles away from the abbey.

It was only occupied when it was reduced to rubble by the yankee bombers.As the germans saw this as an oppertunity to use the peak now that the abbey was leveled.

[Stormin Norman]

They had been using it. Yes?

[pastradamus]

Eh no SN,if u actually read what I said previously u would discover that they used it only after the US bombers did their dirty work.
They respected this spiritual place,But only to maintain support amongst the Italian people.Thats why they kept away from it untill it had been leveled.

Ur trying to turn my focus away from the big picture,because you can come up with a valid excuse for the destruction of the abbey.