Prime Minister Visits Cassino

Manawatu Times, Volume 69, Issue 126, 31 May 1944, Page 6

Prime Minister Visits Cassino

Memorable Tour Through Battle-scarred Areas (Official War Correspondent.) CASSINO, May 27. Less than 24 hours alter his arrival in Italy Mr. Fraser stood on the ruins of the Monte Cassino Monastery and surveyed the scene of one of the greatest battles in the history of the New Zealand Division. As he inspected the blasted hilltops, the bodies of German and Polish troops slain in the recent victorious advance to the Monastery still lay unburied on the rocky slopes which oor& fresh evidence of the bitterness of the conflict. The party which included General Freyberg and members of his statf, General Puttick, and Majors Mclntosh and Crossley (Palmerston North), proceeded by jeep down the incredible clift-lined inferno track into a broad green valley under the | dominating peak of Monte Cairo. Thence the Jeeps sped through clouds of screening smoke towards that amazing feat oi New Zealand engineering known as Cavendish Track. Carved into an almost sheer slope of the mountain this road climbs at a dizzy angle into the heights to the rear of the Monastery. It was constructed by our engineers, often under heavy fire, prior to our attack on March 15 and subsequently our tanks took part in the armoured thrust by means of this perilous ascent.

Mr. Fraser saw the debris of what j must have been one of the highest tank battles in history fought at over 2000 feet in mountain mists mingled ■with the smoke of conflict. Many of the tanks still lay where mines, shells or the treacherous terrain had stopped them, some only lightly damaged, others blasted by fire from explosives. The party halted near the ruins of Masseris Albaneta, a gaunt stone pile which occupies a small plateau overlooking the massive tumbled wreckage of the Monastery. At its foot the track led on through a maze of shell and bomb craters over every inch of which the opposing infantry had struggled. Below, to the right, Highway Six showed through the haze half-hidden by long columns of Allied transport rolling towards where the German lines were being driven even further backwards. The last few hundred yards lay through the stripped trunks of a grove of trees standing forlornly in ground pulverised by months of shelling and bombing. Then there was a steep climb towards the overhanging walls of the Monastery itself which at one point retained their original height of four storeys.

Despite the arduous nature of the climb and the fact that he had commenced the tour at the first light that morning, Mr. Fraser kept close behind his fleet-footed Polish guide and scarcely paused until he reached the summit of the nibbled southern wall. There he could look down on the scene of our attack on Cassino. General Freyberg pointed out to him the various points of importance in the battle. Below and only 200 yards away was a rocky outqrop known as Hangman’s Hill still crowned with its overturned funicular pylon where the Gurkhas held out lor eight days. A semicircle of scorched grass marked Point 212 where a New Zealand company, completely cut off, proved to be a thorn in the enemy’s side despite a hurricane of fire. Castle Hill on Point 165 seemed absurdly close. And then there was the town itself, its battered chaos even more apparent.

Highway Six and the railway and road each gave off plumes of dust as they bore their load of traffic through the cratered marshes and the morass that once was a botanical garden. It was across this and through the ruins of the cathedral that a southern battalion advanced to take the railway station-visible as a blackened shell amid the debris. As Mr. Fraser made his way back over huge piles of rubble through which occasionally' showed iragmentrs of irreplaceable works of art, the mellow sound of a piano came from a less damaged part of the building. In the courtyard Poles who occupy the fortress had cleared a shrine for worship. Another courtyard entirely desecrated contained fresh excavations where the Germans had hastily dug a mortar emplacement to meet the threat from the rear. Beyond on the slopes Polish troops were gathering their dead. Later Mr. Fraser descended to Cassino and inspected at closer range the maze of fortifications occupied for so long by the Germans. Before he climbed Monastery Hill, Mr. Fraser mot General Anders, commander-in-chief of the Polish Corps, who explained to the Prime Minister the part the Polish troops had played in tho battle for Cassino. General Anders, who has just been created a Commander of the Order of Bath for his part in these decisive operations, expressed admiration for the fighting qualities of the New Zealanders and the satisfaction it gave the Poles to be associated with them as comrades in arms.