The Impact of Monte Cassino

(CONTINUED) IT WAS POLAND'S WAR - And for its grand finale, Poland defeats the Third Reich WINNING EVERY BATTLE. Thus revealing the audacious tenacity and fearless determination of honorable Polish soldiers!  The Polish 2nd Corps had made a uniquely special contribution in the war against Hitler's Germany. It was their unique battlefield impact that couldn't be made by any of the other Allied nations. It was the PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECT that they had on tired and battle-worn, guilty German troops. In 1939, Germany had been guilty of outrageous immoral warfare in Poland. In 1944 the debut of General Anders' noble Polish troops infect the western battlefield with psychological attrition, the effect of guilt. From among all other Allied nations unveiled on the new western battlefield, only Poland had the psychological advantage of causing attrition in Germany's guilty hearts – attrition before combat. The 2nd Corps' psychological effect on German troops had been a powerful force. Equally parallel to their audacious action on the battlefield but, in addition, they represented POLAND, and had come to avenge the murders, destruction, and misery that every German soldier had been guilty of. Germans shared the guilt of their Führer's illegal war. Some had taken direct part in criminal acts – others were guilty of indirect participation. But, mostly the sacred oaths that they had made to their Führer and to his criminal organization had filled them with blame and shame, thus, making them offenders by association. The Führer had instilled in his armed forces a consciousness of being a critical component of a war machine. Moreover, as Hitler had proclaimed that his person, himself, represented the German nation, so each soldier had been infused to consider himself as a representative member of the Führer's body. Such spiritualistic Nazi principles began to backfire in 1943 when German soldiers had to face the alarming reality of their eastern front. Then suddenly in 1944, the awesome debut of triumphant Polish troops on their western front caused a devastating psychological effect on German troops. It meant that Germany was sandwiched between avengers of blood from both lands of their greatest crimes. Thus, the implanted Nazi spirit in Germany's military becomes as an evil possession from which they have no escape. It lowers their morale, taking the 'fight' out of fighting men and makes them weak. And it's contagious, making their flanking units jointly weak also. This way, Germany's Wehrmacht gradually deteriorates from the invisible effects of psychological attrition, FEAR. In contrast, THE ENVIABLE HIGH MORALE of General Anders' Polish troops and the accounts of their PASSIONATE FIGHTING strengthens each other and their flanking units. Wehrmacht troops, instead, share their worries and weaken each other, thus promoting the fear which is distressing Germany's fighting men.

LOW MORALE is distressing Hitler's Wehrmacht. Wehrmacht commanders and their leaders had been totally unprepared for such a psychological event taking place in their ranks. Officers, from Lieutenants to Generals, had difficulty recognizing it. Their own anxiety veiled it. The PL2Corps had delivered an EPIDEMIC OF FEAR. But, German officers had neither been trained nor had experience in the detection and management of FEAR. German leaders did not understand the contagious effects that fear can produce among beleaguered, guilty troops. Instead German leaders, like their Führer, stayed focused on who they should blame for having units in retreat with huge battle losses, while all along they were casually standing in the middle of an invisible epidemic. With the speed of modern communications, the alarming dismay of Polish retaliation preceded the Wehrmacht's retreat in Italy, going far beyond the Alps, spreading forward to plague the souls of German troops every- where in northern Europe, even in the heart of Germany. Fear of Poland tarnished their glory and make them weak. Instead, Polish victories from the Italian campaign sounded loudly to all Polish warriors elsewhere in Europe as an inspiring bugle-call to charge the enemy.  Poland's noble reprisal arising from the audacious combat of the Polish 2nd Corps, together with their huge army of sacrificed heroes, was an emboldening quick-time drum-beat of attack, that triumphed over Hitler's Third Reich in 12 months. From May 1944 to April 1945 — from Monte Cassino to Bologna.

CLICK FOR LARGE VIEW

CLICK FOR LARGE VIEW

Carlo often said that Germans were less brutal and more friendly when they were drunk on our wine than when they were drunk on Nazi ideology. On occasion, Victor had remarked that our family wine business with German troops was as an open medium for all the grumbles, gripes, gossips, slanders, and every complaint that had surfaced in their units. "It was difficult not to laugh" ... Victor liked to tell ...  "neither smile nor giggle" ... and he would crack up into laughter telling ... "whenever a drunken German would (ha!) commiserate with me! (ha ha)... ME !! ... his fear of Polish revenge! ... ha ha ha"!!  Compared to the 1939 blitz of their origin, now German stormtroopers were sharing our wine, and their fear. Their nightmare would become Germany's trepidation capable of cracking their Nazi crust and bringing out their human sense of guilt.  Their new dread of Poland rendered the Wehrmacht  unable to fight and triumph like they once did – and they would never recover. Such was the impact made by General Anders' Polish Second Corps on Monte Cassino. Winston Churchill had predicted that “the war will be won in the soft underbelly of Europe” – and he was absolutely right. Germany lost the war to Poland in May 1944 on Monte Cassino. The next eleven months were Germany's slow death.

LIVING WITH THE ENEMY - CLICK FOR LARGE VIEW

LIVING WITH THE ENEMY - CLICK FOR LARGE VIEW