Cassino ’44

James Holland

One of the most interesting things I have noticed from a constant stream of Ukrainian FPV drone videos on the “For you” section of my social media feeds is that eastern Ukraine appears incredibly flat. The trench warfare surrounding Bakmut may have represented the horrors of technological attritional warfare, but at least everyone was fighting on the same contour lines, and the terrain was neutral.

In Cassino ’44 James Holland shows the fighting surrounding Monte Cassino in the Second World War equally represented the horrors of technologically enabled attritional warfare, but it was also combined with unimaginably tough terrain; with hundreds of vertical meters separating nearly every objective. This terrain favoured the defending Germans in every engagement and helps to explain why the Allied advance on Rome was so slow and costly.

Much like Allied higher command at the time, reading several accounts of what was essentially the same battle for the same ridge or valley that repeatedly failed due to a lack of combined arms manoeuvre, poor weather, and logistical issues; would get rather tedious. Fortunately, Holland breaks the monotony with deeply personal accounts from a wide variety of personalities creating a panoramic perspective of the battles for Monte Cassino and the eventual capture of Rome. From high level strategic decision makers on both sides to Italian civilians finding themselves caught up in the meatgrinder, the 61 different first-hand accounts from all sides paint a rich and vivid landscape.

Holland’s fascinating choice of personalities are generally sympathetic to the dark art of radio comms. With Signals Platoon Commander Captain David Cole’s viewpoint from the Garigliano river, being a highlight.

Strategic and tactical accounts from the Allied perspective show planning errors were as much to blame for the attritional nature of the battles as the harsh terrain, poor communication links, and the strong German defence. The Pope described the destruction of the titular abbey as "a colossal blunder … a piece of a gross stupidity". The bombing of the abbey happened two days before New Zealand Corps was ready for their assault, ironically allowing German paratroopers time to occupy and more effectively defend – Pius XII may well have been referring to the military planning as well as the cultural war crime.

It is appropriate that an impossibly hard objective such as Monte Cassino was finally taken by equally tough men. The Polish Corps’ 4-year route to Monte Cassino saw long-suffering Polish soldiers walk from Soviet Gulags in Siberia, to Uzbekistan, then to Egypt via Iran, Iraq, Palestine, before arriving in Italy. Their eventual capture of the abbey was a Pyrrhic victory for the Allies.

Accounts from the defenders’ perspectives are among the most compelling aspects of the book. They reveal the mindset of the German brigades battling relentlessly despite operating at just 13% combat effectiveness. They offer an insight into the constitution and resilience required as they defended positions past the point of military sense, launched relentless counterattacks, withdrew under pressure, endured constant harassment from the air, only to repeat the cycle at the next defensive line.

A theme running throughout all the accounts shows that despite the stark contrast in terrain faced by attackers, the random nature of warfare endures from the Winter Line of Italy in the Second World War to modern day Ukraine. Whether you are singled out from a group by a FPV drone or struck by a piece of shrapnel ricocheting off the ruins of a 15th century abbey – chance remains a profound and enduring force shaping the individual realities of war.

Captain Oliver Hall

Published Penguin, 8 May 2025. 248 pages.

ISBN 978-1804993637