General Mark Clark by Jon B. Mikolashek

Author:Jon B. Mikolashek [Mikolashek, Jon B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Military, History, World War II, United States
ISBN: 9781636240510
Google: zrZWzgEACAAJ
Publisher: Casemate Publishers & Book Distributors, LLC
Published: 2021-08-12T03:07:24+00:00

By this time Fifth Army had begun its preliminary operations towards the Gustav Line to pull German forces away from the Operation Shingle landing zones. However, the Fifth Army failed to reach nearly every objective. While the French Corps achieved success in advancing towards Cassino, and II Corps took Mt. Trocchio, the British 10th Corps and 36th Infantry Division failed to penetrate the Liri Valley.

The battle for Monte Cassino had been raging since the crossing of the Rapido River. After the landings at Anzio, Kesselring removed some units from the Gustav Line, but not enough to seriously weaken it. By February the Allies were fighting for their lives at Anzio and trying to crack the Gustav Line at Cassino. The Battle of Cassino, like Anzio, would become one of the most controversial actions of World War II. And, just as at Anzio, Clark would be in the center of the controversy, but it was Alexander who had the final decision at Cassino. The controversy to follow came from one event: the bombing of the Benedictine monastery at Cassino. Founded by St. Benedict in 524 A.D. on the former site of a temple for Apollo, the area was a favorite of Emperor Tiberius, who held numerous orgies in the temple.38 The monastery had survived destruction before, having been destroyed by the Lombards in 581, the Saracens in 883 and finally the Normans in 1030.39 By February 1944, the monastery had become a critical spot in the German line, as Alexander explained to Winston Churchill:

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