May I suggest that you make use of the following information to continue your discussion? " Taking place between the 17th of January and the 18th of May 1944, Monte Cassino was a series of four Allied assaults against the so-called Winter Line, a series of German and Italian Social Republic fortifications and installations that aimed to protect the route to Rome from Allied invasion. C-in-C: General Sir Harold Alexander Chief of Staff: Lieutenant-General Sir John Harding The aerial bombing was augmented by artillery shelling as well. I also gave her my address and later received a letter from her. referenced. Monte Casino 1944 (00:56:05m) One of these batteries, the 155th, was based in the remote outpost of Sidi Nsir railway staion, alongside the infantry of 5th Battalion Hampshire Regiment. After being rescued at Dunkirk having left all their guns and equipment behind the battalion was based at Bovington, Dorset and then Christchurch near Bournemouth. Gen Alexanader - as Army Group Commader did indeed give the order to Bomb the Monastery on the tactical advice of both Lt.Gen Freyberg of New Zealand and Maj.Gen Tuker of the 4th Indian Div. Once again, thanks for inviting me over! The views expressed are theirs and unless specifically stated are not
The 74th (Medium) Regiment, Royal Artillery was formed from a 64 strong cadre taken from 144th Regiment in January 1940. Written by Alistair H G Allcroft. 58 Medium Regiment, Royal Artillery saw action in Belgium before having to retreat from Menin, near Ypres and make its way to Dunkirk. 9th Gurkha Rifles (Columns 49 & 94) 2nd Btn. Each battalion two companies. Cheers
It is no longer possible to leave messages here. The Allies tried to break through three times in 1944 starting on January 17th, 144. Which is a tremendous loss to all of mankind allowing for the five month spread of that battle as even the loss of one person is a tragedy. The regiment then supported the third battle of (Monte) Cassino with a very heavy bombardment. We used to go to the American air base for all our meals. No Allied troops set foot in Milan before then. You seem to me to be blissfully unaware that both Tom Canning and Ron Goldstein are well into their 80s and are both veterans of the bitter war in Italy. Royal Sussex Regiment in 1952. So please, let's have less of pleading age as an excuse for a misleading account. These efforts were hampered by friendly fire incidents involving Allied artillery due to the challenges of aiming accurately in the hills. This means - memories that do not necessarily conform with the facts or an established point of view. General Montgomery (Monty) halted the 8 th Army in order to conserve resources for the spring campaign. The American war commander was only interested in being the first of the Allied invasion commanders to enter the city of Rome. 2556-3516, see Miscellaneous 626 and 627. Italy, Monte Cassino, 1944. Due to regular theft and damage to the Memorial Register and Visitors Book, they are accessible only during the hours when the gardeners are present (as stated above). My father, Henry John Allcroft served with the 16th and 17th Battalions of the Royal Sussex Regiment from 11th May 1916 to 20th Jan 1920 (G/22128 Pte H.J Allcroft)was wounded at Haute Allaines, France on 3rd Sept 1918 Opening times: Winter: 8.00am -12.00pm & 1.00pm -3.30pm . The 40,000 men killed at Cassino were not killed in the one day but rather spread over a period of some five months so I hardly think that you would have been part of the casualty list as there were sufficient anti aircraft personnel doing very little as the Luftwaffe were disappearing very fast at that time. This story was submitted to the People's War website by Julia Shuvalova for GMR Actiondesk on behalf of Dennis Maher and has been added with his permission. The 1st Infantry Division was a regular army infantry division of the British Army with a very long history. The attack on Monte Cassino was a bloody affair and one that was dubbed the Stalingrad of the Italian front. The main thrust for Monte Cassino started on February 2 nd 1944 when the US 135 th and 168 th Infantry Regiments started their attacks. Visiting information. public. Ironically, the hellish no-mans land at Cassino was dominated by an imposing hill that had served as a bastion of religious tranquility for nearly 1,500 years. The BBC is not responsible for the content of any external sites
60th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, deployed as infantry, (Columns 60 & 68) 12th Field Company, Royal Engineers 16th Brigade Morris Force 1st Btn. My name is Julia, and I contributed this story on behalf of Dennis Maher [sic], who lives in Manchester and is a good friend of mine. Both divisions were released to XIV Panzer Corps on 18 January, 91st (4th London) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, 92nd (5th London) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, 98th (Surrey & Sussex Yeomanry Queen Mary's) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, 156th (Lanarkshire Yeomanry) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, 102nd (Pembroke Yeomanry) Medium Regiment, Royal Artillery, 52nd (6th London) Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery, 215th (Gosport & Fareham) Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery, Royal Artillery, 70th (West Riding) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, 58th (Duke of Wellington's Regiment) Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery, 115th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, 64th (7th London) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, 65th (8th London) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, 113th (Home Counties) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, 142nd (Royal Devon Yeomanry) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, 51st (Midland) Medium Regiment, Royal Artillery, 214th (Southsea) Heavy Anti-aircraft Battery, Royal Artillery, 501st (London) Field Company, Royal Engineers, 78th (Lowland) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, 69th (Caernarvon & Denbigh Yeomanry) Medium Regiment, Royal Artillery, 140th (5th London) Medium Regiment, Royal Artillery, 146th (Pembroke & Cardiganshire) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, "World War II unit histories and officers", "Axis History Factbook: German army order of battle", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Battle_of_Monte_Cassino_order_of_battle_January_1944&oldid=993536517, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, 2/4th Battalion, King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, 6th Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment, 71st (West Riding) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, 215th Heavy Anti-aircraft Battery, Royal Artillery, 2/6th Battalion, Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey), 2/7th Battalion, Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey), 100th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery]], 6th Battalion, Cheshire Regiment (Machine gun), 220th and 221st Field Companies, Royal Engineers, 40th Royal Tank Regiment (less detachments), 50th Royal Tank Regiment (less detachments), 27th, 68th and 91st Armored Field Artillery Battalions. We arrived in Naples, then to Casserta, to the Allied Headquarters of English and American forces in the Italian campaign against Germany. This story has been placed in the following categories. Since you landed at Naples then you were a late arrival and proceeding to Foggia to guard the American - and British Air forces stationed there - this was not the front line as you claim as you state that you arrived as the Air Forces were bombing the Monastery at Monte Cassino which was 15th and 17th February 1944 - the Front line was at Cassino and close by - many miles away to the North of Foggia. In the middle of it all was Fusilier F. R. Beacham of the 1st Royal Fusiliers, who were engaged in a river crossing assault as soon as the guns opened up: Immediately our troops began to place their boats in the water and the first ones started to cross. As far as I know, the BBC was aiming at building the biggest archive of living war memories. No-one is asking that Mr Maher should "become the most reliable source for the history of Cassino battle" but equally you should not dismiss other veterans' memories because they happen to chime with "an established point of view" - implying that one memory is as good and as reliable as another. I do seriously doubt that a particular account we are discussing here will be of huge significance for a grounded historical research - and in any case the figure is there, and no matter how long it took for all those soldiers to be killed, the number is nonetheless stupendous. The site will hopefully cater for all those who have been using the existing BBC site for serious discussion and research into WW2. Written by WO 2 JAMES SAMUAL BEADLE. The Second World War" can be found by using the following link: This new site has been created by the "Gang of Four", namely (in Alphabetical order) Tom Canning,Peter Ghiringhelli,Ron Goldstein and Frank Mee and will be operative from the 1st of February 2006. Welcome to Forces Reunited the place where you can find information and friends from 77 HAA Regiment - Royal Artillery.. We are the largest and fastest growing community of UK forces veterans on the web with over 500,000 members! The Battle of Monte Cassino (also called the Battle for Rome and the Battle for Cassino) was a battle during the Italian Campaign of World War II.It was a series of four attacks by the Allies against the Winter Line in Italy held by the Germans and Italians.. At the beginning of 1944, the western half of the Winter Line was held by Germans. He was recalled from a posting in Malaya to take up this position of Drum Major which he kept until he retired from the Army. On the western front, U.S. Fifth Army, commanded by Lieutenant-General Mark W. Clark, moved from the main base of Naples up the Italian "boot" and in the east General Sir Bernard Montgomery's British Eighth Armyadvanced up t Membership is open to all serving and retired, regular and reserve and volunteer ranks of the RA. We (that is the Gang of Four, referred to below) have always been at pains to point out errors of fact in order that future users of this site are not given incorrect or false information. The same day the order was fortunately cancelled, otherwise we would have been killed together with 40,000 soldiers who were killed in the battle of Cassino monastery. We were also separated from the towns and cities, although we were allowed to visit a lovely city named Barletta. On the train we went through the Simplon Tunnel into Switzerland, and into France. On 1st July 1899 the Royal Artillery was divided into two distinct branches mounted and dismounted. On the 11 th May, over 1600 artillery pieces commenced a massive barrage upon the German positions. For Old and new friends welcome. It was split into two phases as the first phase petered out and the Allies had to alter their tactics. Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. commissioned, Royal Regiment of Artillery [emergency commission to 05.04.1946] (1943) 12th (Honourable Artillery Company) Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery (MC, Silver Star) 06.04.1946 : permanent commission : qualified as an Instructor-in-Gunnery (G.), and Both were in the front line in Italy, and Tom was very badly wounded on the Gothic Line when his tank received a direct hit. Then we were transferred to Milan, the beautiful city, where I bought myself a pencil and a fountain pen. I am sure that many front line troops in Italy would have given anything for a few days break in Foggia in 1944. Moroccan, Polish and American troops surged up the slopes of Monte Cassino with the paratroopers holding their positions and forcing them to into a brutal fight for every yard of contested ground. My grandfather was the first Drum Major appointed for 100 years in the Royal Artillery Band having been joined as a boy soilder at the age of 15. There was a slight change in the attitude of the BBc when they finally decided to go for quantity as opposed to quality in order to gain some 50,000 stories - as it happens - we - the site helpers have just received their thanks for our assistance in gaining some 45,000 stories also 15,000 pictures. The Battle of Monte Cassino has been described as the hardest-fought battle of World War II. The division was present at the Peninsular War , the Crimean War , the First World War , and during the Second World War and was finally disbanded in 1960. One day the order came from the Command Head Quarters to move to Monte Cassino. Find out how you can use this. The shells whined overhead incessantly and it was difcult to hear anything above the din. On the nights of February 15 and 16, troops from the Royal Sussex Regiment attacked positions in the hills behind Cassino with little success. Quite simply, I understand Tom's intention, which I share, but I cannot really imagine Mr Maher's account playing such a potentially crucial role for all researchers that it needed to attract a discussion. ex 21st Tank Bde.,
There are 2117 different regiments buried there, 279 from the Royal Artillery, 352 from New Zealand, 837 from the Combined Indian Regiments and 62 from the Parachute Regiment. These messages were added to this story by site members between June 2003 and January 2006. I was surprised to see you crossing swords with Tom at this last moment and although he needs no defence from me (Tom has always been more than willing to fight his own battles) I feel obliged to raise one point.