Monte Cassino which don’t have a casino
or at least it didn’t used to..
haven’t been there lately…
No blackjack roulette baccarat pai gow
it’s a small town that lies to the south of Rome
80 miles or so where all roads lead which is handy if you’re going to Rome…
(a friend of mine just went to Rome and wasn’t that impressed FWIW)..
1943; Allied army attacks left it in shambles…
all monastic buildings were destroyed…
In the big one—World War II, the hill of Monte Cassino
was a main portion of a German defensive line
The Gustav line it was called after some guy named Gustav I presume
guarding the approaches to Rome which the Allies were aiming for…
The Allies didn’t want to bomb the monastery itself being the nice guys there were
but they were unsure if there were any German soldiers inside the abbey
using it as cover…
There were two failed attacks at a huge cost of life
but with still no clear evidence that it wasn’t
the Allies said the hell with it and called for air strikes
directly on the monastery itself
...almost 1200 tons of high explosives and incendiary bombs were dropped on the abbey...KA-BOOM...in fact, several KA-BOOMS--KA-BOOM BOOM BOOM
BOOM BOOM-BOOM BOOM-BOOM KA-BOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
after the bombs fell, all the rubble of the monastery from the bombing made excellent cover for German soldiers who then used it WOOF…
the monastery lay in ruins
over 200 Italians were using the abbey as a shelter
they got killed
...it is said that on the day after the bombing at sunrise--
most of the civilians still alive decided to leave…
there were only about 40 people left... six of those being monks
yet more artillery barrages, renewed bombing and attacks from Indian troops followed...
German soldiers claim to have seen ghosts milling about the ruins
there’s a lot of ghosts wandering around europe
