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Photo. View of Monastery Hill from the Commonwealth Cemetery
Anyone who has read any publication on the battles of Monte Cassino and Anzio will know that both were tough, demanding parts of the Italian Campaign. Put your reading into context by joining our battlefield study tours and examining the ground over which the terrible events of January-June 1944 took place. Your Tour Narrator will animate each of the Cassino & Anzio battles in detail and use his military experience to explain the methods used by the Allies at the strategic, operational and tactical level. Hear about the heroes and the villains of this tragedy.

Frank de Planta

cassinobattlefields

'Monte Cassino was arguably the most perfect defensive position in Europe, its impregnable heights blocking the Allied advance on Rome in early 1944. It was here that the Germans made their stand. The rocky, often precipitous terrain rendered heavy armour ineffective; most of the fighting was conducted using infantry and artillery assaults. The bloodbath that ensued – redolent of the worst moments of World War One – left over a quarter of a million men killed or wounded in the six-month struggle. The battle for Monte Cassino was Britain’s bitterest and bloodiest encounter with the German army on any front in World War Two.'

Matthew Parker. Monte Cassino. The story of the hardest fought battle of World War Two.

In January 1944, only the hills surrounding the monastery of Monte Cassino barred the Allies from the gateway to Rome. The six month battle that ensued was a modern Armageddon on the scale of Verdun and Stalingrad: the Allied forces involved troops from seven Divisions, and, by the end, 200,000 troops were left dead or wounded.

John Ellis. Cassino. The Hollow Victory.

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