大象传媒

Monte Cassino: April 30-May 23, 1944 Part I(b)
Romuald E Lipinski, 12 Podolski Lancers Regt.
2nd Polish Corps

Germans were shelling us, probably with mortars, usually at night. One shell exploded right next to our shelter. It wasn't more than two feet from us. It was probably a mortar shell, or a howitzer, because the trajectory would be too steep for an field artillery piece. During the shelling I experienced for the first time claustrophobia. When somebody is locked up in a dangerous situation there is an overwhelming desire to get out on an open field, away from the enclosure. The common sense tells you that it is safer to stay where you are, nevertheless, one wants to get out. I experienced this feeling many times. Sometimes, I was in my carrier, on the road that was shelled by artillery. There was that urge to get out from the carrier and lay down somewhere in a ditch, though it was safer in the carrier, because unless there was a direct hit, carrier protected me from fragments of an exploded shell. A carrier had no roof but had about 陆 inch steel walls that offered some protection from machine guns firing and shrapnel.

We knew that there will be an offensive on the monastery, and that we will be playing a major role. Being in the mortar platoon we were not in the most advanced positions, but we were quite close to the enemy. Our shelter was camouflaged and could not be seen by Germans, but we had to walk with our heads down, otherwise there was an immediate fire. Our line platoons were so close to Germans that they could throw hand grenades at them. Sometimes, when our advanced positions required us to fire on Germans, some of our shells landed among our own troops due to vicinity to Germans. Yet, they did not allow us to fire further from them because, they claimed, our firing would be behind the enemy lines. There was always a shortage of food and water. Everything had to be brought by mules or in the final stage by men. Sometimes the mules were scattered around on the way up by German fire, got blown up on the mines, and only a fraction of the supplies arrived. Fortunately, at the bottom of the hills we found an old, American food warehouse. It was destroyed by artillery but there was a lot of cans with all kinds of food laying around. We found a safe path to get there and when we needed food we would go there to supplement our rations.

The area was a living testimony of what war is all about. There was not one tree that did have its branches green with leaves. There were only naked limbs, stumps, sticking out here and there. Grass has disappeared also. Bare rocks, covered with dust, unfriendly, were everywhere. Also, there was a testimony of what was there in the past - dead bodies. Some were half decomposed, some half covered with dust or whatever dirt could be scraped from the surface, in most cases, they were covered with lime. These were the reminders of the ferocious fighting that was going there for four months, since January, when the American 34-th and 36-th Division made the first assault, crossed the Rapido river just to be decimated by the Germans. Both of these fine divisions were practically ceased to exist as a fighting force. The entire history of the battle could be read from these corpses. There were corpses of the Americans, Germans, Gurkhas, British soldiers, some with their faces half eaten by insects, mice or other animals, darkened by time, empty eyes, with only teeth shining. Odor from these decomposing bodies was suffocating. They were all quiet now, resting in their eternal sleep after the dance of death a few months ago. Every time I looked at one of them a sad thought was going through my mind: when will I be like them? In this situation I realized that the odds are against me, that it is just a matter of time when my number will come up and sooner or later I will be looked at just the way I looked at these dead men, who at one time were young, vigorous, full of life and hopes for future. And look at them now.

And flies. They were big, fat, gorging themselves on the dead, decomposing bodies. Stink of death was everywhere. And there, down below was that beautiful valley full of red poppies. At times it was hard to realize the contrast: here an atmosphere of death and destruction and there beauty, peace and quiet. I thought: how these two worlds can coexist sided by side. But that how it was.

North of the monastery there was a chain of mountains that was considered to be crucial to the success of the offensive. Our role in the assault was to secure the left wing of the 3-rd Battalion of the 3-rd Carpathian Division which was opposite the famous Hill 593, full of German bunkers. For that reason, our most advanced troops, 2-nd and 3-rd squadrons (in cavalry we had squadrons rather than battalions, which were in infantry) were very close to Germans. Of course, under these conditions any movement had to be confined to a night time only and even then in complete silence. Distance between our most advanced positions to the monastery was about 700 m and to the closest German bunkers only 80 -100 m. Germans were on the Hill 445 and a small place called D'Onufrio, which dominated the entire sector of the front. About 900 m north behind the first line of our positions was the regimental HQ, located in a house that was demolished by artillery fire, but at the lower level there were two rooms that did provide some shelter. About 500 m to the east of the regimental HQ was the 1-st squadron, in reserve. Our mortars were located somewhere south of the regimental HQ. It is difficult to locate our positions exactly, because hills look different in the terrain than on a map. The description of our positions location that is given here is on the basis of the available information provided in the history of the 12-Podolski Lancers Regiment, "Ulani Podolscy", and the "History of the 3-rd Infantry Division," (History) Vol. I, which are written in Polish. The History reports that even before the offensive (4-th Battle of Monte Cassino) started the total losses of the 3-rd Carpathian Division were 236 men, including officers, due to the constant shelling of our positions by Germans.

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