What does "34th Signal Company Chronicle: Cassino and Its Abbey" mean to you?

google | 12/19/2006 | self

[cold666pack]

Can someone with military knowledge tell me what this title tells them?
"34th Signal Company Chronicle: Cassino and Its Abbey"

I know the author served in the 34th Infantry Division of the US Army, bur from this title, is it safe to assume he fought in Germany where there is an Abbey of Monte Cassino?

Not knowledgable about this type of terminology at all, and would be very grateful for some insight, so as to not make stupid mistakes when writing about it.

[cold666pack]

thx. that helps.

[garandgal]

The 34th ID is a National Guard division from Iowa and Minnesota.

Thanks for the link to the book. My Grandma's brother was with the 34th; he spent the last two years of the war as a "guest" in Germany after being captured at Anzio. We have some newspaper articles from when he returned (he described the camp, guards, etc.), the original "MIA" telegram, and some photos from N. Africa.

I think I will pick up the book for some additional stories.

[cold666pack]

the author is from Pennsylvania though.

[cold666pack]

sorry, i was confused. I see now they were fighting the Germans IN Italy, where the Abbey was located. my bad.

[RaceBannon]

I've got a few old WWII documentaries, Frank Capra type, the Battle of Cassino was a bloody one.

Most people dont know, almost 50% of all the deaths of US troops in Europe in WWII happened in Italy.

[Nancee]

You're most welcome!!

[cripplecreek]

Here's an interesting site.

http://www.sspxafrica.com/documents/2005_JanFeb/Bombing_of_Montecassino.htm

According to this 11 monks stayed in the abbey and only one died but he died of Typhoid.

[gaijin]

Yes, I remember that that was part of it. That the more it got bombed, the easier it was for the Germans to defend.

And that for some reason the US had no problem bombing the crap out of this huge church, and that some people saw this as really nasty.

PLEASE DO NOT PILE ON, I LOVE THE USA.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

Do you know what Signal Company Chronicle means? Do you think it refers to a certain sect of the 34th? The Signal Company?

Signal Company is communications, the name's from back in the days they when they used flags, but by WW2 it was radios, field phones and the like. Signal Company Chronicle is probably the company newsletter. Company is a unit, bigger than a platoon, smaller than a batallion.

[68skylark]

And that for some reason the US had no problem bombing the crap out of this huge church, and that some people saw this as really nasty.

Looking back, I'd say that people should have had a problem with bombing the abbey, starting with the commanding general. It was really nasty, and it caused a lot of allied casualties too.

[Michael.SF.]

I've got a few old WWII documentaries, Frank Capra type

Above I said John Huston, but I think you are right, it was Frank Capra, not Huston.

[68skylark]

That book is amazing. When I started reading it I wasn't that interested in the topic, but I think it's the best history book I've ever read, and I've been through it three times now.

If you have a family connection with those events, I can recommend it even more.

The Ernie Pyle book called "Here is Your War" also covers the campaigns in N. Africa and Sicily.

[AnAmericanMother]

My dad was with the 34th ID also - even though he was a Georgia boy and the unit was originally Iowa, mostly. They wound up with all sorts of people from all over as the war progressed.

Dad's unit was the 109th Combat Engineer Bn. He was at Anzio (but didn't go in w/ the first wave), then they went up the Italian mountains in the winter of 43-44.

[Panzerfaust]

And that for some reason the US had no problem bombing the crap out of this huge church, and that some people saw this as really nasty.

PLEASE DO NOT PILE ON, I LOVE THE USA.

We also had no problem installing a second sun in the sky over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But hey, if a country wants to start a war, unpleasant consequences are inevitable. I can't ell from your post if you are criticising the bombing or the lack of regret evidenced by the Americans, who were being ground up like sausage in the mountains of Italy

At Cassino, it was only after several attempts to capture the hill had failed that bombing of the monastery was authorized. So, I put the blame squarely where it belongs: on the Germans, for declaring war on the United States on 12/8/41 and then for using a monastery as a military strong point.

[68skylark]

I'm no expert, but from what I understand the National Guard divisions lost their local flavor pretty quickly in WWII, as replacement troops came from all parts of the country -- especially into units with high casualties.

The 34th ID has a very proud legacy (and the legacy is still going on today).

[brazzaville]

Good evening.

Monte Cassino was a mountain in Italy which dominated the the German Gustav Line from January until early summer of '44.

There was a very old abbey on top that was destroyed by Allied bombers to deny it's use as a observation post and stronghold.

German paratroopers occupied the ruins and held the Allies at bay through spring. When the Gustav line was finally pierced, southwest of Monte Cassino, I believe, the surviving paratroopers simply melted away and pulled back to a new defensive line.

Allied forces drove north, linked with troops from the Anzio bridgehead and drove into Rome.

There were still intact German units fighting in the north of Italy when Berlin fell in 1945.

It's a pretty amazing story no matter whose story is being told.

Michael Frazier

[68skylark]

A polish brigade captured the hill and took many casualties.

Yeah, that's how I heard the story. The allies made multiple attempts, but no troops from any country could take the hill -- until someone decided to let the Poles have a go. They fought ferociously (almost suicidally) and finally won.

[Argus]

Didn't the Nisei troops in the 442nd have a part in this too? I thought this was where Sen. Inouye lost his arm.

[Zman516]

There was also a WW II movie on Monte Casino, intended as a promotional, (directed by John Huston ??). It was never released as it was deemed 'unacceptably realistic'.

As I understand it, that movie was never released because it made General Mark Clark look like an incompentent buffoon. Clark ordered attack after attack against the German (Gustav) line, in the face of murderous fire. Terrible casualties were incurred, many from some Texas-only infantry units. Commanders of those units curse Clark's name to this day.

[Cicero]

I won't get into who was to blame for the destruction of Monte Casino, but it was a terrible tragedy. It was one of the oldest monuments of Christian European Civilization.

The Abbey at Montecasino was founded by Saint Benedict himself, the founder of the Benedictine order and the savior of European civilization.

It was destroyed four times: By the Langoberds, by the Saracens, by an earthquake, and by allied bombing.

According to most accounts, the first time it was bombed there were no German troops in it. Only lated, after the first bombing, did they move in. So, I suppose you can blame both the American and British commanders and the Germans for this destruction of an ancient and venerable monastery.

Here's a brief extract of a generally good history of the several battles of Montecasino at Wikepedia, concerning the bombing that did most of the damage:

---

Pope Pius XII was silent after the bombing; however, his secretary of state, Cardinal Maglione, bluntly stated to the senior U.S. diplomat to the Vatican, Harold Tittmann, that the bombing was “a colossal blunder . . . a piece of gross stupidity.”

What is certain from every investigation that followed since the event, is the fact that the only people killed in the monastery by the bombing were Italian civilians seeking refuge in the abbey. There was never any evidence, then or now, that the bombs dropped on the Monte Cassino monastery that day killed a single German. However, given the imprecision of bombing in those days (it was estimated that only 10% of the bombs from the heavy bombers, bombing from high altitude, hit the monastery) bombs did fall elsewhere and killed German and Allied troops alike.

The American government's position on the bombing changed over a quarter century in installments, in small corrections, in evasive and subtle rewording from “irrefutable evidence” of German use of the abbey to the final correction in 1969 of the U.S. Army’s official history, that “the abbey was actually unoccupied by German troops.”