VETERANS OF MONTE CASSINO
The Battle Of Monte Cassino as mentioned on the Elite Forces site
was a monumental struggle involving several different German Army units
including a sizeable contingent of German Fallschirmjäger.
Gefreiter Bob Frettlohr
Included in this contingent was Gefreiter Robert Frettlohr of 15th Company,
4th Regiment 1st Division Fallschirmjägerpionier (Paratroop Engineers).
In the account below he recalls his final moments during the Battle of
Monte Cassino and his capture in the ruins of the monastery.
"The 4th Regiment was in reserve when the monastery
was bombed in February and many civilians were killed. Then on March 15th
it was Cassino's turn and 470 bombers dropped many tons of bombs , but
I remember seeing the bombers going over, wave after wave, There must have
been several hundred or so. It was the first time that a front line has
been bombed like that.
On April 1st, I was posted to the rocco Janula
(Castle Hill) and I was up there until the order came to retreat. They
were shelling us all the time as we were going up. As a young man of 20
years old it was impossible to know how you felt. They kept telling you
you had to fight for your country. Forget it. You fight for your self survival.
If anyone gets killed you say "it's not me". Anyone who says they were
not scared is lying-'cos you were scared all the time.
After we'd rested, we waited to time the shells-one...two...then
two of us would go. Off...gone. Then it was my turn. We waited for the
two shells-always the two-and then we were off. Then there came a flash
close by and my left leg...I don't know. I must have been stunned...I passed
out. I woke up and it was like a balloon. I was of again. I crawled up
to the monastery-literaly crawled-and got the first aid post which was
in the old Roman part., where St Benadict was buried. the doctor there
put a bandage around my leg and said "That's it. You're not going back".
If there had have been a road and I had a stick I would have tried to get
back but there was no road, only rock.
It was 10'oclock in the morning when the Poles
came into the monastery. Lieutnant Gurbeil came in with some men. I don't
know what we were expecting-a grenade to be tossed in, maybe. there were
three of us wounded and 14 men trying to take us back but that didn't materialize.
Anyway, one of the Poles with Gurbeil spoke very good German to me and
I remember him saying
"Are there any mines here?"
"There are no mines here, this is a first aid post" I said
We talked in German about this and that and at
about midday the 14 were taken down to the command post, Gurbeil said.
There was no massacre as had been reported-I wasn't there. Later all these
reporters arrived. You can imagine a soldier who has been fighting for
weeks, dirty, filthy, unshaven, full of lice. We must have looked a terrible
sight.
Later we were taken down the hill to a Polish
first aid post, where a British air ambulance took us to a big Yankee tent
hospital, six or seven miles behind the line. We were treated there, but
I don't know what happened to the third badly wounded man. A few days later
we were transferred to a POW camp at Aversa near Naples."
He also recalls his 20th birthday in Italy
"I got paraletic drunk by my mates. we were drunk much of the time as it
did not hurt so much if you got wounded when you were drunk. Bob Frettlohr
now lives in Yorkshire, Northern England.
(Article courtesy of "Images of War" Marshall Cavendish
publications).
Other Veterans recall the horror that was Cassino. The sheer devastation
and terrible conditions had to be seen to be believed. One German infantryman
recalls:
"What we are going through here is beyond description. I never experienced
anything like this in Russia, not even a seconds peace., only the dreadful
thunder of the guns and mortar...here we have nothing but terror, horror,
death and damnation.
A further indication comes from this excerpt from a letter found
on the body of a dead German soldier who 115th Panzer Reconnaissance Battlion
assigned to Kampfgruppe Nagel:
"The Tommies are throwing heavy stuff at us.
The number of Tanks is terryfying...in the long run this state of affairs
is just impossible and our fine group is gradually being reduced to ashes.
Morale yesterday was very low. No supplies had got through to the company
for five days. Today some arrived, but just in the nick of time. However
you look at it one can no longer say that war is a beautiful thing".
On the 15th March as the third battle for Cassino got underway it
was opened by the carpet bombing of the town and monastery. This involved
some 229 American bombers who dropped 1000 tonnes of bombs which worked
out at a ratio of 5 tons of explosive for every German in the area. After
the air raid was over an artillery barrage opened up that lasted for eight
hours and included in it 746 guns which unleashed a total of nearly 200,000
shells on the town of Cassino itself. In the town at the time was Lieutnant
Schuster, the commander of No.7 Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Parachute Regiment.
He recalls:
"Tensely we waited in our holes for the bombs
to drop. Then they came. The whining scream of their approach, the roar
of their explosions and the noise of the aircraft themselves mingled in
with the echoes flung back from the hills to produce an infernal bedlam
of noise. The whole earth quaked and shuddered under the impact. then a
sudden silence. Hardly had the dust settled a little than I dashed out
to visit the other two strongpoints. I stumbled blindly about in a welter
of craters. From somewhere a voice shouted "All's well!" and the next great
wave of air hulks loomed into view above me. I could not go back. I remained
where I was and the flood gates of hell opened once again. We could no
longer see each other, all we could do was touch and feel the next man.
The blackness of the night enveloped us and on our tongues was the taste
of burnt earth. Rubble and dust came pouring down into our hole. Breathing
became a desperate and urgent business. At all cost we had avoid being
suffocated, buried alive. Crouching in silence we waited for this pitiless
hall to end".
Lieutnant Jamrowski commanding No.5 & 8 Companies was trapped
in the cellar that constituted his battle headquarters. and had to dig
his way out.
"We lost all sense of time and how long we worked
I don't know but we seemed to be making no impression and it looked as
though we would never get out. Some of the men began to lose heart and
I too was hard pressed to to overcome an inner feeling of hopelessness.
At least we seemed to be making progress and then the earth and rubble
outside came sliding down and undid all we had done. "Never Mind-Stick
to it!" I shouted "We're not going to die in here like rats in sewer!".
Once again we started to claw away and after hours of labour we created
a small cleft. We cleared the entrance and after being buried alive for
12 hours we squeezed our way out into the open. Darkness had now fallen.
Cassino was unrecognizable in the tangled mess of ruins and rubble that
confronted us".
He later remembers:
"The night was our friend. By night we were able
to move but there wasn't any hope of rest. First we had to rebuild and
improve our positions, establish communication between various strongpoints,
get the wounded away and bring up ammunition, food and water. When you
consider that half a small force was engaged on these fatigues and the
position still had to be held with the other half-there was always the
danger of a sudden attack-and when you think that from the few men left
I had to send some on recconassance then you'll realise that these fellows
were accomplished".
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