History /
Monte Cassino 80th Anniversary [18]
Consider the source, Novi.
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.