Monte Cassino 80th Anniversary

Every Pole know's about Monte Cassino but as it is the 80th anniversary of this great battle which ended with a Polish victory on the 18th of May 1944, I thought a little reminder of what our forefathers did was worthwhile.

A diifferent, but no less moving story about Polish bravery in WW2 is the story of the Zabinski family who were the guardians of Warsaw Zoo.

Not only were they honoured by Israel as "Righteous among Nations" but they were posthumously awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta by President Lech Kaczyński.

Polish victory? Tell me you are kidding.

There were 240,000 Allied soldiers from 10 countries.

Killed:

Total - 55,000.
Poles - 1,000 or 2% of the total.
New Zealand - 1,600

Quoting:

It was time to seize the monastery.

Expecting a violent climax to the battle, Anders and the courageous Poles prepared for the worst. However, what they did not realise was that German Commander Albert Kesselring had already ordered a withdrawal from the ruins, sensing impending Allied victory.

So what???This was a MASSIVE victory for the Poles and the Allies, my father in law fought alongside the Poles in Africa,was at Anzio, where he got a medal and fought alongside the Poles through Italy.(He was British BTW) and he had nothing but praise for the Poles.

Come on Novi, let the Brit Boy tell his side of his historic Polish story as he identifies as being Polish.
Notice how his story jumps from the "Polish massive victory" to his heroic uncle. 🙄
Consider the source, Novi.

Oh-ho-ho-ho!

You should be ashamed of yourself.

I did and I sympathize with Milo and his personal attitude about the events where his family was involved.
But the numbers have no feelings and don't lie.

Poles suffered 2% of the overall casualties. Individually, Poles may have been heroes...but their contribution was simply 2%. In other words, if they were not there, the outcome would have been the same.

I am not entirely stupid. I realize we need heroes we can elevate and admire. Vasily Zaytsev with 242 kills at Stalingrad was one of them.

At the same time, we should be able to be less emotional as historians to avoid the mistakes that have been swept under the rug not to hurt people's feelings.

In the end, Monte Casino was a Phyrric victory full of blunders. One of the often cited reasons was Churchill's ego and incompetence. Another holy cow that is best left alone...

Not to take anything away from the US...WW2 was won by the Red Army which had 200 German divisions to deal with vs 20 in the West. Their losses of 11 million soldiers were staggering and hard to appreciate when compared to other participants.

Thank you!

I get that have you have rejected all your Polish ethnicity and embraced being an American.
But your insults of the Poles is still painful.

I didn't insult Poles or anyone else in this thread.

Nobody can reject his ethnicity or DNA.

I think you did,several times.

Quote it.

No need, you have said several times how you are no longer Polish but are now completely American...... shame about that slight Polish accent......

That was a stupid thing to say. DNA and ethnicity are forever because those are FACTS, not feeeeelings...

The before and after pictures of the monastery are harrowing.

Interestingly, much of the fighting was due to a translation error when an intercepted German radio communication was misunderstood. That cost a lot of lives.

@Bobko
Polish victory (Not only Polish victory as it was a team effort)

German Fallschirmjägers disobeyed orders of withdrawal and kept on fighting, one of the most elite troops the Axis powers had to offer. Polish forces offensive advance towards the monastery allowed for other allied troops to push forward and get closer to encircle the monastery. Forcing the German troops to withdraw despite their initial wish to keep on fighting.

The victory at Monte Cassino finally allowed the allied troops to get closer to enter Rome and seal the fate of Italy as a participant in WW2.

Churchill was the mind of Polish troops being insignificant during a quarrel with either Sikorski or General Anders. After the Quarrel a certain General or Marshal Alexander had to point it out for him that without the Polish troops, an advance northwards in Italy would have been highly unlikely.

It was a major victory for the Allied forces, not just propaganda

No, it was not and the math of Monte Casino proves it:

Allied losses - 55,000
German losses - 20,000

...with the Allies in full control of the skies...With that kill ratio, only a suicidal idiot would hope for another such "victory".


Churchil was right.

Polish losses - 1000 or 2% of the total.

Polish idiocy: Instead of wishing for Polish losses to be 0, Poles are offended when one points out that their losses were insignificant.

Maths.

...and geographies, chemistries, biologies,...

How many maths are there in the UK? As many as genders?

The difference between a genius and a typical dumb Polak is that the genius - that would be me - wants Polish contribution to any war to be zero - including WW2. Too late for that but the idea still stands...